Various: Parallel 37
By Bruce Morley
Although generically titled ‘Parallel 37’, this long-overdue all-star re-issue is really drummer Frank Gibson Jnr’s album. The only player common to every track, Gibson flits chameleon-like through the album, playing the pants off every jazz/ jazz fusion/ jazz funk/ straight-ahead style demanded by visiting guitarists Steve Erquiaga, John Scofield and Emily Remler, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, trumpeter Bobby Shew. Expatriate pianist Mike Nock is here too, in the company of the best local heavy hitters of the time: pianists Crombie Murdoch and Dave McRae, bassists Andy Brown and Bruce Lynch, and saxophonist Brian Smith. It ranges across straight-ahead swing on Jackson’s Village Blues to a still fresh-sounding Seven Steps To Heaven, some funky stuff with Erquiaga and Scofield, and two nicely executed Remler/Gibson duets. This is one of the best jazz records ever made here, though Gibson is so ever-present throughout the album that his previously unreleased final track (a pleasant and thoughtful solo tribute to the late Emily Remler) lacks the intensity of the rest of the album and is thus somewhat anti-climactic. Originally issued in the early 1980s, ‘Parallel 37’ comes complete with updated liner notes from Gibson himself. Available through Ode Records.
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