PARKER, WILLIAM - I Plan To Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield

""I Plan To Stay A Believer is the definitive document of William Parker's The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project, featuring fully charged extensions & expansions -- both music & text -- of selections from the soul music legend's immortal songbook by an equally mighty & masterful 8-piece band featuring Parker himself in supreme rhythm section communion with drummer Hamid Drake and pianist Dave Burrell. Vocals by the exquisitely gifted Leena Conquest & additional voice/poetry/powerful singing as well by legendary scribe/force Amiri Baraka in one of his greatest/last appearances on record. The horn section takes it to next level, too. Parker brought this ensemble to festival stages in Europe (and Chicago & New York) during the first decade of this new millennium; many of these sets were recorded and this presents the distilled concentrate thereof anew. Gospel-tinged uplift, luminous swing, tight soul grooves, and wholly lit free jazz are rousingly delivered with