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Zeena Parkins

 
Artist: Zeena Parkins
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Similar Artists:

Elliott Sharp/Zeena Parkins, Tom Cora, Andrea Parkins, Annie Gosfield, David Shea, Anne Lebaron, Anthony Coleman

Worked With:

David Weinstein, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Kato Hideki, Bryce Goggin, Chris Cochrane, Jim Staley

Formal Connection With:

Slut, Peter Scherer, The Gangster Band, Christine Bard, Lawrence Butch Morris, Elliott Sharp, Pauline Oliveros, Skeleton Crew, Fred Frith, Nels Cline
  • Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Avant-Garde
  • Instrument: Harp, Accordion
  • Representative Albums: "Mouth=Maul=Betrayer," "Ursa's Door," "Pan-Acousticon"

Biography

Zeena Parkins plays the harp, piano, accordion and sampler in a variety of improvised, new music, modern composed and avant garde jazz settings. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she studied dance, harp and classical piano, and earned a Fine Arts degree from Bard College. Parkins moved to NYC in 1984, where she began collaborating with other musicians in downtown's avant garde music scene. She performed in Butch Morris' ensembles and in John Zorn's Cobra. She also formed Skeleton Crew with renowned improviser Fred Frith and versatile cellist Tom Cora and toured Europe, Japan, the U.S. and Iceland with them. From 1986 on, Parkins composed scores for theater, dance, and films, commissioned by performers, venues and organizations such as Meet the Composer, NY State Council for the Arts and The Rockefeller Foundation. She's remained interested and involved in staging multimedia performances, and gave workshops for dancers and musicians at NYC's Movement Research and in Vermont, at Bennington College. As a leader, Zeena Parkins has performed and recorded solo -- as with No Way Back, on Atavistic -- as well as with her Gangster Band. Gangster Band, which includes relatives Sara and Margaret Parkins, has recorded her compositions for the Avant and Tzadik labels, including the chamber piece for Isabelle Eberhardt Isabelle (1995), and 1999's Pan-Acousticon, which she co-produced with longtime collaborator, Elliot Sharp (she performed in his group, Carbon, too). The Gangster Band has performed at festivals in Europe, and at a variety of NYC venues, from the Lincoln Center to the Knitting Factory. Parkins has performed and recorded in a wide realm of settings, from working with Pauline Oliveros and Anthony Braxton, to an MTV Unplugged concert with the rock band Hole. She has played at new music and jazz festivals around the world, including The Moers Festival (Germany), Switzerland's Taklos Festival, Music Merge in Tokyo, and Quebec's FIMAV. After a somewhat quiet period, a live recording featuring improvisors Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers) appeared on JMZ Records. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Zeena Parkins
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Zeena Parkins

Zeena Parkins performing with Cosa Brava at
Jazzit in Salzburg, Austria, 5 April 2008.
(© Markus Lackinger)
Background information
Birth name Zeena Parkins
Born 1956 Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres Experimental,
Free improvisation
Occupations Musician, Composer
Instruments Harp, Accordion, Keyboards
Years active 1980s – present
Labels No Man's Land, Tzadik
Associated acts News from Babel, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, Cosa Brava, John Zorn, Ikue Mori
Website www.zeenaparkins.com

Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion. She was a one term substitute at Mills College in Fall 2007.[1][2]

Born in 1956 in Detroit, Michigan, she studied at Bard College and moved to New York City in 1984.[2]

Her work ranges from solo performance to large ensembles. Besides standard and electric harps, her work also incorporates Foley, field recordings, analog synthesizers, samplers, oscillators and homemade instruments.[1]

She has done several solo recordings and has also recorded or performed with Björk, John Zorn (including in Cobra performances), Elliott Sharp, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Tin Hat Trio, Jim O'Rourke, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Lee Ranaldo, Nels Cline, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Braxton, Matmos, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay, Courtney Love's band Hole and others.[1][2][3]

She has been a member of a number of experimental rock bands, including No Safety, News from Babel, Skeleton Crew and Fred Frith's review band, Keep the Dog.[4] In March 2008 she joined Frith's Cosa Brava quintet comprising Frith, Parkins, Carla Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi, and The Norman Conquest.

Parkins has often worked with dance companies and choreographers, including the John Jasperse Company, Jennifer Monson, Neil Greenberg, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh,[5] and Jennifer Lacey, and has won a Bessie Award for "sustained achievement in composing scores for dance."[1] In 1997 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

She has also worked with video artist Janene Higgins[6][7] and visual artists Daria Martin, Cynthia Madansky and Mandy McIntosh.[1]

Contents

Discography

Solo studio albums

Video

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Zeena Parkins performer biography in Misuse... program (2007)
  2. ^ a b c Zeena Parkins at Allmusic
  3. ^ Zeena Parkins: Biography, official site.
  4. ^ a b c d e Zeena Parkins: Works, official site.
  5. ^ Zeena Parkins artist profile from P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved on June 18, 2008.
  6. ^ "Wake the Dead Spring Music Series : Arch and How I See the World, #1". Location One. http://www.location1.org/wake-the-dead-spring-music-series-arch-and-how-i-see-the-world-1. Retrieved 2007-10-23. 
  7. ^ "Zeena Parkins & Janene Higgins, WRO '09 Media Art Biennale, Poland". WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdEg3NzSR8. 

References

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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