Live / Shapeshifter is the exemplary new double-album from one of master bassist - composer - improviser William Parker's eternal flagship groups, recorded live and presenting all-new compositions, including the extended suite Eternal Is the Voice of Love, along with a new iteration of the band's theme. Featuring pianist Cooper-Moore, alto saxophonist Rob Brown and (since 2012) drummer Hamid Drake, In Order To Survive is one of the great jazz groups of the past quarter century. Launched in 1993, In Order To Survive was Parker's first fully dedicated small group. It has always featured Cooper-Moore and Rob Brown, together with a series of drummers (including Denis Charles, and then Susie Ibarra) and occasional additional brass / reeds. A top live draw in New York during the heights of that heady decade, they made momentous visits to Europe as well. This initial phase culminated on record with their first double-live set, The Peach Orchard, an era-defining work released by AUM Fidelity in 1998. The dawn of the new century saw the launch of a new William Parker Quartet, featuring drummer Hamid Drake, Brown, and trumpeter Lewis Barnes. The impeccable albums O'Neal's Porch, Sound Unity, Corn Meal Dance and Petit Oiseau were all created during that first decade. In Order To Survive first reconvened at the 2012 Vision Festival on occasion of AUM Fidelity's 15th Anniversary celebrations. That set of new work was released as part of the Wood Flute Songs box set, hailed as a 5-Star Masterpiece by DownBeat, and as the #1 Archival Release of the Year by The Wire. In October 2016, In Order To Survive entered the studio for the first time since the Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy session of 1995. This work was presented as half of the exquisite double-album, Meditation / Resurrection, released in July 2017. Two nights were booked at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn to celebrate its release. 'A mid-summer guided self-illumination' was promised on the handbill for these concerts. Live / Shapeshifter presents both sets of night two. Beyond expressing the obvious, the album title states the shamanistic nature of the work at hand.