ellery eskelin & andrea parkins
green bermudas
mte-02

11 june 1996 new york city

andrea parkins sampler
ellery eskelin tenor saxophone

1. more or less the truth (3:05)
2. mary jane's dilemma (5:11)
3. the cocktail hour (1:41)
4. flamingo (2:16)
5. with bells and drums (9:08)
6. yummy love (2:45)
7. sleight of hand (2:03)
8. behind the curtain (4:29)
9. green bermudas (3:29)
10. scratch (1:00)
11. untitled two (9:25)
12. this warm secret dial (11:59)

fifty-seven cracked minutes of tenor and sampler woozery. Includes radical extensions of the 'song-poem' form pioneered by ellery's father, the legendary rodd keith. one of the more resolutely 'out' recordings you are likely to hear, really.

"If your idea of music is a squawking, screeching tenor paired with utterly dissimilar background keyboard samples, then Eskelin and Parkins are for you. These 12 selections are a tribute to cacophony. Need I say that they are all originals? Mercifully, a few numbers, 'The Cocktail Hour,' 'Scratch' and 'Sleight of Hand' are brief, between one and two minutes. 'The Cocktail Hour' sounds like the buzzing of a thousand demented insects. If the instrumental numbers don't accelerate a descent into madness, the vocals on 'Mary Jane's Dilemma' and 'Yummy Love' should do the trick. 'Flamingo' is intended as a ballad, I think, while 'Behind the Curtain' suggests the machinations of a deranged wizard -- an appropriate metaphor for this release. The promotional buzz for Green Bermudas calls it a testament to the ingenuity and weirdness of the human spirit and instructs the listener to dig it. I don't think so." --marcela breton, jazztimes