2020 Subscriber Series


MARCHING MUSIC
Staying at Home – Virtually Marching

Featuring ten compositions by Dave Douglas with a quartet featuring Rafiq Bhatia, Melvin Gibbs, and Sim Cain.

Join us as a subscriber to gain access to this unique material and more.

Subscribers can stream and download the entire series on Bandcamp.

The CD of this music was released on November 6, 2020.

Here’s a new suite of compositions for our moment. I conceived of these pieces as music you could have in your headphones when you attend Climate Marches, Demonstrations for Equal Rights, Voting Rights Movements, and all other actions towards a just society. Also, it’s music to spur all of us to go and vote in November 2020 in incontrovertible numbers. Non-voters are among the biggest voting blocs in the U.S. This is the moment when everyone has to step up an be a part of what our nation truly is. We can do it. May this music help and inspire you. I am optimistic and believe that we can make change, but we have to all be involved and engaged.

We are grateful to these organizations (and many others!) for their hard work on the issues. Support them if you can:

Sunrise Movement, Fair Fight Action, Brennan Center For Justice, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, International Rescue Committee, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Black Voters Matter Fund, American Friends Service Committee.

And don’t forget to get out the vote and vote yourself, while taking others to the polls! Work with the candidates, local and national, that you agree with.
– Dave

Track Listing

1. Parables
2. Ten To Midnight
3. Whose Streets
4. Fair Fight
5. Safe Space
6. Climate Strike
7. Forlorn
8. Lenape
9. Foley Square
10. Persistent Hats

Personnel

Dave Douglas, trumpet
Rafiq Bhatia, guitar
Melvin Gibbs, bass
Sim Cain, drums

Production Credits

Producer: Dave Douglas
Recorded on December 10, 2019 at Bridge Recording Studio, Brooklyn, NY.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tyler McDiarmid
Assistant Engineer: Urosh Jovanovich
Photography by Anna Yatskevich
Graphics by Lukas Frei

All compositions and arrangements by Dave Douglas (Dave Douglas Music / BMI)

Parables was commissioned by The New School Art Collection and Parsons Curatorial Design Research Labinspired by Agnes Denes’ New School site-specific artwork.

Press Inquiries

Matt Merewitz
Fully Altered Media
matt@fullyaltered.com

Press

“Trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas has a history of progressive activism, which he has ramped up for our troubled age. This album puts Douglas in dialogue with several staunchly creative partners: guitarist Rafiq Bhatia, bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer Sim Cain.” – Nate Chinen, WBGO Take Five feature

“Cain’s face-slapping, polyrhythmic backbeat is back like it never left, and Gibbs’ bass is a huge post-metal throb. On “Safe Space,” they set up the same kind of simmering groove they had on “Liar” all those years ago, and the muted trumpet and wavering haze of heavily effected guitar are the perfect counterbalance to the moodiness.” – Stereogum

Marching Music is music with a purpose that also widens Douglas’ already expansive palette… this album’s time is certainly now.” – Something Else

Marching Music is consistently engaging and satisfying qua music. The quartet establishes and maintains a strong group identity but embraces a variety of moods … I have never been disappointed with anything I have heard him do.” – Jazz Journal ★★★½☆

“From the first notes, his music emits a spooky, dirge-like gravitas, often accompanied by booming strings of impending danger. Douglas is the principal acoustic voice, cradled in the electronic thunder of bass and guitar. It is a clear and fluent voice, though, that in the end puts music above politics.” – DownBeat ★★★½☆

“The music here is a mixture of heavy and luminescent, with grooves and atmosphere sharing space, with engaging melodies (“Whose Streets”) and sonic exploration (“Safe Space”) in balance.” – PopMatters

“There’s something frankly Herculean in this record that we’d recommend to all ears.” – Citizen Jazz (Translated from French)