Kim Parker, vocal
Tommy Flanagan, piano
Jesper Lundgaard, bass
Ed Thigpen, drums

Recorded April 19 and 20, 1982 at Barigozzi Studio, Milano
Engineer: Giancarlo Barigozzi
Producer: Giovanni Bonandrini
Cover Photograph: Central Park, summer 1949
Back Cover Photograph: Carlo Pieroni
Album design:  Rob Anderson
1983 Soul Note  121083/1/2/4

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In point of fact, it is a normal thing to follow in the footprints of your parents, if only because you learn the profession during table talk.  Nor is it safe to assume that the child of such a parent is merely a watered-down version of the original.  J.S. bach was the product of generations of musicians, and he was the best in the entire line.

It is to Kim Parker's eternal credit that she has never once complained about not one, but two, famous step-fathers, Charlie Parker and Phil Woods.  She has been surrounded by music since she was a little girl.  I should know.  I have known her since then.  In fact, Kim is refreshingly honest.  She doesn't even lie about her age.  She was born August 22, 1946, in New York City.  her mother, Chan, was a dancer; her grandmother had been a Ziegfeld Girl.  "My friends were musicians, hookers, and doormen," Kim says.  She won a talent show whose prize was two tickets to Hollywood.  Later, in high school, she sang in a prgram with a band that consisted of Phil Woods, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, and Chris Swansen.  Not bad.  She spent a year at Hofstra University on a full drama scholarship.  Famous parentage won't do that for you, you have to do it on your own.  While she was at Hofstra, she wa named Best Jazz Vocalsist in the Villanova Inter-Collegiate Jazz Festival.

Despite an obvious predilection for music, Kim didn't jump into it.  In 1967, she married, tried being a farmer, a housepainter, and a homesteader in Maine.  It wasn't until 1976 that she decided she wanted to sing for serious.  Since then, she has been working in clubs and concerts in Europe and America, with such musicians as Bob Dorough, Vic Juris, George Young, Eric Kloss, Tiger Okoshi, Mike Richmond, and Kenny Drew.

Although she had previously recorded with Larry Gelb, she did not make her first album under her own name until 1981.  It was recorded in Italy with a trio that included Kenny Drew on piano, Mads Vinding on bass, and Edmund Thigpen on drums.  It is available on the Soul Note label.  An album with Phil Woods and Chris Swansen is scheduled to come out later this year.

The trio that accompanies her on the present album consists of Tommy Flanagan - one of the truly elegant accompanists - and the Danish bassist Jesper Lundgaard, as well as my old friend Edmund Thigpen on drums, he of the sensitive brushwork.

In earlier ages, artists in training were expected to copy the works of the masters to learn their techniques.  It's a good idea.  Out of one's slavish imitations comes a control of the materials and, if there is individual talent there, eventually one's own style emerges.  When I first heard Kim, there was a lot of Carmen McRae in her work.  It has been interesting to watch her evolve.  If there is any of that influence still there, it's been sublimated into something else and now Kim sings like no one I know.

She has a truly individual sound.  And she has a remarkable ability to sing odd and difficult intervals in tune.  I noticed that about her as far back as ehr album with Larry Gelb.

With all the musical sophistication of her musical sense, there is a curiously innocent and naive quality about the voice itself.  This sets up a kind of contradiction that is some sort of subtle delight.

There's only one thing I don't like about this album.  Kim didn't do any of my songs.  That's all right.  I can wait.  She's going to be around for a while.

- Gene Lees