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William Parker: Mayan Space Station
by Mark Corroto
The immediate impact of the recording Mayan Space Station is that of a sheer out-and-out physicality presented by this music. While it is obvious the musicians—guitarist Ava Mendoza, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver—are engaged in the nonautomatic operation of their respective musical instruments, their Herculean efforts are conspicuous. While rarely recognized, credit must be given to engineer Jim Clouse who recorded, mixed and mastered this session to center the listening experience on the band's energy. ...
read moreUniversal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker
by Mark Corroto
Universal Tonality: The Life And Music Of William Parker Cisco Bradley 384 Pages ISBN: # 978147801014 Duke University Press 2021 Who is William Parker? He is a jazz bassist, yes. But he is also a band leader, composer, writer & poet, community organizer, peace activist, and cultural anthropologist. Cisco Bradley endeavors to pull the diverse parts of the artist's life together in this first ever biography of Parker. It is a monumental task, ...
read moreJim Black, Mario Santos, William Parker, Dave Sewelson and More
by Maurice Hogue
Is it too early to choose a “best-of" for 2020. I know it's only January, but drummer Jim Black has released an absolute killer of an album with pianist Elias Stemeseder and bassist Thomas Morgan that is an outstanding piece of work. Reckon came out on the Intakt label from Switzerland in January, so be on the lookout for it. Black is as unpredictable and unique as ever, Stemeseder shows why he's one of the most interesting younger pianists, and ...
read moreWorks For Me, Tower Jazz Composers Orchestra, Eunhye Jeong and William Parker
by Bob Osborne
Their are four featured albums on this show Works for Me --a new group of musicians put together by Marc Free at Posi-tone records kicks off that labels output for the new year/decade in fine form. The Tower Jazz Composers Orchestra, The TJCO has been the natural evolution of two previous didactic music projects: “The Unreal Book" and “The Tower Jazz Workshop." Throughout the years, these experiments have reached a more synthetized dimension and contributed to ...
read moreNew Music from William Parker and Whit Dickey
by Bob Osborne
Great music from the Aum Fidelity label with new albums from William Parker and Whit Dickey together with a selection of other recent releases and some classic “Bird." Playlist William Parker in Order to Survive “Eternal Is the Voice of Love II" from Live/Shapeshifter (Aum Fidelity) 00:00 Whit Dickey Tao Quartets “Peace Planet" from Peace Planet & Box of Light (Aum Fidelity) 08:56 Warren Galea “Chrysanthemums" from The Odyssey (Vento Azul) 19:30 Stephan Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe ...
read moreWilliam Parker/In Order to Survive: Live/Shapeshifter
by Don Phipps
Another stellar effort from the genius known as William Parker, Live/Shapeshifter uses the immense talents of his “In Order To Survive" group -which consists of long time collaborators Cooper-Moore on piano, Hamid Drake on drums, and Rob Brown on alto sax--to craft a statement of free-wheeling dynamism at play. One of the top composers and bass players to ever take up the art form known as jazz, Parker offers up a double album's worth of material, all of it recorded ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Lake of Light: Compositions for AquaSonics
by Hrayr Attarian
Bassist and composer William Parker is a tireless innovator whose entire oeuvre is filled with singular moments of brilliance and artistic exploration. However, Lake of Light: Compositions for AquaSonics is his boldest and most unique work to date. A variation on Richard Waters' waterphone, the aquasonic consists of tone rods and contains a small amount of water. When the rods are percussed or bowed, it produces an eerie, haunting sound. Drummer Jackson Krall custom-built Parker's own version of ...
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