New Album and Biography Help Define William Parker

William Parker has been a mainstay of the jazz and avant-garde world for decades. If you’re not familiar with him, now is a great time to jump in. The Bronx-born bassist has added to his prolific catalog with a new 10-disc set of music called Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World that features all new and original works performed by different musicians on each album.

Parker plays bass and other instruments on the massive release, though it mainly focuses on him as a composer and producer. Pieces on the set range in instrumentation from solo expressions and trios to string quartets and nonets.

“Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (Volumes 1–10) is a 10-album collection of vocal and instrumental suites all recorded expressly for this set between late 2018 and early 2020, with women’s voices at its core,” the liner notes explain. “This is music as empathetic as it is intrepid, as philosophical as it is visceral, as resolutely modernist as it is attuned to tradition. Parker’s art not only draws from the deepest well of African-American culture; it breathes in inspiration from across the globe, with sounds drawn from Africa, Asia, and Indonesia as well as Europe and the Americas; there is free improvisation and re-imagined sonic collage; there are album-length explorations of solo piano and solo voice, along with string ensembles and ancient wind instruments.”

Another avenue for learning about Parker comes in the form of a fantastic new biography by Cisco Bradley, entitled Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker. The 416-page book documents the bassist/composer’s life with incredible detail, reaching back to cover Parker’s ancestral roots in West Africa, his forefathers’ journey to North Carolina, and his childhood in the Bronx.

In doing so, Bradley paints an elaborate picture of the circumstances that led to Parker’s artistry and activism. Interviews with Parker and his collaborators, family, and friends help to illustrate his rise from the 1970s jazz loft scene in New York City to the present day. The appendix includes a full discography of Parker’s work and nearly 100 pages of notes on the topics from the book’s main chapters. Whether you’re a fan or a newcomer, this is the definitive work on Parker.

Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (Volumes 1–10) is available now on CD and as a digital download through Bandcamp. Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker is out now in paperback and Kindle editions.

Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (Volumes 1–10) Track List:

1. Listen [Vol. 1: BLUE LIMELIGHT]
2. Cosmic Funk
3. I’d Rather Be
4. A Great Day to be Dead
5. Jenny’s Interlude
6. Blue Limelight
7. Bennie’s Tune
8. Recall
9. Kachina Song
10. All I Ever Want
11. Where the Angels Live
12. Old Tears
13. Malachi’s Mode [Vol. 2: CHILD OF SOUND]
14. Malcolm’s Smile
15. This Sweet Land
16. The Golden Light (Hymn)
17. Mexico
18. Broken Promises
19. Child of Sound
20. Sky Falling
21. Adobe House
22. Rez Sunset
23. Trail of Tears I
24. Trail of Tears II
25. Rez Sunrise
26. Ascending Earth
27. Baldwin [Vol. 3: THE MAJESTY OF JAH]
28. The Majesty of Jah
29. Freedom
30. Sun Song
31. Numbers
32. Letter To A Resurrected Slave Owner
33. Entire Universe [Vol. 4: CHEOPS]
34. Cheops
35. The Map Is Precise
36. If We Play Soft Enough
37. Harriott
38. Dancing at the Savoy [Vol. 5: HARLEM SPEAKS]
39. Don’t Sell My Soul
40. Harlem Dances
41. Harlem Speaks
42. Paintings in the Sky
43. Shutters as Windows
44. Tilted Mirror [Vol. 6: MEXICO]
45. Mexico
46. The Bleeding Tree
47. It Is for You
48. Song to Lift Sadness (Morning) [Vol. 7: AFTERNOON POEM]
49. The Sky is Always Beautiful
50. Morning Bird
51. Rocket Man
52. Essence Calling Out
53. Afternoon Poem
54. First Vision
55. Green and Brown
56. I Believe
57. I Will Die for You
58. Song for Patricia
59. My Cup
60. Silent Whispers
61. It Would Never Be Long Enough
62. Song to Lift Sadness (Evening)
63. Cloud And Sea Fading As Rain Falls
64. Visconti [Vol. 8: LIGHTS IN THE RAIN]
65. Fellini
66. Pasolini
67. Leone
68. De Sica
69. Rossellini
70. Gospel
71. Milano
72. Lights in the Rain
73. Antonioni
74. The Elders at the Edge of the World part 1 [Vol. 9: THE FASTEST TRAIN]
75. Cultivation
76. Deep Spirit
77. Family Voice
78. Listen to the Sky
79. Sacred Prayers
80. Host for the Anointed
81. Bamboo Village
82. Blessed
83. The Flute Reaches Out
84. The World’s Fastest Train
85. Joyous and Delightful
86. The Elders at the Edge of the World part 2
87. Charcoal Paragraphs [Vol. 10: MANZANAR]
88. Khaen
89. Lakota Song
90. Manzanar
91. On Being Native