Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker released a 7” single featuring parts one and two of his song “Max Brown” on December 2, 2019, via a newly formed partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. A video for the track, filmed and directed by interdisciplinary artist Mikel Patrick Avery, can be seen above. The song was produced by Parker alongside Paul Bryan, who also plays bass; additional featured are Josh Johnson (known for work with Kiefer, Leon Bridges) on alto sax, Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, M. Ward) on trumpet, and Jamire Williams (Moses Sumney, Solange) on drums. Part one of the song is available digitally. “Max Brown” is a sneak peek of Jeff Parker’s new album, the first to be released via this partnership. Further details of the early 2020 release will be announced at the start of the New Year.
"For all his rootedness in music history, some of Parker’s music actually sound more like tomorrow—if future music can be cobbled together from shards of the past," says LA Weekly. "Parker is dedicated to the jazz tradition and to probing its edges, but he’s unconfined within its bounds."
International Anthem and Nonesuch will join forces to release at least six albums over the next three years. This partnership reflects a mutual admiration between Nonesuch, founded in 1964, and the five-year-old International Anthem, which will be combining their resources in order to share new music with a wider audience.
“We are stoked to enter this collaboration with Nonesuch. They’ve been part of so many variegated influences on progressive music for the last fifty years. Many of which I can see and hear in the work of the artists in our label family,” International Anthem Co-Founder/A&R Director Scottie McNiece said, “And as a label Nonesuch are longtime progenitors of an anti-genre, unclassifiable catalogue. This is a path we’ve been trying to walk since we started making recordings in 2012. We’re very proud of our output over the last five years, but know that we have much to learn, and that's just what we’re aiming to do alongside our new friends at Nonesuch over the next few years.”
He continued, “It is also very special for us to launch this partnership with the music of Jeff Parker, who is one of the sages of our label family. Even beyond the records we’ve done with Jeff, the music he has made over the last twenty-plus years was/is critical to paving the way for the sounds and aesthetics embraced by International Anthem today.”
Nonesuch President David Bither said, “First of all, there is the name. At a time when some are compelled to kneel during our anthem, an American record company calling itself International Anthem suggests both a resolve and a larger field of vision. Then, without a doubt, it is the works of art holding the music, creative packages that told us that there was such attention being paid to detail, so much love, such a serious dedication to the art of record-making that whatever was inside demanded to be heard. That’s exceedingly rare.
“Then, of course, it is the music that lives up to the promise of the name and the standards being set by the design,” Bither continued. “And last but not least, it was meeting Scottie McNiece and David Allen and realizing that these two had brought all of this into existence, representing incredibly vibrant artists and a great, sometimes maligned city. It took one conversation to decide we should figure out a way to work together and I am thrilled to see it now happen and to begin this adventure with Jeff Parker.”
International Anthem is a Chicago–born recording company that launched in late 2014 with inaugural releases by Rob Mazurek and Makaya McCraven. Known for its unique presentations of new jazz and modern music in DIY concerts across the US and Europe, distinct design aesthetics, emphases on artist development, and communal and collectivist ethics, the label has grown to include numerous critically celebrated artists/works in five years, including debut albums by Jaimie Branch, Ben LaMar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid, Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble, Irreversible Entanglements, Resavoir, Junius Paul, and more.
Founded in 1964, Nonesuch Records has grown to pursue a broad mission, releasing music in genres including classical, contemporary composition, jazz, traditional American, world, popular, alternative, and music theater. Over the last three decades, Nonesuch has worked with artists such as John Adams, Laurie Anderson, The Black Keys, David Byrne, Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Natalie Merchant, Randy Newman, Punch Brothers, Joshua Redman, Steve Reich, Stephen Sondheim, Chris Thile, and Caetano Veloso, among many others.
