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Blues Underground Network |
Peter Parcek 3 "The Mathematics Of Love"
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With his National Debut Release, "The Mathematics Of Love", Peter Parcek has officially thrown his hat into the ring with all the other big boys and it ain't Peter that has to be worried. With guitar playing reminiscent of Joe Satriani, with a little Chet Atkins feel for good measure, Peter Parcek confidently joined the ranks of must to listen musicians, with his sights firmly placed at being at the top of his profession, a place I believe he is headed for, at break neck speed. "The Mathematics Of Love" is the strongest most incendiary guitar driven album I have heard in a long long time, and has placed Peter Parcek and his Trio, the Peter Parcek 3 firmly into the spotlight, not only with the Blues, but also with the wide tapestry of genres he weaves throughout this unique and exceptional Album. Although a tour de force of blazing Guitar, the "The Mathematics Of Love", has yet another treat up its sleeve and that is the singing of Peter Parcek. His clear, concise, and unique voice combined with his very worthy songwriting skills, leaves us no doubt that Peter Parcek and the Peter Parcek 3 are, the real deal. "The Mathematics Of Love" consists of 10 very powerful tracks, 4 originals and 6 covers. The 4 originals, "The Mathematics of Love", "Rollin' With Zah", "Tears Like Diamonds", and "New Year's Eve" are all masterfully written and performed. The remaining tracks cover a literal who's who of Legends, Past, and Present with, covers of works by Peter Green, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Lucinda Williams, Fred McDowell, Harlan Howard, and Cousin Joe Pleasant. With his unique and powerful style, Peter lends perfection to his interpretation of the music of those masters, especially with the 9th track titled, "Busted" a song made famous when sung by Ray Charles. I personally don't think I will be hearing an Album such as "The Mathematics Of Love" for quite a while. It is a special and unique Album that only hits the Music Scene, once in a long time and the impression that it has left me and that it will leave others can only best be described with one word, "WOW". Defiantly my 5***** Rating for this treasure... If you love the good old electric guitar, done right, with superb songs and instrumentals, then this Album is for you... Highly Recommended... Thoroughly Enjoyed It... Will Be Played Often... John Vermilyea (Blues Underground Network) Tracklist 1. Showbiz Blues 5:42 Listen To Samples And Buy After May 18, 2010 Here Info & Reviews PETER PARCEK EXPLORES THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE ON LABEL DEBUT FOR REDSTAR ENTERTAINMENT, OUT MAY 18
About Peter Parcek There’s a Zen koan that says the universe can be found in a single blade of grass. So it is with Peter Parcek’s guitar playing. Peter’s daring, incendiary, and soulful style is a distinctive hybrid that weaves threads of rock, jazz, country, folk, blues — especially blues — and more into a rich tapestry of melody, harmony and daredevil solo excursions that push all of those styles to their limits without sacrificing an iota of the warmth that emanates from Peter’s own personality. Peter calls his approach “soul guitar,” an appellation that alludes to his playing’s depth of feeling and character, as well as its deepest roots in classic American music. But Peter’s sensibilities are equally attuned to the future. His most recent recordings range from the loop-based spiritual “Lord Help the Poor and Needy” to the blithely comic instrumental “Rollin’ with Zah” to a version of Ray Charles’ “Busted” that starts in Soulsville and finishes just a little west of Mars thanks to a psychedelic excursion led by Peter and his guest organist, rock ‘n’ roll legend Al Kooper. Those tunes are all from Peter’s sessions for his next album. “My first album was called Evolution , but this album really is an evolution for me,” Peter explains. “Over the last two years I’ve gotten very enamored of gypsy jazz, especially the music of Django Reinhardt as well as contemporary masters like Bireli Legrene and Tchavolo Schmitt, and it’s had a profound influence. Django’s performances are breathtakingly beautifully and technically demanding. I’ve really been taken with the purity of his acoustic guitar sound, and he played electric with such abandon. His music is very much alive and creative, so I tried to bring those qualities to my new recordings.” And Peter succeeded. The acoustic and electric textures of numbers like “Mathematics of Love” and “Kokomo Me Baby” create their own vibrant world. Of course, he had some help in the studio. Besides Kooper, he was joined by the crack rhythm team of drummer Steve Scully and bassist Marc Hickox-- veterans of Peter’s band and fellow members of the international pop-rock group The Singhs , where Peter plays guitar foil to front man/leader Micky Singh. Mandolin virtuoso Jimmy Ryan and violinist Dan Kellar also joined Peter’s musical