William Parker

William Parker Quartet - O'Neal's Porch (2003) {AUM Fidelity}
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© 2003 AUM Fidelity | AUM022
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Jazz

On the heels of two very intriguing CDs (Painter's Spring and Mayor of Punkville), luminary bassist William Parker let loose another for 2000 on his own Centering Music label. O'Neal's Porch, a tribute of sorts to Parker's late uncle, features a quartet with Rob Brown on alto sax, Lewis Barnes blowing trumpet, and Hamid Drake, Parker's compatriot since 1998, banging drums. While Brown and Barnes are familiar playing with the bassist (both have performed in his large ensembles), Parker and Drake comprise the best rhythm section in jazz; together, they should go down in the history books as one of the most fruitful and interesting musical relationships this side of Ellington and Strayhorn, Diz and Bird, and Miles and Trane.

William Parker Organ Quartet - Uncle Joe's Spirit House (2010) {AUM Fidelity}
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© 2010 Centering Records / AUM Fidelity | 1004
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Modern Creative

A special studio recording project fully produced by William Parker for his own Centering Records imprint and dedicated to his Aunt Carrie Lee & Uncle Joe (who is pictured on the album cover) – they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on August 6th, 2010. William really wanted to get this done in time for that auspicious date and he did. Seven of the songs on this CD were written in December 2009 especially for this recording session which took place on January 22, 2010; Ennio's Tag and Oasis were previously written and they fit in perfectly.

Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}
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© 2008 FMR Records | FMRCD256-0208
Jazz / Free Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Hamid, William and I have made 3 records prior to this one.”Remember to forget” and “Ultima” were recorded during our first Scandinavian tour in October 1997. “The other side” was a studio recording from Chicago during our North-American tour in January 2000. And “On Reade Street” was recorded in New York, January 2006. Hamid and William are two very nice people who also play their music very well. I think my fascination for their art partly lies in the fact that they have played a lot together. They have a certain thing they bring to the table and it?s quite a challenge both to go with it and also to go against it because it?s a very strong thing and it?s very personal. They will sometimes invite me into territories that I normally stay away from – the jazz thing. To me, this is both frightening and exciting. I feel like walking on the edge with one foot in open air! Frode Gjerstad

William Parker Violin Trio - Scrapbook (2003) {Thirsty Ear THI 57133-2}
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© 2003 Thirsty Ear | THI 57133-2
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz

William Parker's Violin Trio band is one of the more surprising and delightful bands to come out of New York's modern free jazz scene. Parker and his truly singular tone and ingenious modes of attack, violinist Billy Bang, and drummer Hamid Drake conjure the notion of song as it processes itself not only through the simulation and presentation of improvisation but also through the process of memory – allegorical, perceptual, cultural, and personal – and they turn it back in itself in creating something brand new from the various shards that lay upon the pavement in the dark, highlighted only by an errant street lamp.

"Not since Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell joined forces have two musicians so organically wedded world music influences with free jazz. The resultant music is connected to history and culture yet true to its contemporary American roots. And the rhythms groove so deeply that if dance-club DJs got hold of this CD, all America would be moving to it." – JAZZIZ

Volume 2: Summer Snow represents the second immaculate studio session of two of the greatest musical beings America has to offer the world. The recent expanded issue of their first duo meeting–First Communion + Piercing The Veil: Volume 1 Complete–displayed their eternal prowess via intensity in full, redefining drum & bass in any music. Summer Snow reveals Parker and Drake in a more meditative state, with Parker focusing on the doson'ngoni (Mali hunter's guitar) and shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). Five years have passed since their first meeting, and a whole lot has changed, so catch up! – Amazon

That William Parker is a bassist, composer and bandleader of extraordinary spirit and imaginative drive is common knowledge among any with an interest in the progressive jazz scene of the past 25 years or more. What’s become increasingly apparent, though, is Parker’s stature as a visionary of sound and song – an artist of melody and poetry who works beyond category, to use the Ellingtonian phrase. The latest multi-disc boxed set from Centering Records/AUM Fidelity devoted to Parker’s expansive creativity underscores his virtually peerless achievement in recent years.