Adam Shatz and William Parker, part 1

The bassist, composer and poet William Parker is the soul of the Lower East Side free jazz scene. A veteran of ensembles led by Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Billy Bang and David S. Ware, Parker is also remarkable leader in his own right. In 2021 he released a ten-disc boxed set, The Music of William Parker: Migration of Silence into and out of the Tone World, Volumes 1-10, featuring compositions in a dizzying range of styles. With his wife and collaborator, the dancer Patricia Nicholson Parker, Parker has turned the annual Vision Festival into one of the defining events in New York creative music. In our conversation, William spoke to me about his early years in the Bronx, how he rose up in the “Loft scene” of the 1970s, his experiences with Cecil Taylor, and his understanding of music as a force of revolutionary social transformation.

Links and References:

recordings in this episode

Migration of Silence into and out of the Tone World

I Plan to Stay a Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield

Piercing The Veil

Farmers by Nature: Love and Ghosts

Cecil Taylor Unit: The Eighth

Blue Lime Light: A Tribute to Cecil Taylor

David S. Ware Quartet - Surrendered

James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon

links and additional music

Universal Tonality - Cisco Bradley

Arts for Art / Vision Festival

William Parker Tone World - New York Times

The Life and Music of William Parker - Brooklyn Rail

Lisa Sokolov

David S. Ware & Apogee

David S. Ware - Passage to Music

Amiri Baraka - Black Music (re: Jazz and the White Critic)

Art Taylor - Notes and Tones