William Parker: Everything Is Valid

Eyal Hareuveni

Contributor since 2004

Eyal Hareuveni is an Israeli journalist who lives in Jerusalem.

Recent articles (456 total)

Published: March 7, 2005

"For Thirsty Ear there is one project in the can. Matthew Shipp and I did a record with John Medeski on organ and Nasheet Waits on Drums. I am also doing a project with Beans from the Anti-Pop Consortium and Hamid Drake. We will record in June and it's coming out this year.

"The Quartet is going to release Sound Unity on Aum Fidelity in April or early May. It was recorded live in Canada.All new material. With Raining on the Moon (the Quartet featuring vocalist Leena Conquest) we got now enough material for two CD's, so I hope that it will also come out some time in the future.

"We did a recording of Inside the Song of Curtis Mayfield project two or three years ago in America. Small chorus, Leena Conquest and Amiri Baraka, Guillermo E. Brown on drums. It's in a process of being released, maybe in early 2006.

"I'm working on putting out a Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra box-set in 2006. I'm trying to find out funding to put that out. And I hope to record another Clarinet Trio record, this time using Alvin Fielder who replaces Perry Robinson. There might be a release of In Order To Survive last concert and it might be on Boxholder.

"On May 6 I'm doing the second Songs cycle, this time with Leena Conquest and Eri Yamamoto. In this tour there is a bass quartet with Henry Grimes, Sirone and Alan Silva and Charles Gayle plays the alto saxophone. We will try to get that released at some point."

Playing in Israel

"A lot of factors are involved in coming to Israel, whether you support Israel or you're supporting Palestinians, and what I'm trying to support is the music. It's a political issue, but people who are coming to listen to music they are into people, they are progressive thinking, and want the best situation for anybody involved as any right man or person wants. You have to have peace now, yesterday. You can't wait one second more to have peace. That's what the music is about. It's like the war in Iraq. And how you stop war, just put down your gun, I'm going home, saying it's not going to happen, on both sides. War and killing another human being is illegal, it's wrong, and no matter what kind of grievances you have, I can yell at you, we can talk, but it's never about I'm going to kill you, you're going to kill me.

"As human beings we should have been able to achieve world peace in two years and that would be a great accomplishment, but we still like bang-bang-bang. What's that? We are way beyond that situation. If we have a disagreement let's try to find out another way to settle, let's take it to the basketball court, play chess, let's talk it out until we will get a meeting ground even if it might take two years. Yoko Ono said 'war is over if you want it' and there's no truer statement."

Visit William Parker on the web.

Related Article
Tel Aviv Jazz Festival 2005

CD Reviews at AAJ

As Leader
William Parker Trio, Luc's Lantern (Thirsty Ear, 2005)
William Parker Violin Trio, Scrapbook (Thirsty Ear, 2003)
William Parker and the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, Mass for the Healing of the World (Black Saint, 2003)
William Parker Quartet, Raining on the Moon (Thirsty Ear, 2002)
William Parker Quartet, O'Neal's Porch (Centering Music, 2001; AUM Fidelity, 2002)
William Parker, Song Cycle (Boxholder, 2001) | Review 2
William Parker Trio, Painter's Spring (Thirsty Ear, 2000) | Review 2 | Review 3
William Parker & The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, Mayor of Punkville (AUM Fidelity, 2000)
William Parker's In Order to Survive, Posium Pendasem (FMP, 1999)

As Co-leader or Sideman
Phillips/Leandré/Parker/Saitoh, After You Gone (Victo, 2004)
Allen/Drake/Jordan/Parker/Silva, The All-Star Game (Eremite, 2003)
Brötzmann/Parker/Drake, Never Too Late But Always Too Early (Eremite, 2003)
Parker/Morris/Drake, Eloping With The Sun (Riti, 2002) | Review 2
Silva/Jordan/Parker, Emancipation Suite #1 (Boxholder, 2002)
William Parker & Hamid Drake, Volume 1: Piercing the Veil (AUM Fidelity, 2001) | Review 2
Simmons/Marcus/Parker/Rosen, The Cosmosamatics (Boxholder, 2001)
Eneidi/Parker/Robinson, Cherry Box (Eremite, 2000) | Review 2
Anderson/Drake/Jordan/Parker, 2 Days in April (Eremite, 2000)
Joel Futterman with Jordan/Williams/Parker, Relativity, Revelation & Authenticity (3 reviews) (Kali, 1999)
Jemeel Moondoc & William Parker, New World Pygmies (Eremite, 1999)
Alan Silva & William Parker, A Hero's Welcome: Pieces For Rare Occasions (Eremite, 1999)
Futterman/Parker/Williams, Authenticity (Kali, 1999)

Concert Reviews at AAJ
William Parker, 1/29/05 at Georgetown University, Washington DC | Review
William Parker/Patricia Nicholson/Hamid Drake/Rob Brown/Lewis Sanders 11/1/03 at Tampere Jazz Festival, Finland | Review
Milford Graves/Peter Brötzmann/William Parker, 3/29/02 at CB's 313 Gallery, New York City | Review

Web Resource
William Parker Sessionography by Rick Lopez

Photo Credit
Top photo: Ziga Koritnik

View All 1 2 3 4