Palm of Soul, by Kidd Jordan / Hamid Drake / William Parker

Palm of Soul

by Kidd Jordan / Hamid Drake / William Parker

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$11 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

2nd edition, packaged in classic jewelcase with clear tray & 4-panel insert feat. great liner notes by great writer Steve Dollar.

Includes unlimited streaming of Palm of Soul via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$14 USD or more

	1.	Peppermint Falls 00:58
	2.	Forever 08:24
	3.	Living Peace 14:57
	4.	Unity Call 10:21
	5.	So Often 02:22
	6.	Resolution 05:42
	7.	Last of the Chicken Wings 12:01

about

[AUM038]

Kidd Jordan: tenor saxophone
Hamid Drake: drums, tabla, frame drum, voice
William Parker: bass, guimbre, gongs, bowls, talking drum

"With steely determination and emotional resolve in the face of great tragedy, Jordan, Parker and Drake have created a timeless album of understated, dark beauty. Palm of Soul is spiritually revelatory free jazz, hauntingly beautiful and emotionally resonant."
–Troy Collins, All About Jazz

Music: 4/4 Stars
Sonics: 4/4 Stars
–The Absolute Sound

AUM Fidelity had wanted to produce an album with New Orleans’ master saxophonist-teacher-role model-eminent patriarch Kidd Jordan in trio with fellow master musicians William Parker and Hamid Drake for some time. Everything came together in Summer 2005. The recording session was set for the 3rd week of September and flights to NYC from New Orleans & Chicago were booked. Then Katrina hit. When we were finally able to reach Kidd by phone and ask how he was doing, he said "OK now," as he had just found out that his son Marlon was safe after 5 days of having been one of the many hundreds (thousands?) that had been stranded rooftop while helicopters passed by overhead. When I asked if he would still be able to make the session, he replied,“Yeah man, let’s do it!”

From the gently yearning space search "Forever" to the epic saga "Living Peace" to the deep North African grooves created on "Unity Call" and "So Often" to the majestic Far East parade of the closing track – Palm of Soul presents three master musicians in intimate musical conversation at the highest levels – rendering songs and mesmeric pieces which elicit the full gamut of emotion. A major and utterly distinct album work.

From the liner notes by Steve Dollar:
"Though he's been recording since the 1950s, Kidd Jordan has never made anything like Palm of Soul. This trio session, recorded less than a month after Hurricane Katrina chased the 70-year-old saxophone master from his native New Orleans, is a testament to a life steeped in the deepest reservoirs of American music and fully committed to the moment. Completely improvised, the date brings Jordan back together with a pair of treasured colleagues, consummate players with whom he enjoys a rare connection: drummer Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker.

"The delicately shifting sonic space of these pieces, awash in the sensory cues of Asian, African and Indian folk forms, evokes the exploratory tradition of 1960s innovators such as trumpeter Don Cherry – with whom both Drake and Parker were affiliated early in their careers – while the mercurial glimmer of Jordan's soulfully considered lines reflect the essential fact of jazz: At its truest, it is the sound of someone thinking on their feet, an evanescent confluence of breath, heart, intellect and nerve. Jordan navigates the rhythmic shimmers and hovering tone-clouds created by Parker and Drake with a tenor that can sear like an erupting sunspot or cascade as softly and unpredictably as a leaf slipping down an autumn breeze."

"This album is a tribute both to the power of the players and of improvised music itself." –Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes

"Kidd Jordan plays the saxophone like a master storyteller. Like any well-told tale, Palm of Soul only gets better each time it's heard. –Todd A. Price, Offbeat (New Orleans)

"A bastion of strength in these troubled times."
–Nic Jones, All About Jazz

credits

released June 13, 2006

All compositions by Edward 'Kidd' Jordan,
William Parker, Hamid Drake © AUM Fidelity

Produced by Steven Joerg with William Parker & Hamid Drake
Recorded by Michael Marciano on September 23, 2005
at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn
Mixed and Mastered by M. Marciano & S. Joerg
at Systems Two in December 2005
Cover artwork by Jason Dean Arnold

license

total		USD

about

AUM Fidelity Brooklyn, New York

..is a recording label & action concern long devoted to pro-creative sound and song. The focus has always been on premier jazz & elemental soul music.

Towards the One there are many paths.

Artist pages hosted here for those with whom we've enduring relationships, or whose work skewed the rubric a bit.

And, for our brother/sister labels: TAO Forms & CaseQuarter. ... more

contact / help

Contact AUM Fidelity

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Palm of Soul, you may also like:

Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets)
by Steve Coleman

supported by 15 fans who also own “Palm of Soul”

What a great album ... Michael Groncki
go to album
Fly or Die
by jaimie branch

supported by 14 fans who also own “Palm of Soul”

This record has such a magical flow to it, it seems to capture so directly the ups and downs of life, the joy of music and dance, and it's just so damn catchy and fun to listen to as well. Giles
go to album
Bending Bridges
by Mary Halvorson

supported by 14 fans who also own “Palm of Soul”

Mary Halvorson’s 9 year old recording is all what it needs to be, bold, playful, inventive, and a bit “weird” as she might put it. An absolute joy to listen to, never too abstract to completely lose track of rhythm and never, never boring. MH has got the rare ability to stimulate brain and heart at the same time. Just wish they would reissue her 2 first albums on vinyl. Torsten
go to album
New World Order b/w Soledad
by William Parker Ensembles featuring Leena Conquest

featured on Bandcamp Radio Oct 13, 2020
go to album
Trabalho,sim. Emprego, não
by Kinah Hamilton | Gomes

featured on Bandcamp Radio Feb 11, 2020
go to album
M.T.A.G
by Kinah Hamilton & The True Believers

featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 4, 2018
go to album
I Plan To Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs Of Curtis Mayfield
by William Parker

supported by 14 fans who also own “Palm of Soul”

This is transcendent music. It's the sort of music that, if everyone really listened to it, could save the world. What more can I say? Don't just buy it, live it. alarickc
go to album