Three Masters Playing Bare and Stripped
A special treasure demonstrating expressive mastery through deliberate restraint and improvisation.
Eloping with the Sun arrived quietly in 2001 as a limited edition release, the kind of record that built its reputation slowly among listeners willing to dig. AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne recognized it immediately as something distinct: three musicians who play together regularly stepping away from their usual sonic weight to work with deliberately stripped instruments. That constraint became the whole point. What makes this session special is exactly what All About Jazz found astonishing—that William Parker, Joe Morris, and Hamid Drake chose to make music this sparse rather than their customary dense, high-intensity work. You're hearing three improvisers at the top of their powers choosing lightness and space over assertion.
The stripped-down approach lets each voice breathe separately. Morris gets plenty of solo space throughout, while Parker and Drake listen as much as they play, which changes the dynamic entirely. In their normal configuration, these three generate tremendous pressure and energy. Here, restraint becomes expressive. The limited pressing meant few people heard it initially, but the musicians involved had already built serious credibility in creative music circles, so word traveled among people paying attention.
This is not their peak collaboration or the place to start with any of them individually, but it's the kind of album that rewards patient listening—especially if you know their louder work and want to hear what they sound like when they decide to hold back.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Hamid Drake
All 39 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
