Billy Bang / William Parker
Medicine Buddha
2014 - NoBusiness Records: NBCD 71 
http://www.nobusinessrecords.com/NBCD71.php

* Billy Bang: violin, thumb piano
* William Parker: bass, shakuhashi, dousn gouni
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bang 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Parker_%28musician%29 
http://www.musicofwilliamparker.com/

Recorded live at The Rubin Museum Of Art, New York, on the 8th May, 2009.


Reviews
~~~~~~~

By Massimo Ricci 
http://www.squidsear.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=1800

Medicine Buddha captures one of the last live performances by two artists
linked by an invisible bond which goes beyond the mere definition of
"friendship". The set, recorded in 2009 at New York's Rubin Museum of Art,
demonstrates how a hard existence reinforced by the act of producing earnest
music can shape a grounded being into a positive force for a listening
humanity; resentment and bad vibes are entirely absent from the scene. About
Bang, who left us in 2011, Parker writes: "When the music came around it
grabbed him and he was majestic". The same applies to the bassist over the
course of these five tracks, and we are the ones rejoicing for this superb
combination of fervent talents.

Throughout the concert the mood is, so to speak, celebratory without
religiousness. The long title track sounds like a vehement joint invocation,
prior to becoming a model of individual skill. The way Bang and Parker
extrapolate scything upper partials, profound melodies and built-in rhythms
while surfing the crest of quarter-tone waves is impressive, to say the
least. In "Eternal Planet", an homage to Leroy Jenkins, they add the oil of
dissonant spirit to already firing improvisational cylinders; a diminutive
string combo with a light-heavyweight's clout. Both in those contexts and in
calmer sections — such as the beautiful "Sky Song", characterized by Parker's
use of the shakuhachi — one is pervaded by a much desired feeling of
peacefulness, notwithstanding a few acoustic discrepancies which, at any rate,
won't bother a trained ear. The album exudes an inner confidence soundtracked
by a pair of arcos refraining from any sort of mannerism in favor of a somewhat
fibrous quietude.

Quoting again Parker's heartfelt liners, "Billy showed me how to laugh, and
through that laughter to see life as the most serious thing there could
be". Accordingly, these sounds will embrace those still willing to open
themselves up to the warmth that comes with the unworried acceptance of life's
severe teachings.

--

By Martin Schray 
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/06/billy-bang-william-parker-medicine.html

By Derek Taylor

By Jason Bivins 
http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD50/PoD50MoreMoments2.html

By Mike Shanley 
http://jazztimes.com/articles/160328-medicine-buddha-billy-bang-william-parker

Da Aldo Del Noce (it) 
http://www.jazzconvention.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2400:billy-bang-a-william-parker-medicine-buddha&catid=2:recensioni&Itemid=11

Par Guillaume Belhomme (fr)