Of It But Not Is It

So when Ava and I started this project I thought it would be one of those freejazz records where you go in the studio for an afternoon and blow and get about an hour of music and make it into a record. On the way to this session I got William Parker to kick in some tunes. Didn’t realize that Ava would come up with beautiful arrangements for them and that I would end up singing them. We ended up with quite a collection of material that day including completely improvised pieces and grooves and songs.

We decided to come back to the studio to make this thing hang together as one cohesive whole. The way the material goes from completely out to soulful grooves to art songs makes a record that I could not have imagined.

Track Credits

1. Mangrove Sea - Ava Mendoza
2. Turnip Wine – lyrics by William Parker, arranged by Ava Mendoza
3. Don’t Buy the Lie – Mendoza/Sewelson
4. Do Nothing Man - lyrics by William Parker, arranged by Ava Mendoza
5. Dava’s Tune - Mendoza/Sewelson
6. Is It But Not Of It – Mendoza/Sewelson
7. Bill (for Bill Horvitz) - Dave Sewelson
8. Scaribari – Dave Sewelson
9. Where Are You – Dave Sewelson