Toronto’s Christopher Parnis is a bassist with a solid career in the Canadian metropolis. Here, he’s surrounded by other big names from the Queen City: Christian Antonacci, trumpet and flugelhorn, Matt Greenwood, electric guitar, Brian Dickinson, piano and Aaron Blewett, drums.
Everything You Could Be unfolds over eight tracks (all original compositions except one by Christopher’s father, Mark Parnis). The style is that of well-tuned modern jazz, built on a harmonic canvas steeped in extended post-bop. Parnis builds long melodies that he leaves open to the generous improvisations of his talented partners. The whole thing sounds great and is very pleasant to listen to, while remaining refined and expertly woven. References to Kenny Wheeler come to mind (and are even claimed), particularly in Antonacci’s measured interventions.
The subjects that inspire Parnis’s compositions are amusing, though difficult to really get just by listening to the music. Horror master Clive Barker inspires The Cradle, the Mars rover Opportunity (for which one of the last command messages was accompanied by I’ll Be Seeing You sung by Billie Holiday, quoted here) underpins Opportunity, or D.D.Q, stimulated by a melted frozen dessert bought at a Dairy Queen.
If the subjects don’t give much more in terms of experience, in the end it’s the music that counts. And this one’s a real winner. An inspiring combination of intelligent and accessible jazz.
