Zeena Parkins Explained
Zeena Parkins |
Landscape: | yes |
Background: | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Birth Place: | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Years Active: | 1980s–present |
Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp".[1] Parkins performs on standard harps, several custom electric harps, piano, and accordion. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and professor in the Music Department at Mills College.[2]
Life and career
Born in 1956 in Detroit, Michigan, Parkins studied at Bard College and moved to New York City in 1984.[3] 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.
She has recorded six solo harp records and recorded and performed with Björk,[4] Matmos, Ikue Mori, Fred Frith, Tom Cora, Christian Marclay, Yoko Ono,[5] John Zorn (including in Cobra performances), Chris Cutler, Pauline Oliveros,[6] Nels Cline,[7] Elliott Sharp,[8] Lee Ranaldo,[9] Butch Morris,[10] Tin Hat Trio,[11] William Winant,[12] Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte,[13] Courtney Love's band Hole,[14] and others. She has also been a member of a number of experimental rock bands, including No Safety,[15] News from Babel,[16] and Skeleton Crew.
Parkins worked with dance companies and choreographers, including the John Jasperse Company, Jennifer Monson,[17] Neil Greenberg, and Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh, and has won three Bessie Awards for her achievement in composition for dance.
She provided scores for filmmakers including Abigail Child,[18] Isabella Rossellini,[19] and Cynthia Madansky.[20]
Parkins received a 1997 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[21]
Discography
As leader
Release year | Title | Label | Additional personnel |
---|
1987 | Something Out There | No Man's Land | Sam Bennett, Cora, Wayne Horvitz, Christian Marclay, Jim Mineses, Ikue Mori, James Staley |
1992 | Ursa’s Door | Les Disques Victo | Mori, Chris Cochrane, Sara Parkins, Maggie Parkins |
1993 | Nightmare Alley | Table of the Elements | |
1995 | Isabelle | Avant | S. Parkins, M. Parkins, Lisa Crowder |
1996 | Mouth=Maul=Betrayer | Tzadik | S. Parkins, M. Parkins, Mark Stewart, Jim Pugliese ft. Carsten Dane, Mattthias Breitenbach, Andy Hass |
1998 | No Way Back | Atavistic | |
1999 | The Opium War: A Radio Play | Einstein Records | Text by Ana María Simo; ft. M. Parkins, Ikue Mori, Joe Trump, Cochrane, David Shea, DJ Olive, DD Dorvillier, Jonathan Bepler, Tenko |
1999 | Pan-Acousticon | Tzadik | S. Parkins, M. Parkins, Stewart, Pugliese, ft. Trump |
2004 | Devotion | Table of the Elements | |
2006 | Necklace | Tzadik | Doug Henderson, Eclipse Quartet: S. Parkins, Sara Thorblade, Joanna Hood, M. Parkins |
2010 | Between the Whiles | Table of the Elements | luciana achugar, Levi Gonzalez, Eleanor Hullihan, S. Parkins, Pugliese |
2012 | Double Dupe Down | Tzadik | Mori, Marclay, Shelley Hirsch, Okkyung Lee, S. Parkins, M. Parkins, Staley, Matthew Welch, David Watson, William Winant, Pugliese |
2013 | The Adorables | Crytogramophone | Parkins, Shayna Dunkelman, Preshish Moments, ft. Deep Singh, Dave Sharma, Kristin Slipp, Danny Blume |
2016 | Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics | Good Child Music | Nuiko Wadden, Kristen Theriault, Megan Conley ft. Mori |
2018 | Captiva | Good Child Music | Matthew Ostrowski | |
Collaborations
- with News from Babel
- Work Resumed on the Tower (Recommended, 1984); Parkins, Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Dagmar Krause
- Letters Home (Recommended, 1986); Parkins, Cutler, Cooper, Krause ft. Robert Wyatt, Dagmar Krause, Sally Potter, Phil Minton
- with Ikue Mori
- Parkins & Mori, Phantom Orchard (Mego, 2004)
- Phantom Orchard, Orra (Tzadik, 2008); ft. Cyro Baptista, Makigami Koichi, Josh Quillen, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje
- Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Trouble In Paradise (Tzadik, 2012); ft. Sara Parkins, Shayna Dunkelman, Ratkje, Maggie Parkins, Hild Sofie Tafjord
- Phantom Orchard Ensemble, Through the Looking Glass (Tzadik, 2014); ft. Sylvie Courvoisier, S. Parkins, Ratkje, M. Parkins
- with No Safety
- This Lost Leg (RecRec Music, 1989); Parkins, Chris Cochrane, Doug Seidel, Ann Rupel, Pippin Branett
- Spill (Knitting Factory Works, 1992); Parkins, Cochrane, Seidel, Rupel, Tim Spelios
- Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory Works, 1993); Parkins, Cochrane, Seidel, Rupel, Spelios
- Live in Italy (Cuneiform Records, 2021)
- with Elliott Sharp
