Belly First

from PARKER PLAYS X by Richard X Bennett & Matt Parker

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This 4 sided CD package comes with a wonderful 19-page booklet that features short stories and liner notes by Richard X Bennett. Album designed by Lauren Webster

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lyrics

Addiction and Money

The piano in my apartment is by the window on the fourth floor of a Brooklyn walk-up. From my perch I can see the Blossoms Liquor store and the people who enter it day and night. There is also a half-way house a block away so there are daily regulars on the well-trod path from their building to the store, mostly people I know and some who I’m friendly with.
Only one man refuses to talk to me. He thinks that if he doesn’t notice me, I won’t notice him. He walks with a pronounced swayback and large protruding stomach. He is not invisible and has inspired a nickname and song.

Blossoms Liquor is owned by a couple from Fujian China who are teetotalers. Don’t ask them for wine recommendations. In March 2020 they closed the store for six weeks which caused a neighborhood panic. Fortunately they gave four days warning so for four days people with money could be seen streaming in and out of the store with cases of liquor (my personal purchase: eight bottles of vodka). The denizens of the halfway house including Belly First who lacked investment cash were not so fortunate and had to go without.

Musical Notes:

The piano plays a part lifted off an Andrae Crouch YouTube video. The drummer is a master of both the old and new gospel styles. The bass plays a chordal train beat followed by a lively solo, the melodica adds a Cajun tang, the sax brings the fire and the piano takes a short solo from the viewpoint of Belly First when he finds out that his voyeuristic neighbor has written a song about him.

credits

from PARKER PLAYS X, released May 5, 2023
Richard X Bennett - piano, melodica & composition
Matt Parker - tenor sax
Adam Armstrong - bass
Julian Edmond - drums

art by Alex Clayton

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about

Richard X Bennett Brooklyn, New York

In NYC composer/pianist Richard X Bennett has performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Guggenheim Museum, The Rubin Museum, Brooklyn Museum & Central Park Summerstage. Internationally, his bands have played in over twenty countries. He has twelve albums on Indian, American & British labels.
"Hypnotic" - New Sounds
"unabashedly joyous, groove-centric, spiritually danceable" NYC Jazz Review ... more

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