Patricia Nicholson Parker

An Integration of Visual Art, Dance, Music,

A Freedom based Ritual of change & rebirth

October 28, 2015 at 8pm

at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Broklyn, NY

DANCE: Patricia Nicholson Parker (director, dancer, text), Jason Jordan (dancer)
MUSIC: Jason Kao Hwang (violin), TA Thompson (drums), William Parker (bass, gimbre)
VISUAL ART: William Mazza performing live art projected onto the performers
PERFORMANCES: Part 1: Resurrection Revolution / Part 2: Critical InStance (duo w/ William Parker)
INFO: e-mail pnparker@artsforart.org

As artists we are here to inspire.  This is not so much a literal agenda as a spiritual goal.

Resurrection Revolution (R&R) is a quintet of 2 dancers (Patricia Nicholson & Jason Jordan), 2 musicians (Jason Kao Hwang & TA Thompson) and a visual artist (William Mazza).  R&R is built on an aesthetic and a social common, rather than a single artistic discipline.  It utilizes improvisation as a base and employs clear structures that are built in rehearsals and in the course of living.   All members share a sophisticated and highly developed understanding of what improvisation is as well as a common social understanding that we share responsibility for our world.

For Patricia Nicholson Parker this comes from a lifetime commitment to a common good. It comes from a lifetime of seeing dance as a musical instrument and from a history of social action inspired by her mother, Kathleen Nicholson Wilkins, an activist in the Civil Rights, Peace and anti-nuclear movements. As an artist, Ms. Parker reinterpreted her mother’s social conscience through conceiving and choreographing work such as AThousand Cranes 1981 performed for the opening of the 2^nd UN Special Sessions on Disarmament. She also choreographed and danced as demonstration at the Riverside Research Institute and in Wash. DC at the Arms Bazaar. The theme of social responsibility was expressed in works such as Vision Peace & Battle and Cries (at La MaMa in 1988) and DanceWordsSpeakPeace in 2000 and Studies in Freedom (in Canada and Wash DC in 2014).

R&R first performed in January 2015 as a quartet, with Patricia Nicholson, Jason Jordan - dance and music - Jason Kao Hwang, TA Thompson. The quintet came together at Judson Church on Saturday July 12 2015 at the 20^th Vision Festival with the addition of Bill Mazza’s live art projections.  We have since performed at other festivals etc.

‘Critical InStance’ is the latest collaboration between William Parker & Patricia Nicholson. Critical InStance’ refers to the moment that changes everything. It exists somewhere in the center of Now.  Patricia Nicholson has been collaborating with William Parker for over 40 years.   When I met Mr. Parker, I had been looking for a music that I had not yet heard.  After asking around, someone brought me to Studio Rivbea to hear MUNTU’s first gig.  I liked the music of the bass player, William Parker.  So our collaboration began.

Roultte’s ongoing [DANCEROULETTE] series reflects the commitment to presenting experimental dance that we’ve held since our founding in 1978, particularly the collaborative efforts of composers and choreographers exploring the relationship between sound and movement, choreography and composition. Roulette’s move to Brooklyn in September 2011 has enabled us to initiate a regular season of [DANCEROULETTE] presentations, which now hosts nearly 40 performances yearly.

BIOGRAPHIES:
Patricia Nicholson’s professional career developed around the aesthetic of free jazz.  The use of composition and improvisation has been influenced by this consistent relationship.  Ms Nicholson has developed her unique approach drawing freely from traditional and non-traditional techniques to create an eclectic approach to intuitive movement and composition.  Her freejazz collaborations have been presented at music Festivals in Europe, Canada and the U.S. and at the Movement Research Dance Festival in NY. She has collaborated with William Parker, Yoshiko Chuma, Don Cherry, Billy Bang, Matthew Shipp, KJ Holmes, and many others …

Jason Jordan is an upcoming choreographer in his own right who has been dancing and improvising with Ms Nicholson for about 10 years. He began his career at the age of seven when he won five dollars for being the best dancer at a Brooklyn house party. Since then Mr. Jordan has danced with Feld Ballets/NY, Ballet Tech (as a principal dancer), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Buglisi Dance Theater, Armitage Gone, Twyla Tharp, Ballet Noir, Gleich Dances, Rubberbandance, Cedar Lake Dance, Peridance Ensemble, Battery Dance and 360 Degrees Dance company. Mr. Jordan would like to thank all of the beautiful souls that have helped him along the way.

“Soundrhythium Michael T.A. Thompson is an anomaly. That's why you'll find him performing as well as recording with such a wide variety of musical artists who include Charles Gayle, Joe McPhee, Onaje Alan Gumbs, Mathew Shipp, Mala Waldron, Roy Campbell Jr., Dennis Gonzalez, Oliver Lake, Kidd Jordan, John Pattitucci, Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Henry Grimes, William Parker, Legendary Calypsonians The Mighty Sparrow, The Shadow, reggae artist Owen Gray, as well as artists from classical to rap and beyond. Thompson currently produces New York based artists who are pushing the musical envelope and making an impact on today’s jazz music scene.”

Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/viola) octet, Burning Bridge performed at the International Festival Musique Actuelle (Canada). His quintet Sing House performed at the 20th Vision Festival and his symphonic work, The Challenge: Tiananmen Square, premiered at Lehman College. 2014 Zizal, his duo CD with Ayman Fanous, was voted into the second round of the Grammy Awards. The 2012 Downbeats Critics’ Poll voted him “Rising Star for Violin.” His recording, VOICE will be released this fall. As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Will Connell, Jr., William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Oliver Lake, Anthony Braxton, Butch Morris, Yoshiko Chuma, and many others.

Bill Mazza is a visual artist and activist based in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores the spatial and temporal relationships of people to their natural and mediated environments. He makes use of chance, improvisation, and performance, as a means of engaging viewers with both the creative process and the finished art product, unless the design of the work is ephemeral. Ongoing projects include collaborative, performative, and design with the organizations Arts for Art/Vision Festival, NYSoundCircuit, and the Belladonna* writers collaborative.

William Parker is one of the most important composers and bassists in the creative music world. Downbeat magazine describes his energy and spirit as “both Herculean and Gargantuan.’ He is a multi-instrumentalist, an educator and a prolific recording artist, with over 150 recordings and countless celebrated stage appearances. He was recently honored to receive the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Parker began performing in 1971 playing in the Loft scene and at clubs in the Bronx, with artists such as Bill Dixon, Sunny Murray, Charles Tyler, Billy Higgins, Charles Brackeem, Alan Silva, Frank Wright, Frank Lowe, Rashid Ali, Donald Ayler, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Milford Graves etc. Early projects with dancer, choreographer Patricia Nicholson created a huge repertoire of composed music for multiple ensembles ranging from solo works to big band projects. Parker was a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit from1980 through 1991. He began recording his own work in 1994 with In Order To Survive, and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. In 2001, Parker released O’Neal’s Porch, which marked a turn toward a more universal sound working with drummer Hamid Drake. The Raining on the Moon Quintet and the Curtis Mayfield Project followed. Some notable recent projects include the Ellington Project and the Martin Luther King Series. Parker is a theorist, a poet and published author of the Sound Journal, The Mayor of Punkville, Music and the Shadow People, What is Music and Conversations etc.

Photo: downtownmusic.net

from: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/