album out January 24th 2020
preview & pre-order on LP/CD/Digital
via our Bandcamp page TODAY

Feliz año nuevo! It's our pleasure to kick off this momentous year with details of the new full length album by composer, producer, guitarist & sage of the International Anthem family, Jeff Parker! Suite for Max Brown is available for pre-order TODAY, and will be available in stores on January 24th 2020.

The album, named for and dedicated to Parker’s mother, features nine original songs as well as “Gnarciss,” an interpretation of Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus,” and John Coltrane’s “After the Rain.” The album's lead single “Go Away” also debuts today and can be heard via our Bandcamp page.

Suite for Max Brown follow’s Parker’s critically praised 2016 record The New Breed, which, as the composer says, “became a kind of tribute to my father who he passed away while I was making the album. It’s named for a clothing store he owned when I was a kid. I thought it would be nice this time to dedicate something to my mom while she’s still here to see it. Maxine Brown is her maiden name and everybody calls her Max. The picture on the cover is her when she was nineteen.”

((( photo of JP by Jim Newberry )))

Parker’s band on Suite for Max Brown, dubbed The New Breed, include pianist-saxophonist Josh Johnson; bassist Paul Bryan, who co-produced and mixed the album with Parker; Rob Mazurek, his frequent duo partner; trumpeter Nate Walcott, a veteran of Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes; drummers Jamire Williams, Makaya McCraven, and Jay Bellerose, Parker’s Berklee School of Music classmate; cellist Katinka Kleijn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and his daughter Ruby Parker, who sings on the opening track.

Parker says of his new album, “I used to deejay a lot when I lived in Chicago. I was spinning records one night and for about ten minutes I was able to perfectly synch up a Nobukazu Takemura record with the first movement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it had this free jazz, abstract jazz thing going on with a sequenced beat underneath. It sounded so good. That’s what I’m trying to do with Max Brown. It’s got a sequenced beat and there are musicians improvising on top or beneath the sequenced drum pattern. That’s what I was going for. Man vs. machine.

“It’s a lot of experimenting, a lot of trial and error,” he admits. “I like to pursue situations that take me outside myself, where the things I come up with are things I didn’t really know I could do. I always look at this process as patchwork quilting. You take this stuff and stitch it together until a tapestry forms.”

preview the lead track "Go Away"
and pre-order Suite for Max Brown
on LP and/or CD TODAY

JEFF PARKER & THE NEW BREED ON TOUR
UK/EUROPE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
US DATES MARCH 2020

Jeff Parker kicks off 2020 on the road with his A-team, i.e. The New Breed band feat. Josh Johnson (sax, synths, keys), Paul Bryan (bass), Jamire Williams (drums, sampler), and JP himself (guitar, sampler). Full list of confirmed dates here:

Jan 16 - Brussels Jazz Festival, Flagey, Brussels (BE)
Jan 17 - Bimhuis, Amsterdam (NL)
Jan 18 - De Doelen, Rotterdam (NL)
Jan 19 - KAAP, Oostende (BE)
Jan 20 - Teatro e Studio Foce, Lugano (CH)

Jan 22 - G Livelab, Tampere (FI)
Jan 23 - G Livelab, Helsinki (FI)
Jan 24 - Church of Sound, London (UK)
Jan 25 - Celtic Connections, Glasgow (UK)
Jan 26 - Alte Feuerwache, Mannheim (DE)

Jan 28 - Gretchen, Berlin (DE)
Jan 29 - Fasching, Stockholm (SE)
Jan 30 - Unterfahrt, Munich (DE)
Jan 31 - Bergen Jazz Forum, Bergen (NO)
Feb 1 - Victoria Nasjonal, Oslo (NO)
Feb 2 - Blue Note MIlano, Milan (IT)

Mar 5 - Gold Diggers, Los Angeles (CA)
Mar 8 - Dorian's, Chicago (IL)
Mar 9 - Dorian's, Chicago (IL)
Mar 10 - Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia (PA)
Mar 11 - Le Poisson Rouge, New York (NY)
Mar 12 - Floyd, Miami (FL)
Mar 27 - Big Ears Festival, Knoxville (TN)

Stay tuned for more details & dates TBA !!!

LTD EDITION BLUE FUSION SWIRL COLORED VINYL

As per our tradition, the first pressing of Suite for Max Brown includes a limited edition color variant, available via direct purchase from our Bandcamp page only. The version we've cooked up this time is a nebulous blue Fusion Swirl Colored Vinyl, and there are just 555 copies available before its out of print forever.

Get your's via our Bandcamp page today!

!!! International Anthem x Nonesuch Records !!!

Suite for Max Brown is released & distributed in North & South America via our new partnership with Nonesuch Records.

We'll be co-releasing six albums over the next three years with the legends of Nonesuch, i.e. the half-century-old label that's housed the likes of Steve Reich, Caetano Veloso, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Ry Cooder, the whole classic suite of Buena Vista Social Club artists/albums, and so many more...

As Nonesuch is part of the Warner Music Group, Suite for Max Brown and all the albums released via this partnership will be distributed by WEA. Stores, retailers, folks interested in wholesale purchases: please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about where/how to stock these releases.

Distribution via K7 for
EU, UK, Japan, Australia, and ROW

For everywhere else in the world, unless expressly noted, all of our Nonesuch co-releases will be distributed by our friends at K7 and their various territory partners.

If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!

"MAX BROWN" MUSIC VIDEO
filmed & directed by Mikel Patrick Avery

ICYMI make sure you peep the gorgeous video for "Max Brown" (i.e. the 7" edited lead single from Suite for Max Brown we released in December) by interdisciplinary artist Mikel Patrick Avery. Longtime followers of IARC may recognize Mikel's name.. because he played pump organ for Rob Mazurek on our very first release IARC0001 Alternate Moon Cycles. Turns out, in addition to playing the hell out of a pump organ, being an incredible all around drummer/percussionist, photography and other auxiliary talents, Mikel is a top notch film director in the making.

Checkout Mikel's work in this beautiful "Max Brown" film today