Thursday, April 15
Bezanson Recital Hall 8:00 pm
$12 General Public; $7 Students
“William Parker and Hamid Drake are the best rhythm section in jazz right now,” says Alternative Press. This has been true for 15 years. We celebrate this dynamic duo — respected around the world for their commitment and musicality — with three concerts, featuring special guests.
“Not since Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell joined forces have two musicians so organically wedded world-music influences with free jazz,” writes Jazziz. Since the late1970’s, Hamid Drake has moved easily between work with top jazz improvisers like David Murray, Don Cherry and Pharaoh Sanders, and international artists like Foday Muso Suso, Mahmoud Gania and Gigi. In 1972 Parker began playing with musicians such as Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins and Sunny Murray, before becoming a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, where he played a prominent role for over a decade. Time Out New York proclaimed William Parker one of “the 50 greatest New York musicians of all time.”
Parker and Drake invite the brilliant tenor and soprano saxophonist Evan Parker to join them. Among Europe’s most innovative and intriguing saxophonists, Parker has worked with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Alexander von Schlippenbach and virtually every other important European innovator of the last 45 years. “Evan Parker is that rare bird of contemporary playing: a thoroughly individual voice,” writes AllAboutJazz. “Parker has developed a personal vocabulary that is simultaneously instantly recognizable and adaptable to the most varied of situations.”