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:
- Listen [Vol. 1: BLUE LIMELIGHT]
- Cosmic Funk
- I’d Rather Be
- A Great Day to be Dead
- Jenny’s Interlude
- Blue Limelight
- Bennie’s Tune
- Recall
- Kachina Song
- All I Ever Want
- Where the Angels Live
- Old Tears
- Malachi’s Mode [Vol. 2: CHILD OF SOUND]
- Malcolm’s Smile
- This Sweet Land
- The Golden Light (Hymn)
- Mexico
- Broken Promises
- Child of Sound
- Sky Falling
- Adobe House
- Rez Sunset
- Trail of Tears I
- Trail of Tears II
- Rez Sunrise
- Ascending Earth
- Baldwin [Vol. 3: THE MAJESTY OF JAH]
- The Majesty of Jah
- Freedom
- Sun Song
- Numbers
- Letter To A Resurrected Slave Owner
- Entire Universe [Vol. 4: CHEOPS]
- Cheops
- The Map Is Precise
- If We Play Soft Enough
- Harriott
- Dancing at the Savoy [Vol. 5: HARLEM SPEAKS]
- Don’t Sell My Soul
- Harlem Dances
- Harlem Speaks
- Paintings in the Sky
- Shutters as Windows
- Tilted Mirror [Vol. 6: MEXICO]
- Mexico
- The Bleeding Tree
- It Is for You
- Song to Lift Sadness (Morning) [Vol. 7: AFTERNOON POEM]
- The Sky is Always Beautiful
- Morning Bird
- Rocket Man
- Essence Calling Out
- Afternoon Poem
- First Vision
- Green and Brown
- I Believe
- I Will Die for You
- Song for Patricia
- My Cup
- Silent Whispers
- It Would Never Be Long Enough
- Song to Lift Sadness (Evening)
- Cloud And Sea Fading As Rain Falls
- Visconti [Vol. 8: LIGHTS IN THE RAIN]
- Fellini
- Pasolini
- Leone
- De Sica
- Rossellini
- Gospel
- Milano
- Lights in the Rain
- Antonioni
- The Elders at the Edge of the World part 1 [Vol. 9: THE FASTEST TRAIN]
- Cultivation
- Deep Spirit
- Family Voice
- Listen to the Sky
- Sacred Prayers
- Host for the Anointed
- Bamboo Village
- Blessed
- The Flute Reaches Out
- The World’s Fastest Train
- Joyous and Delightful
- The Elders at the Edge of the World part 2
- Charcoal Paragraphs [Vol. 10: MANZANAR]
- Khaen
- Lakota Song
- Manzanar
- On Being Native