William Parker's own thread

I'm interested in what people are saying about Parker's limitations. I haven't seen this many people comment on that before. I don't hear that (but I'm not a musician and don't have any knowledge of music theory--plus I don't listen to that much jazz), but I do find his playing really inventive and sometimes funny.

(Yes, another name change, but I think this one should be relatively permanent since it doesn't carry lots of baggage. A name remotely part of my ancestry, distant relations we never heard from--with money.)

Future Plans

“For Thirsty Ear there is one project in the can. Matthew Shipp and I did a record with John Medeski on organ and Nasheet Waits on Drums. I am also doing a project with Beans from the Anti-Pop Consortium and Hamid Drake. We will record in June and it's coming out this year.

“The Quartet is going to release Sound Unity on Aum Fidelity in April or early May. It was recorded live in Canada.All new material. With Raining on the Moon (the Quartet featuring vocalist Leena Conquest) we got now enough material for two CD's, so I hope that it will also come out some time in the future.

“We did a recording of Inside the Song of Curtis Mayfield project two or three years ago in America. Small chorus, Leena Conquest and Amiri Baraka, Guillermo E. Brown on drums. It's in a process of being released, maybe in early 2006.

“I'm working on putting out a Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra box-set in 2006. I'm trying to find out funding to put that out. And I hope to record another Clarinet Trio record, this time using Alvin Fielder who replaces Perry Robinson. There might be a release of In Order To Survive last concert and it might be on Boxholder.

“On May 6 I'm doing the second Songs cycle, this time with Leena Conquest and Eri Yamamoto. In this tour there is a bass quartet with Henry Grimes, Sirone and Alan Silva and Charles Gayle plays the alto saxophone. We will try to get that released at some point.”

Is he a limited bassist, or does he intentionally limit his palette? I remember hearing a story about the Velvet Underground when they were recording the first record. Apparently they had a jar, and if anything did anything remotely "bluesy", they had to put money in the jar. I don't know if this is true, but it speaks to the many ways that something that sounds limited can be limited by intention.

That quartet with Nasheet and John Medeski could be great though!

Fih to that.

Luc's Lantern is really disappointing amd boring (unless you like jazz that sounds like jazz). Maybe a couple tracks I like, but I'm not into it at all, the boring thrashing around drumming.

what's yer favourte parker record and why?

the right answer is summer snow w/hamid drake. various exotic instruments. you can def wear ur spiritual jazz hat to this one. parker and drake went in2 space together, understood it all, came back and had a jam. this is it. this music makes me feel small and insignificant. i love it.

Lately I'm a big fan of his most straight-ahead group, the William Parker Quartet. Supercharged hard bop that heads into trance-groove territory a lot. I even like the albums they've made with vocalist Leena Conquest, and I usually hate vocals in jazz.

Big spat between Parker and jazz critic Howard Mandel. Mandel wrote this piece which seems pretty innocuous stuff for the most part but Parker evidently took exception to the final paragraph:

https://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2014/04/evolving-jazz-beyond-jazz-in-march-jazzapril.html

and wrote this open letter in reply:

http://synthesiaarts.blogspot.co.at/2014/04/an-open-letter-to-howard-mandel-or.html

There's also a long argument on Mandel's Facebook page.

I've been following this mostly via Matt Shipp's fb page. Mandel seems...confused, to say the least:

Both fest and series are platforms for the once revolutionary but now questionably progressive practice of letting preconceptions go, trusting instinct above traditional forms and standards.

Where is it stated that "traditional forms and standards" are not welcome at the Vision Festival or Evolving Music? ffs, Parker recently did an Ellington tribute.

The notion that spontaneity itself guarantees transcendence or evolutionary change ought to be examined. To the talents Evolving Music convenes, complex structures and old school virtuosity should not be limits or threats – they might lend bright ideas supportive strengths.

This is some serious strawman bullshit. No one is claiming that "spontaneity itself guarantees transcendence." Mandel is, to be charitable, projecting here.

And Parker is OTMFM with the book was horrendous and uninformed unless it was supposed to be a form of science fiction comedic writing.

