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William Parker

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances, and helped shaped the jazz scene for both his peers and the youth. In 2013, Parker received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in recognition of his influence and impact on the creative jazz scene over the last 40 years.

William entered the music scene in 1971, playing at Studio We, Studio Rivbea, Hilly’s on The Bowery, and The Baby Grand. By the age of 20, Parker quickly became a highly sought after bassist, playing with established musicians such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins, and Sunny Murray. Projects with dancer and choreographer Patricia Nicholson have created a huge repertoire of composed music for multiple ensembles ranging from solo works to big band projects. In 1980, he became a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, in which he played a prominent role for over a decade.

Since the beginning of his career, William Parker has commanded a unique degree of respect from his fellow musicians and critics alike. In 1995, the Village Voice characterized William Parker as "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time." In addition to his work with artists in the United States, he has developed a strong relationship with musicians in the European Improvised Music scene such as Peter Kowald, Peter Brotzmann, Han Bennink, Tony Oxley, Derek Bailey, John Tchicai, Louis Sclavis, and Louis Moholo.

William Parker began recording in 1994 and founded the ensembles In Order To Survive and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. In 2001, he released O’Neal’s Porch, which marked a turn toward a more universal sound working with drummer Hamid Drake. The Raining on the Moon Quintet followed, adding vocalist Leena Conquest and the Quartet from O’Neal’s Porch. Most notable among many recent projects is the Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield.

As Steve Greenlee of the Boston Globe stated in July 2002, “William Parker has emerged as the most important leader of the current avant-garde scene in jazz.” Parker has consistently worked in many of the most important groups within this genre, including his own. He currently leads The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind, and The Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore.

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Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)

Read "For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


La musica di James Brandon Lewis è potente, assertiva, trascinante. Ma rivela talvolta, sotto lo strato di forza, una sottile e affascinante vulnerabilità emotiva, che rende ancora più ricco il suo discorso compositivo e solistico. Come nel caso di questo scintillante omaggio al mondo espressivo di Mahalia Jackson, che si realizza attraverso memorie familiari, quelle della nonna che ha trasmesso a James questa passione tuttora bruciante. Lewis è una delle voci più convincenti del jazz contemporaneo che non ...

16
Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)

Read "For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)" reviewed by Chris May


Not since Oded Tzur's Isabela (ECM, 2022) has a comparably exalted tenor saxophone-led album come along, not until For Mahalia, With Love. Vaultingly great jazz and deep solace for the soul, For Mahalia, With Love was released in late 2023. An annual cycle for albums of this quality is actually a sufficiency, for there is enough in both these, and those that preceded them, to last a listener a lifetime. File next to John Coltrane's Crescent (Impulse!, 1964) and Albert ...

6
Album Review

Roy Campbell: Visitation Of Spirits

Read "Visitation Of Spirits" reviewed by John Sharpe


A former stalwart of the New York avant jazz scene, which finds expression at the annual Vision Festival, trumpeter Roy Campbell died in January 2014, aged 61. While not quite forgotten, his name does not spring readily to the lips a decade on. Perhaps Visitation Of Spirits, an archival live recording from 1985, will help redress that situation. It features the Pyramid Trio, one of Campbell's more enduring groups, which issued three albums over a lifespan of more than 25 ...

16
Album Review

James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia, With Love

Read "For Mahalia, With Love" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Moving on chronologically from George Washington Carver--the African-American musician and influential agricultural scientist to whom James Brandon Lewis' previous recording with the Red Lily Quintet, Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms 2021), was dedicated--For Mahalia, With Love continues the pattern of paying homage to influential Afro-Americans who, in their own way, changed the course of history. This album's dedicatee is the early gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, whose seminal performances lit a spark in the saxophonist's grandmother; she in turn carried the spark ...

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Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love

Read "For Mahalia With Love" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has been establishing himself in various contexts for the last few years, but his main focus lately has been on his Red Lily Quintet. Their first album, Jesup Wagon, (TAO Forms, 2021), was dedicated to African-American scientist, George Washington Carver. On their 2023 release, the group's music focuses on the work of the legendary gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. This tribute takes the form of interpretations of familiar spirituals Jackson often sang. The gospel-derived ...

Album Review

Steve Swell's Fire Into The Music: For Jemeel: Fire From The Road

Read "For Jemeel: Fire From The Road" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Oltre tre ore di musica catturate in altrettante esibizioni live fra Texas (due, ottobre 2004) e Canada (la restante, settembre 2005) e oggi rese opportunamente disponibili sono ciò che ci offre questo triplo album composito ma per altri versi assolutamente monolitico. Lo firma un superquartetto, sempre quello, che attraversa i sette ampi brani (il primo occupa l'intero primo cd) con fare deciso, ottima capacità di gestire l'evolversi della musica prodotta, i suoi spazi intestini, felicemente bilanciati fra parti corali e ...