cast for two songs. Ducky Carlisle (Susan Tedeschi, Nora Jones) and Tom Dube (Richard Thompson, Los Lobos) engineered. Ted Drozdowski, best known as slide guitarist/front man of cutting-edge juke blues outfit Scissormen and for his award-winning journalism, produced. The inspirations for some of Peter’s latest numbers, like the antic “Rollin’ with Zah,” spring from his childhood. He was born in Middletown, Connecticut, a once-thriving industrial burg along the state’s namesake river. His parents encouraged him to sing and bought his first guitar with S&H Green Stamps, while his uncle’s record collection exposed him to the delights of rhythm & blues. Peter’s journey as a musician began when the Vietnam War erupted and he graduated high school. With the blessings of his mother and the help of a family friend, he relocated to London, England, to avoid the draft and found himself in the thick of the British blues explosion. “I got real lucky,” he recounts. “Whenever I could afford it or sneak in, I could see Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Peter Green in clubs, as well as many other great guitarists who were on the scene, but never made it big. I became a Peter Green fanatic. He was fiery and intense and yet had a very spiritual dynamic to his playing and personality. He played things I’d only dreamed about.” Among Peter’s new recordings is an incendiary live-in-the-studio tear-it-up of Green’s “Show Biz Blues,” which debuted on Fleetwood Mac’s 1969’s classic Then Play On. Daunted by the six-string virtuosity on display all around him, Peter put down his guitar to sing and blow harmonica and joined a band, playing rooms like the famed Marquee Club--one night on a bill with the Pink Floyd. But fate intervened. He was returned to the States for lack of a British work permit. Once back in Middletown, Peter began witnessing great American blues artists in concert: Skip James, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy. “I would sit as close as possible so I could see exactly what they were doing on the guitar,” he says. “It was an amazing education.” Decades later, he would receive a superlative from Guy. “I met some people who knew Buddy and took me to his dressing room after a show,” Peter says. “I felt a little out of place, because I didn’t really know anybody. So out of nervousness, I guess, I just absent mindedly picked up one of Buddy’s guitars, unplugged, and started playing. After a while I realized the room was quiet and I looked up, and Buddy was watching me with his finger pressed to his lips for silence. “You’re as bad as Eric Clapton,” Guy remarked. “And I know Eric Clapton.” Peter, who is remarkably modest about his virtuosity, says he didn’t get serious about his instrument until he moved to Massachusetts. “That’s when I developed from a guitar owner to a guitar player, by practicing eight to 10 hours a day,” he explains. Between jobs as a school counselor and instrument salesman, Peter joined his first serious band, Boston’s Nine Below Zero. Their visceral take on classic and original blues won them regional acclaim and led to Peter playing on recordings for the piano legend Pinetop Perkins and a stint as Perkins’ touring bandleader. “It was an amazing time,” Peter relates, “and it inspired me to take the reins of my own music and form a band.“ Today Peter is one of the most respected instrumentalists in New England, although since joining The Singhs six years ago his reputation has begun to spread to Europe and Asia as well. In 2000 Peter made his first solo album, Evolution (Lightning Records), a collection of originals and reinterpretations of classics by Freddie King and Mose Allison. That disc also boasts appearances by Al Kooper and blues guitar giant Ronnie Earl. Several pressings of the disc sold out and it is now unavailable. Besides his touring and recording with The Singhs, Peter has continued to make music with his trio, the Peter Parcek Band, and his duo with drummer Steve Scully, Forty Four. In 2002 Peter’s trio won the Boston Blues Society’s annual challenge and represented the city at the International Blues Competition in Memphis. Two years later, he did the same with Forty Four. “What I try to bring to any music I play, but especially to blues, is something I learned from Skip James when I saw him perform at Wesleyan University in the ’60s,” says Peter. “He played beautifully, with real elegance, and conducted himself in a gentlemanly manner. But people kept talking, so at one point he stopped playing and announced, ‘Mr. Skip would appreciate it if you would stop perambulating when he is expressing.’ And then he left until things quieted down. “That made something click in me. Skip showed me that it was right to play blues with dignity and style, and to express yourself and conduct yourself as an artist. He obviously put his entire soul into what he was doing on a lot of levels. And that’s what I try to do whenever I pick up a guitar.” http://www.peterparcekband.com/ http://www.myspace.com/peterparcekband
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