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.
2 Blues For Cecil features three legends of modern improvised music, trumpeter Enrico Rava, bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Rava and Cyrille are among the elders of improvised music with their careers going back to the 1960s whereas Parker rose to prominence during New York's loft jazz era of the 1970s. The three musicians share one major link in their respective careers. Namely, they all have, at various times, been members of Unit or other ensembles of another legend, the late pianist Cecil Taylor. Enrico Rava, William Parker and Andrew Cyrille first performed together as a trio in tribute to Cecil Taylor, with Taylor himself present, at the Whitney museum in April 2016 as part of an exhibit/program under the heading "Open Plan: Cecil Taylor." 2 Blues For Cecil was recorded on February 1 and 2 at Studio Ferber in Paris following the trio's concert on December 31, 2020 under the heading "Tribute to Cecil Taylor" as part of the Sons D'Hiver festival in Paris.