Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the Cecil Taylor Unit and Ornette Coleman’s band (expanded upon in later eras by Sam Rivers' Trio and Parker’s collective trios with Charles Gayle / Graves and Peter Brötzmann / Hamid Drake) into their own unique and scintillating realms of expression.
As we tumble further into the throes of history’s tides, people of hope and creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits and focus our resolve. “Ascension” was recorded less than a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and four months after the assassination of Malcolm X. “Journey in Satchidananda” was recorded the month Reagan was re-elected governor of California. “M’boom” made its debut recording weeks after the watergate scandal broke and a couple months after the wounded knee occupation ended. The music of The Ancients builds on these great musical legacies. it resounds with the pride of survival and the joys of making and sharing music. It delivers to us hope and balm. Something real in you, real in history, and real in the music is shared, right on time.
When Eremite Records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Charles Gayle, Kidd Jordan, and David S. Ware were at the height of their powers. Isaiah Collier’s tenor playing in The Ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. to hear the young Chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, and the intensity of his expression —as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including “The Almighty”, a New York Times' best albums of 2024 selection).
I've admired drummer William Hooker since first encountering his music in a Hartford, Connecticut, city park, early ‘90s (on a double bill with Jerry González and Fort Apache Band). From the man himself right off the bandstand I bought his even-then rare first recording, the 1976 self-released 2LP opus “Is Eternal Life” (reissued in 2019 by Superior Viaduct). An imposing force on his instrument and an intrepid DIY cat, Hooker’s been exuberantly swinging in and out of free time for 50+ years. informed by the innovations of Sunny Murray and Tony Williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than “pure hooker”. At age 78, with The Ancients and everywhere else, The Hook is in peak form.
With a discography approaching 600 entries and 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Peter Brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership and a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as “the tone world”, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer William Parker is a living hero of the grassroots and the black mystery musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. To quote George Clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite.
