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William Parker: Universal Tonality
by John Sharpe
Bassist William Parker has originated a personal philosophy which he calls Universal Tonality. He expresses his idea thus: all sounds, like human beings, come from the same place. They have different bodies and faces, but the soul of each sound comes from the same perfect 'creation.'" The near two-hour double album which bears the same name (also aptly chosen for the title of Cisco Bradley's 2021 Parker biography) represents one of the first occasions on which Parker put his theory ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Universal Tonality
by Mark Corroto
Let's Imagine the difficulty William Parker must face filling out his responses to the U.S. census every 10 years. What is his origin? His race? And how many people occupy his residenceor maybe a better question: how many races are contained within this one person? Joking aside, the musician William Parker has become an everyman. His music, art and poetry embody the concept heard here as Universal Tonality. His music is beyond genre, beyond nationality and beyond cultures. He is ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
by Karl Ackermann
If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projectsone dating back ten yearswith some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...
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