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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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LP
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CENT 1004LP
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"A gorgeous soul-jazz organ quartet album that hearkens back to early-mid '60s sessions of similar form; fully revitalized by William Parker's indelible compositions and the generous musical gifts of Darryl Foster, Cooper-Moore, and Gerald Cleaver. A straight-up joy. This very special project was produced by William Parker for his own Centering Records imprint, and dedicated to his Aunt Carrie Lee and Uncle Joe (pictured on album cover). It was created to celebrate the occasion of their 65th wedding anniversary on August 6th, 2010. William wanted to get this album finished in time to gift to them for that auspicious date, and he did! He wrote seven of the songs in Dec 2009 toward the Jan 2010 recording session; 'Ennio's Tag' and 'Oasis' were previously written and they fit in perfectly. The CD was officially released on Centering Records in October 2010. Two pressings were made, and have long sold out. The special one-time only LP pressing was made in time for a family celebration/Organ Quartet performance on May 19, 2024 at An Die Musik in Baltimore. Remastered and re-sequenced for vinyl, the LP includes a full-res download card of the album as originally released on CD, including three additional tracks."
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2CD
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CENT 1030CD
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"William Parker's Universal Tonality is an epic archival recording which brings the titular concept to full, vibrant life. An exquisite example of this system in practice, it features a truly once-in-a-lifetime assembly of creative music luminaries and legends, including Billy Bang, Grachan Moncur III, Jerome Cooper, Dave Burrell, Jin Hi Kim, Joe Morris, Miya Masaoka, Daniel Carter, Rob Brown, Jason Kao Hwang, Gerald Cleaver. Clocking in at nearly two hours and featuring six extended pieces flowing across two discs, Universal Tonality documents a performance that took place at Roulette, NYC in December 2002. Parker invited 16 musicians of various ages, cultures and musical backgrounds to join him in an experiment of 'breathing together.' While he provided a score (wonderfully illustrated pages from same are included in the package), all were advised that there need not be adherence to it. Parker's hope with this approach is that each musician will trust their own instincts -- and those of the musicians around them -- enough to let the sound find its shape in real time. That constant current of inspiration, and open, receptive communication, was present at Roulette that night, and it's on full display on this magical recording. Whether embodying a roof-raising big band, or an intimate cross-cultural chamber ensemble, the collective heard here always displays an impressive coherence and sensitivity. When discussing or writing on his Universal Tonality concept as a whole (as on the enclosed, extensive liner notes), Parker can sound like he's outlining a life philosophy. It is both telling and fitting that author Cisco Bradley chose to title his 2021 biography of William Parker after this concept. The results of this one-night-only communion can now take their place among Parker's many landmark works spanning the past three decades, including previously released Universal Tonality-driven pieces like Double Sunrise Over Neptune, and Red Giraffe with Dreadlocks (released on the box set For Those Who Are, Still)."
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10CD BOX
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CENT 1020CD
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Repressed! "That William Parker is a bassist, composer and bandleader of extraordinary spirit and imaginative drive is common knowledge among any with an interest in the progressive jazz / any music scene of the past 25 years and more. What's become increasingly apparent, though, is 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. The latest multi-disc boxed set from Centering Records/AUM Fidelity devoted to Parker's expansive creativity underscores his virtually peerless achievement in recent years. 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 (both on voice & other instruments). 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. There are dedications to jazz heroes, Native Americans and Mexican migrants, plus tributes to the great African-American culture of Harlem and the mix of passion and compassion Parker found in vintage Italian cinema. Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World conjures a vast world of music and feeling, and its creation is a feat that ranks with that of the most ambitious talents in any genre."
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2CD
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CENT 1018-19CD
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Sold out, repress in 2023 or later... "This special edition release is comprised of two brand new full-length albums, distinct in personnel & approach, yet complementary in ethos. William Parker is (and has been) on a profound and voluminous creative flow. Both of these albums were made in Summer 2018; they follow up and extend on his June 2018 release, the exemplary 3CD box set Voices Fall From the Sky. Flower in a Stained-Glass Window fully features vocalist Leena Conquest, a tremendous interpreter of Parker's work in song. She can be heard to deep affect in his Raining On The Moon and Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield projects. This is her first work together with Parker since 2012, and it is a most potent return to this creative orbit. She sings and speaks atop of and within a fresh ensemble featuring Parker's bass together with long-time compatriots trombonist Steve Swell & saxophonist Dave Sewelson, South African drummer Kesivan Naidoo (in his first work with Parker), Parker's son Isaiah on piano, as well as younger saxophonic talents Abraham Mennen and Nick Lyons. This work is dedicated to the inspiration of Martin Luther King, and the lyrical content pulls no punches delivering the truth as Parker sees it. The message is: social and political justice and equality for all human beings. Flower in a Stained-Glass Window was slated for release on its own, and then William Parker had a summer residency at The Stone / New School in New York in which The Blinking of The Ear was presented in wholly extended form by an ensemble featuring Daniel Carter (witness the recently released Seraphic Light), Steve Swell, Eri Yamamoto on piano, William Parker and young Leonid Galaganov on drums, with mezzo soprano AnnMarie Sandy. This composition first appeared on the Voices Fall From The Sky box set in a voice/piano/drums reading. Here, as Parker writes in the liner notes: 'The dream was to combine written music with improvised music; slowly and seamlessly folding them together as one. This sextet live version wholly realized that dream; it was an extraordinary event in music called universal tonality.' After hearing the recording, it was forthwith decided to include this and make it a true double-album event! Astonishing work, all of this. Packaged in a limited edition deluxe 8-panel digipak, with liner notes by William Parker."
