Mariah Parker

Mariah Parker (composer, pianist, and santur player), while completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, worked with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project. She has performed in festivals in the US and Europe, and worked with composer Pauline Oliveros, Dumisani Maraire (reowned composer from Zimbabwe) and others. She released her first solo recording of her compositions, Sangria (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2017), in February of 2009. Her CD release party and debut of her Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble drew a full house at the famous Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland. Since then, the band she leads featuring such veteran performers as Paul McCandless of the group Oregon has performed her compositions to rave reviews at notable festivals and concert venues, from which a live album has been recorded and is scheduled for release in 2016.

Album Reviews

Live in Concert by David Becker

December 12, 2012

Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble In Live Concert Recording...

February 14, 2010

Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Quintet Returns to Yoshi's

“Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music. Intriguing melodies that draw musical inspirations from the tempos of Brazil, Cuba, India, and Spain make for an uplifting serene yet passionate musical journey into an ideal world.” - LATIN BEAT MAGAZINE

“Dazzling debut... Parker’s subtle and sensuous sounds reflect exotic flavors of India, the Middle East and Latin America.” - PALO ALTO DAILY NEWS

“This collection of eight original instrumentals by Mariah Parker is just one of many examples of the infusion of East Indian music into Western music, but to my ears one of the most successful.” - AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

“Featuring musicians from the bands Sun Ra, Oregon, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and Ancient Future, Mariah Parker’s debut blends rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz, hypnotic East Indian cadences and driving Brazilian and Afro-Cuban percussive beats