"Traditional forms and standards" is an idiotic phrase anyway. Jazz musicians originally played standards because they were te popular songs of the day, not because they represent some Rosetta Stone of jazz. They were crowd pleasers. And yes they also did a lot to inform the harmonic and melodic vocabulary of jazz but jfc can't we get past that? Jazz has been stretching beyond standards for like 60 years now.

What a reactionary tool

Man, his body of work is just so vast and he's constantly doing new and interesting stuff. I'm just discovering this "William Parker Organ Quartet" record from 2010, and it's great. It's with Darryl Foster, Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver.

Does anyone own the Sessionography book? I think I want it but I would like to know if it's more trainspotter-y, John Fahey Handbook style, or if there's much in the way of illustrations and artwork and such.

Just saw him playing with Hamid Drake + Peter Brotzmann, best jazz thing I've saw in yonks, not a bad rhythm section Peter had there!

Parker/Drake with pretty much anyone (or as a duo) is a must-see imo.

He also whipped out a shehnai (or something like that) and gave that a fair old blast.

Brötzmann/Parker/Drake are a fantastic combo—saw them together years ago at Tonic with Roy Campbell on trumpet. They've done a number of records together; one of my favorites is the 2CD Never Too Late But Always Too Early.

I bought the book by the way. It hasn't arrived yet but I'll check back in when it does.

By the way, Crackle Box 100% otm upthread about Summer Snow, which I bought on his recommendation. Got very "lost" in this album night before last, if you catch my drift. One of those incredibly affirming, "oh yeah, I do still love music" listens.

his latest In Order To Survive live album Shapeshifter is good stuff. It's near enough the same band from The Peach Orchard (with Hamid Drake replacing Ibarra) and is just as good imo.

Man, his body of work is just so vast and he's constantly doing new and interesting stuff. I'm just discovering this "William Parker Organ Quartet" record from 2010, and it's great. It's with Darryl Foster, Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver.

This is a really good one; love to listen to Cooper-Moore on the organ.

I'm gonna be real w/ yall, I was largely unaware of Parker's work until the last 10 years or so, whenever it was I started reading his "Conversations" series of books. Those books are INCREDIBLE. Opened my eyes and ears to a lot of musicians I would never have heard of or checked out. William is an incredible scholar of the history/theory of free jazz (or creative music or w/e) that he brings out incredible stories and thoughts and ideas from everyone he talks to. I think there are four volumes now.

So I've been listening to a lot of his work, especially the last say 5 years or so? I've recently gotten a CD boombox for my bedroom so that opens up a lot of space and time to listen to CDs (previously reserved for the car), which is there the bulk of this work seems to reside. Most recently I'm loving the Steve Swell Fire Into Music Quartet "Fire From The Road" set w/ Parker, Jemeel Moondoc & Hamid Drake. It's fantastic, no surprise I guess. Also been enjoying the quartet records he made with Daniel Carter, Shipp and Cleaver.

AND his work with David S Ware, which is someone I've unjustly ignored for too long.
AND loving the In Order To Survive records.

Ian, if you haven't read the biography, I recommend it. It's pretty detailed about his background, his meeting and collaborating with Patricia, the formation of the Vision festival, his poetry, and many other things. Guy truly is a renaissance man.

I have read it! I liked it. Really informative.

Yeah, the book is good, and I also recommend checking out the William Parker Quartet (Rob Brown on alto sax, Lewis Barnes on trumpet, Hamid Drake on drums). They have five albums: O'Neal's Porch, Sound Unity, Petit Oiseau, Meditation/Resurrection, and a live box set, Wood Flute Songs: Anthology Live 2006-2012. BUT the same group occasionally adds vocalist Leena Conquest and pianist Eri Yamamoto and records as Raining On The Moon, so also check out Corn Meal Dance and Great Spirit.

Yes! I’ve heard one of the raining on the moon records and loved it. I’ll buy a cheap cd with most/any of this circle of players, I’m just not out looking for stuff like j used to be.

just because i went looking for it and this was posted today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwyRRPx9bFU