Eddie Parker’s Debussy Mirrored Ensemble was established in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of French composer Claude Debussy. It is both a tribute and a creative response. Eddie Parker spent his entire life immersed in music. He has been a composer and musician, as well as an artist and musician. Eddie has selected this 12-piece ensemble to help him realize his creative vision. This ensemble of musicians from jazz, classical and improvisation have transformed a dozen Debussy pieces into something that is unique, powerful, contemporary, and captures the revolutionary spirit Debussy. We hope you’ll join us on this adventure. EDDIE PARKER Composer, Flutes I’m best known for my work as a jazz pianist, composer, and flautist. I’ve been a member of the jazz band Loose Tubes since 1984. In the 1990s, I recorded and performed with Bheki Mseleku, the South African jazz pianist. I also continue to perform with Nduzo Makathini and Afrika Mkhize, major SA jazz musicians. I compose and play keyboards for the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble. My writing includes contemporary classical areas, including commissions for Ensemble Bash and Apollo Saxophone Quartet. Debussy is a familiar figure to many jazz and classical musicians. My Dad played pieces such as “La Cathedrale Engloutie”, Jardins Sous La Pluie” and “Valse : Le Plus Que Lente”. In school, my music teacher played “Voiles”, Les Tierce Alternees, and “Feux D’Artifice”. It is difficult to pinpoint Debussy’s influence on improvisers. As a young musician, the deep, chasm-like resonances that “La Cathedral Engloutie”, created was like a portal into improvisation. My Dad also showed me chord voicings from his “Danse Profane,” which appealed to my developing jazz piano sensibilities. Debussy’s influence has been a constant in my 35-year career as a musician. It is in the harmony and textures that I use to create my music. As I have played other types of music, my understanding of Debussy’s music has grown over the years. As a creative artist, I feel that I have reached a point where there is a synthesis. Why Debussy? Debussy is a composer that I think gave us motivations and attitudes that are essential for today’s creative musicians. He tried to break the bounds of the Conservatoire, but he was open to outside influences. Music from other cultures, such as rag-time, gamelan, and Gypsy, was welcomed by Debussy. He also accepted music from outside musical influences like poetry, painting, and cinema. He was open to modern influences like railway stations and stations, variety theatres, firework displays, Sunday strolls in the park, barrel organs, and eccentric characters. He redefined what music could be all about. He did it in his own style, which is important for improvisers. He did not want to be copied; he wanted people who could find their voice. He is an important figure for musicians who improvise and all other creative types. Why not now? It is now possible to explore and search for music from many cultures and historical periods. We can choose the influences that we want, in addition to the childhood influences that we cannot control. This is a powerful statement about our time, and about the importance of acknowledging, accepting, and celebrating the many influences that have made us who we are. This was a remarkable statement. Debussy, a century ago, expressed this attitude in his work. He chose to ignore the culture’s ideology of purity, to ignore Wagner’s cultural dominance, to allow other influences to influence our lives and to let them shape us as musicians. Robert Wyatt, a Soft Machine drummer, stated in 1968 that “most musicians I know assume” we must know Otis Redding , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Charlie Parker . This is a principle I have lived by and practiced for most of my professional life. However, it needs to be stressed now in the 21st Century. This project is impossible in a certain way. I have discovered other musics and have explored them. Then, there was the synthesis. His music has been my orbit. This vision will be realized by the team of talented, trustworthy, and inspiring colleagues in different music genres. from www.debussymirroredensemble.org
