Andrea Parkins

Improvising musician Andrea Parkins handles accordion, sampler, and piano without relying on standard methods for any of them. Her accordion work breaks apart the instrument’s customary phrasing while extending its range through electronics and nontraditional methods, and she layers digital sampling onto both piano and accordion. Throughout the 1990s she directed a trio featuring saxophonist Briggan Krauss and drummer Kenny Wollesen; the group issued Cast Iron Fact in 1996 and Slippage in 1998, both on Knitting Factory Records. Entering the following decade she has added essential elements to the distinctive identity of tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin’s ongoing trio, which also features the wiry and nimble drummer Jim Black. Although Eskelin and Black bring formidable skills that help define the ensemble’s strength, substituting a conventional bassist for Parkins’ accordion and sampler would likely render the music somewhat more ordinary. Her contributions appear on the Eskelin albums One Great Day..., Kulak, 29 & 30, Five Other Pieces (+2), Ramifications, and The Secret Museum, issued by Hatology, as well as Jazz Trash on Songlines. She is also featured on Many Rings, the Knitting Factory Records recording by improvising guitarist Joe Morris with his quartet that includes Karen Borca on bassoon and Rob Brown on alto saxophone and flute. During the 2000s Parkins joined another forward-looking improvising trio alongside guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Tom Rainey, documented on Ash and Tabula, released by Atavistic in 2004, and on Downpour, issued by Victo in 2007 and captured live the previous year at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec.