Zeena Parkins

Zeena Parkins deploys harp, piano, accordion, and sampler across improvised, newly composed, modern classical, and avant-garde jazz contexts. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, where she trained in dance, harp, and classical piano before completing a Fine Arts degree at Bard College. In 1984 she relocated to New York City and entered the downtown avant-garde scene through collaborations with other musicians. Her work there included appearances in Butch Morris ensembles and performances of John Zorn’s Cobra. With renowned improviser Fred Frith and versatile cellist Tom Cora she formed Skeleton Crew, which toured Europe, Japan, the United States, and Iceland. Beginning in 1986 she wrote scores for theater, dance, and film, receiving commissions from Meet the Composer, NY State Council for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She has sustained an interest in multimedia staging and has led workshops for dancers and musicians at Movement Research in New York City and at Bennington College in Vermont. As a bandleader she has issued solo recordings such as No Way Back on Atavistic and has worked with her Gangster Band, whose members include relatives Sara Parkins and Margaret Parkins. The group has recorded her pieces for the Avant and Tzadik labels, among them the chamber work Isabelle (1995) for Isabelle Eberhardt and the 1999 album Pan-Acousticon, co-produced with longtime associate Elliot Sharp, in whose group Carbon she has also played. Gangster Band has appeared at European festivals and at New York venues from Lincoln Center to the Knitting Factory. Parkins has performed and recorded with Pauline Oliveros and Anthony Braxton as well as in an MTV Unplugged concert with the rock band Hole. She has appeared at new music and jazz festivals worldwide, including Germany’s Moers Festival, Switzerland’s Taklos Festival, Tokyo’s Music Merge, and Quebec’s FIMAV. After a relatively quiet interval, a live recording featuring improvisers Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Nels Cline of Geraldine Fibbers was issued on JMZ Records.