Jeff Parker has been a cornerstone of the rock, jazz, and experimental music communities for the past three decades. As the guitarist for groundbreaking groups Tortoise, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, as a sideman for artists like Joshua Redman, Fred Anderson, and Joey DeFrancesco, and as a solo artist, Parker’s work engages in a deep understanding of a constellation of styles while shirking boundaries at every turn. Over the past thirty years, Parker has carved a name for himself as a guitarist with a singular voice in any format. Parker’s sound is instantly identifiable for his masterfully understated use of melody and space and for his keen sense for complimentary playing, ever bolstering the musicians around him to new heights.
The Relatives stands as a milestone record for Parker. With the hypnotic spin of “Beanstalk”, the repetition and surprise of “Mannerisms” and the teeter of “Toy Boat,” the beat-driven focus of his more recent work peers through the swung groove of drummer Chad Taylor and bassist Chris Lopes. On The Relatives, recorded by Tortoise bandmate John McEntire in his legendary SOMA studio, Parker began shifting his compositional center towards rhythmic exploration which he would later elaborate on with old tape loops and beats on his 2016 and 2020 albums The New Breed and Suite For Max Brown. Around The Relatives’ initial release in 2006, Parker said the title track was his “attempt at demonstrating an abstraction of my perception of Relativity, which essentially means that as one moves in space, one's perception of said space is altered by one's movement. I tried to aurally capture this by having everyone perform various repeating figures on different tracks that start at one tempo, then ramp up or down to another tempo, and end together at the original tempo."
In the 15 years since its release, The Relatives has proved to be a revered pillar in the pantheon of Parker’s ever-expanding music. Listening to the sheer breadth of the musical landscapes traversed on The Relatives, there’s no mistaking why Parker is one of the most lauded players and sought after collaborators today. The Chicago music scene’s spirited embrace of communal collaboration and experimentation can be felt in each note as Parker seems to lead the band in asking one musical question after another. That ethos has followed Parker throughout his career and across the country as he’s spent the better part of a decade living and performing out of Los Angeles. Parker’s approach to the album captures the essence of who he was and still is as a musician today, a sort of musical thesis statement to his career as a creator. "The Relatives refers to the notion of a community (in this instance a community of musicians) functioning much like a family does, and also the abstraction of Relativity, which implies that as one moves, one's perspective changes along with one's movements,” says Parker. “Since we're always moving, we're always changing."
