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William Parker
"It is through poetry
and vision that life is discovered; discovered, and then altered. The premise was to
start a human revolution...to bring dreams closer to present day reality. The music
called 'jazz' is less than 100 years old; to young to repeat itself."
William Parker, January 1996
Having performed on more than 150 recordings over the past three decades, William
Parker has been a driving force in keeping the mislabeled and misunderstood
notion of free jazz alive and in the front of many listener's consciousness.
Considered by many to be the greatest bassist ever to have played avant garde jazz, today
his name is mentioned with equal frequency with the likes of Dave Holland, Charlie Hayden,
Barre Philips, and Barry Guy.
As a mainstay of New York City's
progressive jazz scene since the 70's and a core member of the Cecil Taylor Unit in the
80's, it is hard to name an artist that Parker hasn't performed with. But that was
yesterday and today he remains as socially active and musically prolific as ever serving
as the invisible hand behind the groups of David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Assif Tsahar;
leading one the premier new music festivals in the world, Vision Fest in New York
City; leading his own quartet, In Order To Survive, with Cooper-Moore, Rob Brown, and
Susie Ibarra; and all while composing and performing in such other realizations as his
recent collaboration with poet and playwright, David Budbill, in their performance tour of
Budbill's work, Moment to Moment.
"Just the idea that the layman has about the
music is wrong. There's nothing 'out' about this music. If you analyze it, you
find that it has rhythm, harmony, melody. It has extended techniques. It's
influenced by music from all over the world, you know? The cell of sound is smaller.
The rhythm isn't constant, it's more like the idea of a pulse, where you take
a longer rhythm and break it up, varying smaller and longer cells. Sometimes you're
playing a chant that builds to a fever pitch. You deal with dances, the feeling of
the blues. But it's not about playing anything you want to play. It's
not even about wanting to play. It's about having to do it, and training yourself
how to go along with sound and a flow of ideas."
William Parker from his interview in Soundboard
magazine (now Signal to Noise) with Pete Gershon
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© Photo by Michael Wilderman/Jazz
Visions
Discography on Drimala Records
1999
Another
Shining Path Ye Ren Trio
DR99-347-01
Selected Discography
William
Parker appears on more than 150 recordings.
A complete excellent discography by Rick
Lopez can be found at his web site,
The Whole Shebang.
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