Jazz Articles about William Parker

William Parker: Long Hidden: The Olmec Series

by Jeff Stockton
July 12, 2006

Solo contrabass performances are an acquired taste that requires confidence and nerve on the part of the performer and the listener. Long Hidden, comprised of music from four separate sessions, pits several solo performances by William Parker on bass and doson ngoni (West African lute) against a few tracks by the upstart Olmec Group.

The disc opens with a take of “There Is a Balm in Gilead that is so organically conceived and warmly recorded that you can almost forget ...

William Parker: Long Hidden: The Olmec Series

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 16, 2006

Ideale ponte tra l'Africa ed il Messico, questo album è sostanzialmente diviso in due parti. Nella prima parte troviamo William Parker in solo. Al contrabbasso, ci mostra ancora una volta la leggerezza e la luminosità del proprio incedere (ricordiamo il motto music is light, light is music). Al doson ngoni, il nostro traccia percorsi più eterei ed evocativi, grazie anche alla timbrica assai tribale dello strumento. Nella seconda parte dell'album, troviamo il nostro in compagnia di un gruppo di giovani ...

William Parker: Long Hidden: The Olmec Series

by AAJ Staff
May 3, 2006

William Parker may be best known as a bassist, but he has also been playing a number of other instruments for quite some time, including string and percussion instruments from Africa and the Middle East. His approach to the doson n'goni, the so-called “hunter's lute" from West Africa, seems to be quite natural, in no small part because the warm, resonant instrument allows him to stretch out and access the rare combination of meditation and groove that he has made ...

William Parker: Long Hidden: The Olmec Series

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 4, 2006

On Long Hidden: The Olmec Series, bass giant William Parker suggests a new cosmology that unearths common threads between the ancient, indigenous cultures of West African Manding and Middle American Olmec people--who lived in the east lowlands of Mexico from 1300 to 400 BC--and modern jazz in one of its more daring manifestations, the solo bass performance. Long Hidden was recorded in two sessions over the last decade, adding a bonus track from Parker's out of print, self-released Painter's Autumn ...

William Parker: Long Hidden: The Olmec Series

by Troy Collins
March 7, 2006

Conceptual journeyman William Parker is not content to merely excel at that of which he is already a proven master; a bass virtuoso, ensemble leader and multi-disciplinary collaborator, Parker is more than just one of today's finest jazz musicians, he truly embodies the term artist.

Long Hidden: The Olmec Series finds Parker in three new settings. He goes solo for half the record with a series of unaccompanied bass pieces and a set of doson ngoni meditations. This ...

Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake/William Parker: Blue Winter

by Michael Davis
November 29, 2005

This record is a joy. A surprise it isn't. These three men have overlapping histories of development and collaboration of such depth that when they convene nowadays, the results are always inspired. One of Hamid Drake's early mentors was AACM mainstay Fred Anderson, who decided to stay home in Chicago, tend bar, and keep his connections to the muse wide open. Later, Drake connected up with William Parker, and they've played on dozens of excellent records over the past few ...

Fred Anderson: Blue Winter

by Kurt Gottschalk
September 16, 2005

If it wasn't one already, Fred Anderson's trio with Hamid Drake and William Parker can rightly be considered a supergroup. Anderson was named the first Vision Festival Lifetime Recognition honoree last month, and if such awards were given, Drake and Parker would surely have shared the MVP trophy. While the three have worked together before--notably in quartet with Kidd Jordan--this is their first trio recording.Blue Winter also may be Anderson's definitive release, at least thus far. He's made ...