2001 · Album
New World Pygmies, Vol. 2
Recorded 2000 (Madison and Chicago) · Eremite Records · Format: Double album (live)
Two Rooms, One Conversation
Moondoc and Parker hit their communicative stride across two wholly intimate settings.
By 2000, Jemeel Moondoc and William Parker had been working together long enough to finish each other's musical sentences. New World Pygmies vol. 2 captures them at a peak — not a debut moment, but the point where all the listening and playing together finally crystallized into something complete. The first disc documents a Madison duo set, just saxophone and bass in bare conversation. The second brings Hamid Drake on drums for a Chicago performance at the Velvet Lounge, adding a third voice without diluting the intimacy. What matters is that both settings feel equally urgent and alive.
This isn't a record about flash or complexity for its own sake. Moondoc's approach has an integrity that cuts through — he plays with purpose, and Parker responds in kind, their lines interweaving without ever stepping on each other. Drake, when he enters, doesn't overwhelm; he finds the pocket these two have already established and settles in. The recording itself is clean and warm, immediate enough that you forget you're hearing it secondhand. Scott Hreha, reviewing for One Final Note, called it "a soul-saver of a two-disc set," and the phrase captures something real: this is music that feels necessary rather than decorative.
For listeners curious about Moondoc and Parker's partnership, this is the place to start. Not their beginning, but where they proved they had something worth preserving on tape.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Hamid Drake
Piercing the Veil 2001
Willisau & Taktlos 2004
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2 Days in April 2000
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Emancipation Proclamation: A Real Statement of Freedom 2000
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
