★AUM Fidelity
Out Of This World's Distortions
Farmers By Nature – drummer Gerald Cleaver, bassist William Parker, and pianist Craig Taborn – a fully-improvising unit, a complete musical collective. Each of these men are highly regarded & admired composers and bandleaders in their own right; their coming together to create new music is always an auspicious and deeply fruitful occasion. Superbly attuned listeners and masterful players of their respective instruments, they are without question one of the finest improvising units / musical grou…
Throat
In view of the band's assertion that this is a program designed to be listened to in one sitting, it seems a little impertinent to discuss highlights. The seven tracks that make up "Throat" seem a little arbitrary in view of the overall discontinuity of the release, but in as much as this is music which has no time for a lot of preconceptions, that might be an inherent part of the band's intentions. The opening is where the Brotzmann reference comes into its own, but before the piece is o…
Onecept
"The recording and release of Onecept celebrates David S. Ware's 50th year of singular and profound saxophone artistry; a studio session specifically arranged for same featuring Ware on three saxophones - saxello, stritch, tenor - along with fellow musical masters William Parker (stalwart fellow prophet) on bass and Warren Smith (also featured on Ware's album Shakti) on drums and tympani. Unlike almost every previous album Ware has made in the past 20 years (Corridors & Parallels being another …
I Plan To Stay A Believer
The Inside Songs Of Curtis Mayfield. "Bassist/composer William Parker is among the most active and highly regarded musicians performing today. The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield is the first project in his 35-year career devoted to the music of another composer; here Parker interpolates the mighty Mayfield songbook with an equally mighty 8-piece band. Curtis Mayfield was a prophet, a preacher, a revolutionary, a humanist, and a griot. Words that all apply to William Parker himself. I Plan To S…
In Each Day, Something
Eri Yamamoto released two recording in 2008, each of which—in different ways—demanded attention. In a series of duos with friends such as William Parker and Hamid Drake (Duologue), Yamamoto was expansive and free, readily finding ways to play beyond conventional harmony without sacrificing “beautiful” pianism. With her trio (Redwoods), she was more in the pocket, mining vamps and grooves for what they could say about the blues, but always keeping things intelligently sweet. If you’d barely heard…
Drunk On The Blood Of The Holy Ones
Long one of Boston's musical gems, The Fully Celebrated (Orchestra) have always been Jim Hobbs: alto sax, Timo Shanko: bass, and Django Carranza: drums. A jazz band playing the rock clubs like the young punks they were, developing along the way into the sages they have become. Following a series of European and self-releases, Drunk On The Blood Of The Holy Ones is their auspicious AUM Fidelity debut: a stellar set of all new compositions, recorded live in the studio and then mixed utilizing the …
Farmers By Nature
A fully improvised communion of 3 of America's masters of music. The manifest intent: sowing seeds of sound & bringing them to full blossom. Abstract, organic, & fully inviting. Recorded live at NYC's The Stone in June of 2008, this was the 3rd meeting of drummer GERALD CLEAVER, bassist WILLIAM PARKER, & pianist CRAIG TABORN. An immersive experience yielding magic & inducing a calming mystical ambience. Improvising in long, fluid ideas, Mr. Taborn's solos were housewreckers.
Double Sunrise Over Neptune
The third and final installment of AUM Fidelity's collaborative releases with Arts For Art, Inc. presenting specially commissioned works which made their debut at Vision Festival XII in June 2007. And it is William Parker's this time me a tell you IAIAH. An orchestral work featuring immensely gifted individual and collective voices from around the world, meshing as one to manifest a pair of deep bass groove-driven mantras. Featuring both Hamid Drake and Gerald Cleaver on drums (each tremendous m…
Petit Oiseau
William Parker's Quartet is the premier outlet for his (and their) immense and timeless talents. The group's first two albums are universally recognized as still-revealing exemplars of modern music. Here now is the third album -- Petit Oiseau aka 'Little Bird' -- a wholly new set of melodically, harmonically and rhythmically advanced compositions rendered by one of the greatest jazz bands the world has yet had the good fortune to bear witness to. Insinuating melodies and counter-melodies, layers…