William Parker Violin Trio

By Jeremy Saperstein

William Parker Violin Trio Scrapbook ThirstyEar www.thirstyear.com

There’s something so right about violinists playing jazz, especially when they can rock it like Billy Bang does on this CD.

Evoking styles and songs as disparate as classical, jazz, old-time pop and blues, soundtrack and avant-garde skronk (sometimes all within the same song), the William Parker Violin Trio (Bang on violin, William Parker on bass, Hamid Drake on drums) delivers a solid collection of six songs ranging from the bluesy “Singing Spirits” to the spritely “Urban” to the reverent “Sunday Morning Church.”

Bang’s violin freneticism may not be for everyone, but if the idea of a violin trio working in the jazz idiom makes you tingle for that groove, the William Parker violin trio brings it on.