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3CD BOX
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CENT 1015-17CD
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"Currently deep into his 5th exceptionally active decade as an essential jazz artist, William Parker needs no introduction. However, one of the intrinsic aspects of his oeuvre that bears repeated mention is the vast range thereof. From era-defining statements of free music to soul-jazz organ quartet; from his seamless incorporation of indigenous folk forms to his exhilarating work for jazz orchestra; from the joyous accessibility of his Quartet to his nuanced scoring for dance and film. And this new work! A treasure box abounding with gems, Voices Fall From The Sky is an expansive 3CD Box Set comprising three distinct and complementary albums whose focus is on the voice: the singers, 17 of whom are featured herein -&- the songs, all composed (and produced) by William Parker. Half of the material are brand new recordings and half are Parker-curated selections of previously released material either long unavailable or presented in new form. Accompaniment on these 34 pieces ranges as widely as the voices, from duet to large ensemble. A multitude of approaches are employed: art song to operatic, pop sensibilities to gospel, heart-stopping ballads to dance numbers, silence to exuberance. The lyrical content expresses love of nature and its vital importance to a whole life, compassion, anti-oppression, anti-violence of any kind, praise of the creative spirit, and, Love. These themes are foundational in all of Parker's work; the forefront spotlight through a multitude of expressive voices makes them that much more salient. Album/CD1 features all-new work predominately recorded & mixed during December 2017 and January 2018. Featured singers: Timna Comedi - Morley Shanti Kamen - Amirtha Kidambi - Kyoko Kitamura - Bernardo Palombo - Omar Payano - Jean Carla Rodea - Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez - Fay Victor - Andrea Wolper. Accompanists: Karen Borca - Angelo Branford - Rob Brown - Gerald Cleaver - Jean Cook - Jason Kao Hwang - Masahiko Kono - William Parker - Dave Sewelson - Heru Shabaka-Ra - Steve Swell - Dario Acosta Teich - Eri Yamamoto. Album/CD2 is comprised of duets and focuses on three singers with whom Parker has had decades-long creative relationships with. Vintage recordings with Ellen Christi and Lisa Sokolov from the early 1990s which have been unavailable for far too long are here re-contextualized together with more recent work with Leena Conquest. Accompanists: Yuko Fujiyama - Cooper-Moore - William Parker - Eri Yamamoto. Album/CD3 presents the voice within large ensemble and features new iterations of previously released work together with a brand-new suite/recording entitled 'The Blinking of the Ear', performed by mezzo-soprano opera singer AnnMarie Sandy. The previously released work features the singers Ernie Odoom, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay and Leena Conquest. Accompaniment is by four very different versions of the William Parker Orchestra, and his Double Quartet. The one exception is the brand-new suite, which features Eri Yamamoto: piano and Leonid Galaganov: drums, although how they and AnnMarie Sandy fill the silence is practically orchestral."
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CD
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CENT 1013CD
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"Bass Duo presents the historic and only performance meeting of these two renowned and innovative bass masters, each representing distinct musical traditions; each fully committed to the summit at hand. It was recorded during the Udin&Jazz 2008 Festival in Udine, Italy. Both William Parker and Stefano Scodanibbio are composers and improvisers possessing a deep sense of musical poetry, organic inventiveness, and personal style. During his too short lifetime, Stefano Scodanibbio (b. 1956 / d. 2012) was renowned as an interpreter and collaborator with many of the major composers writing for the contrabass (Bussotti, Donatoni, Estrada, Ferneyhough, Frith, Globokar, Xenakis)."
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CD
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CENT 1012CD
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"Stan's Hat Flapping In The Wind features work from one of the jazz avant-garde's most heralded figures, presented in one of the most traditional of forms. 19 new songs composed by William Parker, and performed by singer Lisa Sokolov & pianist Cooper-Moore. Parker is -- among his many great talents -- a master of evocative song-craft, as readily evidenced on Corn Meal Dance (AUM043, 2007), and the very recently released Great Spirit (AUM098, 2015), by his Raining On The Moon ensemble. The compositions and performances here are, as ever, illuminated with Parker's devotion to compassion for all life. They touch on the possibility of peace and truth prevailing in the present. Stan's Hat Flapping In The Wind is also the name of a musical that William Parker has been writing since 1994. To date he has composed over sixty songs for the production. In this musical, the principal characters -- through tribulations and exposure to the magic of all life around them -- begin to learn the art of living and the systems of sacred music. On this new studio recording, 19 of these songs are presented. All of them are connected in that they all reflect on the mysteries of death and life. Many of Parker's touchstone subject matters abound: compassion for all living things, the magic of sound, the revolutionary nature of flowers, and deeply affecting dedications and invocations to enlightened spirits who have departed."
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2CD
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CENT 1008-9CD
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"Preeminent jazz composer/bassist William Parker has been working with large ensembles from the very beginning of presenting his own work as a leader in the mid-70s. His Essence of Ellington project is the very latest manifestation of his orchestral concepts, following in similar form on the extraordinary Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project which was definitively presented on record by the acclaimed 2010 release, I Plan to Stay a Believer (AUM062/63). The Orchestra here interprets selections from the Duke Ellington book, and new William Parker compositions inspired by the essence of Ellington. Featured in the Orchestra are some of thee most highly gifted jazz musicians living today, spanning generations. Essence of Ellington's world-wide concert debut took place this past February in Milano, Italy. That performance and the recording thereof both turned out so tremendously that William and AUM felt it needed to be released as soon as possible. Over two hours of transformative exuberance and tenderness, is here presented in its entirety. First edition pressing comes packaged in silk-screened gatefold sleeve, with accompanying booklet."
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