[AUM114]
A Vital Single Release! Digital Only.
Available at our Bandcamp.
This was William Parker's first single in almost 50 years of creating profound Music & 100 Albums as a leader or co-leader to date.
These two tracks are performed by a pair of William Parker Ensembles featuring singer Leena Conquest.
"What has become increasingly apparent in recent years is William Parker’s stature as a visionary of sound and song – an artist of melody and poetry who works beyond category, to use the Ellingtonian phrase." That line was written for Parker’s forthcoming 10CD box set, Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World, released in January 2021. This digital single presents a pair of earlier examples.
"New World Order"
The original composition by Curtis Mayfield and William Parker’s re-creation/re-arrangement of it are both timeless, and there certainly is no better time than Now! for this music & its message to be heard. The phrase ‘New World Order’ has been used often over the last 100 years by various nation-leading men of great power seeking more of the same. More misery for the multitudes has been the result every time. The very different vision presented anew herein was among the great soul composer’s final works. It was featured as the title track of Mayfield's final album, with his vocals painstakingly recorded one line at a time – “you must be merciful my friend, to attain the same.”
Parker’s vital re-arrangement of “New World Order” was presented at the premier performance of his illuminated Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project [ Banlieues Bleues Festival, March 2001]. Piano, bass, drums, balafon & the incomparable voice of Leena Conquest together with a chorus of 90 children from the banlieues ("suburbs") of Paris, where many immigrant families resided then and now.
This track is part of the essential compendium, I Plan To Stay A Believer.
b/w
"Soledad"
Because every single needs a B-side (even in digital format!) we decided to go double A on this one.
Also a timeless composition (by William Parker) & performance thereof (by his Raining On The Moon Quintet). William Parker / Hamid Drake / Rob Brown / Lewis Barnes / Eri Yamamoto and singing the enlightened lyrics once again, Ms. Leena Conquest.
This track features on the masterwork album, Corn Meal Dance. williamparker.bandcamp.com/album/corn-meal-dance
And it is dedicated to George Jackson.
released October 9, 2020