[AUM092/93/94] - 3-CD Box Set / CDs in "mini-LP" sleeves with a 24 pg. booklet feat. extensive artwork, liner notes by Philip Clark (The Wire, Jazzwise, Gramaphone), and full lyrics / poetry / additional notes by WP; all within a beautiful board-weight two-piece custom box. Edition of 1500. Currently under 100 copies remain.
For Fannie Lou Hamer
Kitchen House Blend Ensemble: Todd Reynolds: violin / Shiau-Shu Yu: cello / JD Parran: various winds / Sam Furnace: various winds / Ravi Best: trumpet / Masahiko Kono: trombone / Kathleen Supové: piano / Nicki Parrot: bass / JT Lewis: drums / Jim Pugliese: percussion
-&- featuring Leena Conquest: voice
> Live at The Kitchen, NYC on October 28, 2000
Vermeer
Leena Conquest: voice / Darryl Foster: soprano & tenor saxophone
Eri Yamamoto: piano / William Parker: bass, hocchiku
> The Gallery Recording Studio, Brooklyn on March 6, 2011
Red Giraffe With Dreadlocks
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay: voice, electronic shruti box / Mola Sylla: voice, m’bira, ngoni / Bill Cole: double-reed instruments / Rob Brown: alto saxophone / Klaas Hekman: bass saxophone, flute / Cooper-Moore: piano / William Parker: bass / Hamid Drake: drums
> Live January 2012 in Paris, France.
Ceremonies For Those Who Are Still
NFM Symphony Orchestra, Jan Jakub Bokun: conductor
with Soloists of NFM Choir -&- interweaving throughout:
Charles Gayle: tenor & soprano saxophone, piano
William Parker: bass, doson ngoni, bamboo flutes
Mike Reed: drums
> Recorded in premiere performance at the Jazztopad Festival, Wroclaw, Poland on November 15, 2013.
Escapade For Sonny
Charles Gayle: tenor saxophone
William Parker: bass
Mike Reed: drums
> this trio improvisation preceded the premiere of Ceremonies..
"CHOC (highest recommendation)" –Jazz Magazine (FR)
"Rewind: Top 50 Releases of 2015" –The Wire
"Music of gravitas from a modern day icon." –Jazzwise
"Bassist, composer and bandleader William Parker is a bottomless well of creativity, and his endless run of superb recordings continues with For Those Who Are, Still" –JazzTimes
"A release of combustive and sacred energy, in which profoundly masterful singers play a central role, including the rooted singing and spoken word of gorgeous contralto Leena Conquest on Disc 1; deeply organic incantations of Senegalese griot Mola Sylla and classically-trained Indian singer Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay on Disc 2; and eight fierce principal singers of the NFM Choir on Disc 3. Parker and his ensembles walk into the face of Civil Rights horror and ride currents of the cosmic-as-ever-present on long-form works harnessing order into chaos and unleashing chaos into order. This is a must-have set for all Parker fans and anyone who wants to expand their ears; it is movingly outside the box." –The New York City Jazz Record
Essential music For Those Who Are, still here. Meaning you, I and all who find this. I'd also like to note that For Fannie Lou Hamer is the first time that Leena Conquest sang the words of William Parker. Parker's instrumental piece had already been written and rehearsed with the Kitchen House Blend ensemble. Having recently made Conquest's acquaintance in a wholly different musical happening, he wrote the words with her in mind to perform them and asked that she be part of this performance. We are
William Parker is a premier jazz composer, bassist/multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. His contributions to music over the last four+ decades are un-quantifiable. Since beginning to regularly record and release his work as a leader/composer in the mid-90s, he has produced numerous masterworks of an eternal nature. This box set is one of them.
It is comprised of four distinct long-form works:
> A commissioned piece for standing new music ensemble, Kitchen House Blend
> A chamber-jazz song series for voice / sax / piano / bass
> Another long-form multi-sectional composition created specifically for a particularly global assemblage in Universal Tonality mode
> William Parker’s first score to be performed by a symphony orchestra (although not the first that he'd written for same)
The four works are linked by a focus on and greater adherence to William Parker’s composition; the depth and breadth of the resultant performances thereof is astonishing.
1. For Fannie Lou Hamer - 27:59
Vermeer
2. Vermeer - 07:09
3. Awash in the Midst of An Angel's Tears - 04:18
4. Essence - 02:46
5. Flower Song (Take 2) - 06:48
6. Just Feel - 00:57
7. Feet as Roses - 03:36
8. Gongs for Deaf Dreams - 03:19
9. Sweet Breeze - 04:56
10. Flower Song (Take 1) - 06:59
Red Giraffe With Dreadlocks
1. Villages, Greetings and Prayer - 15:36
2. Souls Have Fallen Like Rain - 14:37
3. The Giraffe Dances - 19:45
4. William Parker Ensemble - Tour of The Flying Poem - 05:52
5. Children Drawing Water From The Well - 06:14
6. Where Do You Send The Poem - 12:00
Ceremonies For Those Who Are Still
1. A Magical Figure Dances Barefoot in the Mud - 04:50
2. Light Shimmering Across a Field of Ice - 02:28
3. Trees With Wings - 05:10
4. Rise Up In Sound - 07:56
5. Humble Serious - 07:01
6. Tea Leaves of Triple Sadness - 04:48
7. Ritual - 03:52
8. Winter - 05:48
9. My Cup - 03:42
10. Encore - 04:16
11. Escapade For Sonny (dedicated to Sonny Rollins) - 25:24
All compositions (music & lyrics) by William Parker, except
"Escapade For Sonny", which is a trio improvisation;
all © Centering Music (BMI)
Produced by William Parker and Steven Joerg
Mastered by Petr Cancura at Sound Changes
All cover paintings by Douglas Arnold
Liner notes by Philip Clark
Full and Total Credits within the digital booklet,
and of course the physical box set itself