- Elliott Sharp / Zeena Parkins, Psycho–Acoustic (Victo, 1994)
- Psycho-Acoustic, Blackburst (Victo, 1996)
- with Skeleton Crew
- Other collaborations
- OWT (Parkins & David Linton), Good As Gold (Homestead Records, 1989)
- Joane Hétu / Diane Labrosse / Parkins / Danielle P. Roger / Tenko, La Légende De La Pluie (Ambiances Magnétiques, 1992)
- William Hooker / Lee Ranaldo / Parkins, The Gift Of Tongues (Knitting Factory Works, 1995)
- Chris Cutler / Parkins, Shark! (Megacorp, 1999)
- Parkins / Nels Cline / Thurston Moore, Live At Easthampton Town Hall (JMZ, 2001)
- Weightless Animals (Parkins, Kaffe Matthews, Mandy McIntosh), Weightless Animals (Annette Works, 2004)
- Parkins, Frederic Rzewski, James Tenney, Music for String Quartet & Percussion (New World Records, 2013); with Eclipse Quartet (S. Parkins, Sarah Thornblade, Alma Lisa Fernandez, M. Parkins) and William Winant
- Parkins / Pauline Oliveros, Presença Series #01 (Lucky Kitchen / Fundação de Serralves, 2015)
- MZM (Myra Melford, Parkins, Miya Masaoka), MZM (Infrequent Seams, 2017)
- Green Dome (Parkins, Ryan Sawyer, Ryan Ross Smith), Thinking in Stitches (Case Study Records, 2019)
- Parkins / Brian Chase, Live at San Damiano Mission (Chaikin Records / Case Study Records, 2019)
- Parkins / Wobbly, Triplicates (Relative Pitch Records, 2019)
- Parkins / Jeff Kolar, SCALE (Two Rooms, 2019)
- Parkins / Mette Rasmussen / Ryan Sawyer, Glass Triangle (Relative Pitch, 2021)
As instrumentalist
With Björk
With Alex Cline
With Nels Cline
With Fred Frith
- The Country of Blinds (Rift, 1986) as Skeleton Crew
- Step Across the Border (RecRec, 1990)
- That House We Lived In (Fred, 1991 [2003])
- Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire (I Dischi di Angelica, 1999)
- Traffic Continues (Winter & Winter, 2000) with Ensemble Modern
- Ragged Atlas (Intakt, 2010) as Cosa Brava
- The Letter (Intakt, 2012) as Cosa Brava
With Maybe Monday
With Yoko Ono
With Marc Ribot
With John Zorn
With Tin Hat Trio
With Bobby Previte
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Ross . Alex . Zeena Parkins Avant-Garde Harpist Roulette . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . March 27, 1993.
- Web site: Zeena Parkins . John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Santoro . Gene . Harpists Without Halos Test Their Wings . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . July 15, 1990.
- Web site: Masters . Marc . Currin . Grayson . Keeping Indie Weird . Pitchfork . March 8, 2021 . April 16, 2010.
- Web site: Yoko Ono: Blueprint for a Sunrise . AllMusic.com . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Pauline Oliveros / Zeena Parkins / Michelle Grabner (Lucky Kitchen and Fundação de Serralves) . Institute for New Connotative Action . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Walls . Seth Colter . Nels Cline: Lovers . Pitchfork . March 8, 2021 . August 6, 2016.
- Web site: Watrous . Peter . Elliott Sharp and Carbon The Knitting Factory . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . June 13, 1991.
- Web site: Pareles . Jon . Lee Ranaldo, Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins Roulette . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . December 24, 1992.
- Web site: Pareles . Jon . Free Butch Morris Concerts . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . November 16, 1989.
- Web site: Zwickel . Jonathan . Tin Hat Trio: Book of Silk . Pitchfork . March 8, 2021 . August 16, 2004.
- Web site: Zeena Parkins and William Winant Perform Music for Minor Planets . BAMPFA . March 28, 2018 . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Watrous . Peter . Violating the Pop Structure . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . September 4, 1989.
- Harris . Chris . Hole's 'MTV Unplugged' At 25: It 'Ended Up Not Very 'Unplugged' At All' . Billboard . March 8, 2021 . April 17, 2020.
- Web site: Pareles . Jon . No Safety, A Quintet, at P.S. 122 . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . January 24, 1988.
- Web site: Leone . Dominique . Out Music #2 . Pitchfork . March 8, 2021 . February 13, 2007.
- Web site: Kourlas . Gia . From the Prairie to the City, Dancing to Invoke the Dawn . The New York Times . March 8, 2021 . February 20, 2018.
- Web site: Teshigahara . Tristan . Perils, Mutiny and Mayhem by Abigail Child . desistfilm . March 8, 2021 . 2014.
- Web site: Green Porno . Berlin International Film Festival . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Cynthia Madansky . CFMDC . March 8, 2021.
- Web site: Zeena Parkins . Foundation for Contemporary Arts . March 8, 2021.