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Album Review

James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia With Love

Read "For Mahalia With Love" reviewed by John Sharpe


The combination of James Brandon Lewis' impassioned tenor saxophone and songs associated with gospel singer and Civil Rights activist Mahalia Jackson is a match made in heaven. On For Mahalia, With Love by his Red Lily Quintet, Lewis retains the crack squad which made Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms, 2021) a success. Even though Lewis has a proven knack for crafting an affecting melody, he has chosen well as this repertoire has not only stood the test of time, but is ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances, and helped shaped the jazz scene for both his ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances, and helped shaped the jazz scene for both his ...

7

Event

William Parker Biography Celebration With Joe McPhee And Cisco Bradley

William Parker Biography Celebration With Joe McPhee And Cisco Bradley

Source: James Keepnews

Elysium Furnace Works is proud to present bassist, composer, bandleader and a signal figure in creative music worldwide, William Parker, as part of a celebration of the recent publication of his long-overdue biography, Universal Tonality—The Life and Music of William Parker. Written by Pratt Institute professor Cisco Bradley and published by Duke University Press, this biography has already been acclaimed as a major contribution to jazz scholarship and the sociocultural history of downtown jny: New York City. This event—co-sponsored by ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances, and helped shaped the jazz scene for both his ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances, and helped shaped the jazz scene for both his ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

William Parker is a musician, improviser, composer, educator, and author. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, he studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, Jimmy Garrison, and Paul West. During Parker’s prolific career, he has recorded over 150 albums, had countless celebrated stage appearances... Read more.

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Event

Esperanza Spalding and William Parker Perform At Mind-Builders 40th Anniversary Gala On November 3 At Lehman College

Esperanza Spalding and William Parker Perform At Mind-Builders 40th Anniversary Gala On November 3 At Lehman College

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Mind-Builders 40th Anniversary Gala with Esperanza Spalding on November 3 at Lehman College Lehman Stages/Lovinger Theatre 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West Bronx, NY 10468 “Magic...pure imagination and also incredibly tactile." —NPR Music Mind-Builders 40th Anniversary Gala at Lehman College celebrate the 40th anniversary of Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center at Lovinger Theater at our first ever Gala event. 5:30 PM: VIP Reception includes Meet The Artists 7:00 PM: Performances with Audience/Artist Q&A Performances by special celebrity guests/honorees ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Jazz Musician of the Day: William Parker

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating William Parker's birthday today!

As Steve Greenlee of the Boston Globe stated in July 2002, “William Parker has emerged as the most important leader of the current avant-garde scene in jazz.” He is working in many of the more important groups in this genre, some of the most prestigious being his own, i.e. The Curtis Mayfield Project, Little Huey Creative Orchestra, In Order to Survive, William Parker’s Quartet and other groups. Mr... Read more.

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Recording

William Parker Quartet & In Order To Survive Double-Album To Be Released June 23 On AUM Fidelity

William Parker Quartet & In Order To Survive Double-Album To Be Released June 23 On AUM Fidelity

Source: Steven Joerg

Meditation / Resurrection is a double-album presenting a bounty of beautiful new William Parker compositions performed by two of his flagship ensembles, the Quartet-&- In Order To Survive. It was recorded & mixed live during a one-day studio session in late 2016. This is Parker & the groups’ followup release to 2013’s epic Wood Flute Songs box set. At the core of both groups is Parker’s foundational bass together with rhythm twin, the incomparable Hamid Drake. Their partnership–two decades deep ...

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Event

Jazz At Atlas Debuts In Newburgh, NY With William Parker And Evidence Of Everlasting Beauty on May 20 At 8pm

Jazz At Atlas Debuts In Newburgh, NY With William Parker And Evidence Of Everlasting Beauty on May 20 At 8pm

Source: James Keepnews

“William Parker is something of a father figure.” —Larry Blumenfeld, New York Times “One of the 50 Greatest New York Musicians of All Time” —Time Out New York Launching a new series of music and cultural discourse at the Atlas Industries building in Newburgh, NY, Jazz at Atlas is proud to present the legendary bassist, composer and bandleader William Parker and the ensemble Evidence Of Everlasting Beauty. The band features Cooper-Moore on piano, Daniel Carter on reeds, trumpet and flute, ...

Art Davis
bass, acoustic
Richard Davis
bass, acoustic
Milt Hinton
bass, acoustic
Wilbur Ware
bass, acoustic
Paul West
piano

Photos

Music

Excerpt from Cosmic Canticles

From: For Those Who Cross The Seas
By William Parker

Titan vs. Sphinx

From: Destiny Calling
By William Parker

In The Garden

From: Sparks
By William Parker

Blues for Cecil No. 2

From: 2 Blues for Cecil
By William Parker

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