Wisdom of Uncertainty & William Parker's Sunrise In The Tone World were AUM Fidelity's inaugural releases, on September 16, 1997.
Twenty years later, to the date, they were released here as full-res lossless DLs for the first time. The complete AUM Fidelity catalog of great works will be posted during the coming months, in some measure of chronological order.
This release – AUM001 – is a profoundly beautiful album and was a fully committed event. Six strictly original -&- living compositions, and highest fidelity recordings thereof. Text from our original press release & some critical responses from the time of first release follow...
/// Getting right to it ---> Informed listeners (numbers increasing each week) rightfully consider the David S. Ware Quartet to be the finest jazz outfit currently operative, being utterly steeped in the rich history of the music while truly taking it, and the listener as well, further than they have gone before. Master musicians all, their fully controlled technical prowess is matched only by their passion and collective intuition regarding the natural flow of the music.
The band that David has assembled in order to actualize this very special music is composed of: William Parker–a cornerstone of the new jazz who has worked with practically everyone currently playing it in the Western world; Matthew Shipp–the most consistently compelling pianist to arise this decade, and gaining swift recognition for his own mighty efforts; and young Susie Ibarra–feast your ears, to hear her swing on fire is beauty in fluid motion.
We are utterly up with and totally endorse the trance-inducing ecstasy via deep listening that this band provides for. ///
'Top Releases of 1997' : The Wire & Jazz Magazine
'Top 10 Critics Picks 1997' : Jazziz
"An interactively majestic sound world of abounding beauty and contour. Though the compositions found here are slightly more structured in nature [vs. recent previous DSWQ albums -ed.], the group's assiduous spontaneity simply refuses to be compromised"
–Scott Hreha, Soundboard / Signal To Noise
"One of the most powerful saxophonists alive, Ware is a giant. His quartet is a kind of Outcat All-Stars, featuring pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, easily two of the most inventive, exploratory and exciting musicians alive, and up-and-coming thunderbolt Susie lbarra on drums. Do I unconditionally recommend anything this group do? Hell, yes. Even their most arrhythmic eruptions are anchored to the feeling of blues so integral to jazz. It is this feeling that binds Ware into the tradition of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and others who at one time or another were all considered too 'out there.' Ware and Shipp also are far too interested in melody to let dissonance rule their music unopposed. On each piece they pull and prod at the themes, rigorously examining them from every angle possible. In a sense the Ware group do for post-Coltrane free jazz what Coltrane did for bebop or what Hendrix did for electric blues-rock. Should you listen? If you give a damn about modern music, hell, yes." –David Reitzes. Alternative Press
"The sheer force of his tone – and his seemingly superhuman ability to sustain and manipulate its raw emotional power – are a marvel to behold, perhaps more so now than ever." –Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"The last few David S Ware albums have been in tone, import, and sheer sound-size so unfathomably large that the concept of "reviewing" them is so paradoxical it's nearly a Zen koan. Just remembering all of a Ware rec at once requires about an ocean's worth of RAM, and unless I suddenly win free cranial implants my brain will never be that big. I do recall that Ware's ballooning cries stretch the history of jazz note by note; that Susie Ibarra's shattering cymbals drench both discs; that Matthew Shipp's infinite piano is every thought I've wished I'd had; and that William Parker is the greatest human on earth. But world-wide amnesia couldn't erase the fact that these are great David S. Ware albums; so were those before it; so will be those that follow." –Marc Masters, Opprobrium
