Coyote Zen

Created by composer/producer, Jeffrey Gray Parker, COYOTE ZEN combines Old and New World instruments from around the world to create organic music that is textured with the sounds of nature. Jeffrey Gray Parker is a native Oklahoman, born and raised on the plains of North-Central Oklahoma, in Kay County . Parker's lineage is a mix of Scottish, Irish, French, and Cherokee. Parker has been a performing musician and composer for 35 years, and is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, native flutes. As a performer, Parker has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada with various road bands playing all styles of music and sharing the stage and performing with such acts as Buck Owens, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kevin Welch, Johnny Paycheck, Ricochet, Jimmie LaFave, Brewer & Shipley, James Earl Jones, Crystal Gayle, Rita Coolidge, Tommy Lee Jones, The Great Divide, Jefferson Starship, Alice Cooper, Arigon Starr, Trout Fishing In America, Barbara McAlester, and countless others. Parker has, for many years, found his original music in demand for film and television projects, and he has scored music for the independent short film Melvin-a Midwestern Tale, an NYU film school project produced, written, and directed by Travis Graalman (now of Miramax Films). Parker’s musical score for the film won an outstanding achievement award for best soundtrack at NYU's "Tisch First Run Film Festival ‘99", and the film has been featured in various other film festivals across the country. Parker’s instrumental concept series, COYOTE ZEN has released three albums, starting in 1996, with the EP, Coyote Zen, (originally issued as a regionally available cassette album, and now available at CDBABY.com). Coyote Zen also found interest with filmmakers, and was included in The American Bullfighter, a Miramar/Unipix documentary film by Academy Award nominated director/producer, Ramzy Telley , which aired worldwide on the Discovery Network, and The Travel Channel. The second release, Blood Of Many Nations (1999), was featured on “Native Sounds & Native Voices"," Different Drums", "Earthsongs", "AlterNative Voices", & "Renegade Radio" all programs were broadcast on AIROS (American Indian Radio On Satellite) internationally, and throughout the U.S. on National Public Radio. The album also received airplay around the world on college, jazz, and world radio stations. In addition, the album received high praise from major music industry heavyweights, and was reviewed in many U.S. magazines and publications, including, Cowboys and Indians and Old West Journal. Parker released the third COYOTE ZEN project, Medicine Dog, (2001), on his own label, PAW Records. The album attracted great attention from Jazz, New Age, Native, and World music listeners around the world, with radio airplay in the U.S. (NAV “Top 100 Airwaves” March 2002), France , Romania , Ireland , U.K. , Sweden , Netherlands , Russia , Germany , Denmark , Belgium , Italy and Canada . Medicine Dog also got major Internet exposure on MP3.com, with songs featured at the top of the music charts on the service, including a 1 Jazz Fusion single, and the album has been a Top-10 best-seller in the Indie catalog, at Amazon.com. As a major boost to the project, “Cow Hop” and other COYOTE ZEN tracks have been added to the soundtrack of King of the Cowboys, a film for the Discovery Network, about world champion rodeo cowboy, Ty Murray, which also features a cameo appearance by his fiancée, superstar pop singer, Jewel. Parker is currently in studio working on the long awaited and next release scheduled for late summer 07. The album is entitled "Honor the Woman" As an audio engineer and producer, Parker and his wife Margarett, own and operate Cimarron Sound Lab LLC, a 24-track digital recording studio facility located in Tahlequah , Oklahoma . This state of the art retreat caters to Americana/World/Folk/Roots/Native recording projects. For many years, Parker has been an integral part of Oklahoma's vibrant Red Dirt musical community, playing with, producing and recording such artists as: Greg Jacobs, Tom Skinner, Bob Childers, Bill Erickson, Randy Pease (all on Binky Records), The Red Dirt Rangers (Lazy SOB), The Farm Couple (DustBowl Records), Cross Canadian Ragweed (Broken Records), Jason Boland and the Stragglers (Tenkiller Records), and The Great Divide (Atlantic Records). Oklahoma Today magazine has included three of these albums in their top 60 Oklahoma releases (Jacobs, Childers & Skinner, July 1999 issue). In 2001, Parker co-produced Grandview , by the Americana group, Bliss McCain, which won Album of the Year, at the 2001 Ozark Music Awards. In addition, Parker was the engineer and co-producer of Voices of The Creator’s Children, by the Cherokee National Children’s Choir featuring Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Rita Coolidge, and was co-writer of the featured song “The Road Where They Cried.” Also in 2001, Jeffrey and his Cimarron Sound Lab won the contract from the National Parks Board to create, and oversee all audio for The Trail of Tears permanent multimedia exhibit at the Cherokee National Museum , in Park Hill , Oklahoma . Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.