06 September 2016 Listen
As part of their two-day OTO residency with Black Top, Hamid Drake and William Parker joined writer and researcher Stewart Smith in conversation. Black Top, with its core duo of multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson and pianist Pat Thomas, is a shape-shifting unit dedicated to exploring the intersection between live instruments and lo-fi technology. Their virtuoso, freely improvised performances combine twisted loops, samples and dub-effects, which draw on their Afro-Caribbean roots as well as experimental free-jazz. Before the playing in a sextet alongside harmonica player Phillip Achille, vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and powerhouse rhythm section Drake & Parker, the whole lot of them chat making records with Don Cherry, discuss roots and reggae and go deep on the dub scene in Hackney.
