** 2021 Stock ** Dikeman Parker Drake came about when the DOEK festival in Amsterdam invited the American saxophonist (and Dutch resident) to form a new group for the festival. Dikeman went straight for one of the greatest rhythm sections of the last 30 years - asking William Parker and Hamid Drake to join him in a trio. They played on that tour at La Resistenza Ghent and a recording was made for the el Negocito Records label linked to the club.

William Parker and Hamid Drake first came together as part of Peter Brötzmann's legendary Die Like A Dog Quartet with trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. They've gone on to form a sympatico partnership, working as a duo (see Piercing the Veil on AUM Fidelity) and together on many of William Parker's larger group projects.

From rural Wyoming to Amsterdam via Egypt, Dikeman's playing runs the gamut of improvised music with an open attitude to collaboration that tears down any notion of genre. His own groups include the no-wave noise jazz of Cactus Truck, and Universal Indians - a tightly wound trio (with Jon Rune Strom on bass and Tollef Ostvang on drums) seen regularly with special guest Joe McPhee. A while ago in an interview I heard a journalist ask Joe McPhee what the music was about. "Love, pure love!" I don't think it can be said better than that. — John Dikeman