This week, StLJN's look at music from former members of the Black Artists Group (BAG) continues with some videos featuring the sounds of trumpeter Baikida Carroll and multi-instrumentalist J.D. Parran.
You can see part one, featuring videos of BAG-related ensembles the World Saxophone Quartet, Clarinet Family and more, plus some links to background info, here. Part two, with music from saxophonists Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett, is here.
Like Lake and Bluiett, both Carroll and Parran have enjoyed diverse and productive careers since their early days with BAG, and while their respective catalogs resist easy summary, you can at least sample a few of their works, starting up above with a video of Carroll doing a solo performance recorded in October 2001 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
After the jump, you can see Carroll teamed up with Oliver Lake plus violinist Jason Kao Hwang and drummer Nasheet Waits in a set recorded on October 2014 at The Stone in New York City.
The next clip shows Carroll as part of bassist Charlie Haden's American Jazz Quartet, along with saxophonist Dewey Redman and drummer Paul Motian, and shows the first half of a set in 1986 at a festival in Germany.
Parran is featured in the next three videos, starting with one of his group Deep Ecology Trio recorded in January 2018 at the Clemente Center in NYC. Along with the leader, the ensemble includes guitarist Cristian Amigo and percussionists Andrew Drury and Jackson Krall.
The penultimate video is a recording of "Elevated Moon," described as "a 'ritualistic happening' with a combination of sound, movement, visual vibrance, and light projections" created by Parran and Amir Bey, who's credited with "installation, costumes, poetry, astrology." This performance was in November 2019 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY, and also features the work of Bill Toles (lighting, stage direction), Michael TA Thompson (drums, percussion), and Chihiro Cute-Beat Kobayashi (dance).
The final video shows Parran's group Secret Music Society, as recorded in December 2017 at the Clemente Center, with Parran, Jackson Krall (drums, percussion), Mark Hennen (piano, percussion), Michelle Yung (flute, percussion), Elliott Levin (tenor sax, flute, poem), and Larry Roland (bass, percussion).
Look for part four of this series in this spot next week, featuring music from still more former members of the Black Artists Group. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...