Worlds Put Together

Matt Parker isn't eccentric or reclusive-far from it, he's super-friendly and down to earth-and his work isn't primitive or obscure. But there's still something of the outsider artist in the 33-year-old tenor saxophonist. A Fort Lauderdale native who is now part of Brooklyn's inspired jazz scene, he is largely self-taught and self-directed. On his striking debut album, Worlds Put Together, he lives up to the title by connecting the stylistic dots between Lester Young and Rahsaan Roland Kirk-a magical feat considering he never listened to Kirk until people who heard the album brought up his name. Parker didn't set out to make an album that, quite simply, sounds like no other-stormy at one extreme, with agreeably disorienting sonic effects, and playful at the other, at one point floating a circus melody straight out of Kurt Weill. And how many jazz artists these days prize brevity? With the exception of one 10-minute adventure, the tunes on Worlds are all under five minutes, with three under four and one clocking in at 1:29. I actually wanted all of the songs to be under three minutes, like old 78s, said Parker. 78s are the most fascinating thing. You put on this heavy disc, you lower the needle and you get two and a half minutes of enjoyment. You can actually feel the grooves. It's brilliant. In the best way, Worlds Put Together is the sum of it's parts. Each of the songs is meant to evoke a scene from an imaginary movie-one with equal parts action and atmosphere and a cast including dancer Jimmy Taps Sutherland, Danish drummer Mikkel Hess (in whose pop band, Hess Is More, Parker plays), and a group of chattering children. The story opens threateningly with Eye of Rico, inspired by Hurricane Andrew. Charged by raspy, unison saxes evocative of polyphonic Kirk (Julio Monterrey, Parker's longtime musical collaborator, plays alto), the song creates conflict by playing 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures off each other. After pianist Jesse Elder (with whom Parker plays in the vaudeville act, the Candy Shop Boys) creates an uneasy calm with his romantically tinged solo, guitarist Josh Mease opens up the skies with his electric lines. Perhaps hearing Lester Young's version of I Can't Get Started in his head (Prez is, in fact, one of his heroes), Parker segues into the tender I Can't Help It. But he and the band quickly head out to the dark, swirling sea, on Lists, a feature for drummer Reggie Quinerly. On Up and Down, featuring Parker, the leader indulges in his snake-charming sound on soprano. His arrangement on WPT reflects his love of Tom Waits: He's not afraid to have every instrument play the same melody. And then there's the classic chase scene staged on Full Sun, a tune inspired by Benny Golson and Curtis Fuller. I knew from the start that this song wasn't going to be under four minutes, said Parker. It was a matter of, let's just go, let's just play, and allow everyone to be themselves. Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Parker was exposed to little jazz. But his father played Leon Redbone so much, his mother developed an intense hatred of the old-timey standards specialist. During a drive to Indiana, she threw the Redbone tape her husband had been playing nonstop out the window-only to have him buy a new one at the next gas station. My sister and I laughed so hard, said Matt. As a kid, Matt longed to play drums, but that instrument was taken in the school band, as was trumpet, so he ended up with the alto saxophone. He familiarized himself with it by obsessively taking it apart and putting it back together. Once I got a sound out of it, I was hooked, he said. Though he struggled as a music student, frustrating teachers, he developed his own system of playing, using the things that worked and discarding the things that didn't. The first jazz concert he attended was by Maynard Ferguson. The trumpet great, in whose big band Parker would play for two years, left a deep impression on him-less with his patented stratospheric notes than his lyrical playing. At 14, Parker made his club debut playing with local