William Parker and the “Tone Motion Theatre”

Saturday, January 17, 2015 @ 8:00 pm

Roulette is honored to present William Parker and the “Tone Motion Theatre” featuring the New York premiere of Yes I Dreamed of Freedom, a moving tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. and the fifth part of Parker’s work, Flower In a Stained Glass Window.

Flower In a Stained Glass WindowPart Five:  Yes I Dream Of FreedomDedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
All music and words by William Parker
Additional Text by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

This new work will have its New York premiere performance on the eponymous holiday weekend and will be performed by the Transformational Music Ensemble, a new music chamber group lead by Keir Neuringer, the Spirit Catchers Ensemble, consisting of five improvising musicians composing on the spot: Daniel Carter, Joe McPhee, Hamid Drake, Cooper Moore and William Parker and, a vocal ensemble featuring Fay Victor, Kyoko Kitamura and Anais Maviel.

The Transformational Music Ensemble will interpret the written score composed by Parker, and will serve as both the back drop and catalyst to the improvisations being created by the Spirit Catchers Ensemble and words of the vocal ensemble. Dance choreographed by Patricia Nicholson.

The performance, a dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, takes the audience back to the April 4, 1968. A dying Doctor King’s spirit leaves his body and as he transcends, he encounters a Lakota: Tašúŋke Witkó, who was rushing to the scene to bring him back to life through music, sound and movement. Instead of reminiscing of the past, they talk about how the revolution must come from within and that freedom cannot be handed out, it is already inside of us.

read more: http://roulette.org/events/william-parker-tone-motion-theatre/

Amanda Putz picks William Parker, Sneezy Waters, The Split and more

CBC – Thu, 13 Mar, 2014
Oh, that I could understand the mysteries of free jazz.
I don't pretend to be an expert in all genres of music by any stretch of the imagination. But, what I do know is that William Parker is hoping to do that: stretch one's imagination. Jazz bassist William Parker is proficient in various flutes and other wind instruments, and has been called "a weather vane that points listeners and musicians to the new directions of jazz” by allaboutjazz.com.

William is a kid from the Bronx who was never formally trained, but still managed to glean knowledge from the top double bassists 15 to 20 years his senior. These men played regularly with John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk, so you know we're talking about the crème de la crème.

Thanks to Carleton music prof and local percussionist Jesse Stewart, William Parker is doing a weekend residency here in Ottawa that includes a couple of free events.
​You can have a conversation with him and his wife, dancer Patricia Nicholson Parker, at Carleton University on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. at the Loeb Building, Room A720. It's free and open to the public.

This talk precedes a show on Thursday called Incantations, featuring William playing strings, brass and flutes while Jesse Stewart lends percussion.

This again takes place at Carleton University, in the Art Gallery at the north end of the campus in the St. Patrick's building. It's at 8 p.m. and tickets are $20. There are two shows Friday night at Gigspace: 7p.m. & 9p.m., $20 per show and reservations are recommended. Call 613-729-0693.

For something Friday night, I might suggest another legend, but this time of the local variety. Sneezy Waters came to worldwide attention back in the 70s singing the songs of Hank Williams Sr.

Sneezy took his play called Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave, all the way from its November 1977 premiere at the Beacon Arms Hotel here in Ottawa to its 1980 screen version, which was shown at a film festival for musicals in France in 1984. That festival awarded Sneezy Best Actor for his role as Hank Williams.

Well before he travelled the globe playing Hank, he busked the streets of Ottawa-Gatineau and played in the band, “The Children”, with Bruce Cockburn. That lasted about a year.
Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/amanda-putz-picks-william-parker-sneezy-waters-split-120000473.html

Bass is a Hard Life....

I am fascinated by bass players. They play a role in jazz that is somewhat akin to a catcher in baseball: they can see the whole field and so end up directing the play. For that reason, bass players make very good leaders. Mingus comes to mind. It must be a very hard life for a musician, because a lot of the time on a lot of albums, you just can't hear them very well. It's hard to tell by listening that an album recorded with a bassist as leader isn't really a saxophone album, or whatever instrument is upstaging the big fiddle.

Anyway, this weekend I have been listening to a recent acquisition by William Parker. Parker is an avant garde master about whom I have blogged previously. At that link you can find a sample from Parker's recording Painter's Spring. It is a brilliant cd, and one of those recordings where the title and the cover art are really part of the experience. Peach Orchard is a two disc recording issued under Parker's name and the band IN ORDER TO SURVIVE in the late 90's. Cooper-Moore plays piano, Rob Brown alto sax, and Susie Ibarra drums. The compositions are rather long and musically complex.
http://jazznotesdp.blogspot.com/2009/12/bass-is-hard-life.html