Wave Farm Radio: WGXC 90.7-FM is pleased to live broadcast this performance by William Parker, presented by New Ear Inc, in conjunction with A Treatise on Color: Vols. I–IV, curated by J.E. Azmi (FKA James E. Bartlett). The exhibition is on view at Fridman Gallery September 4 - October 5, 2024. Tune in on WGXC 90.7-FM in New York's Upper Hudson Valley, online at wavefarm.org/listen, or turn out in-person at Fridman Gallery, 169 Bowery, New York, NY. More information at https://new-ear.org/upcoming/

William Parker—a leader in the NY FreeJazz movement in NY since his arrival in Manhattan, from the Bronx, in the early 1970ʼs—revolutionized bass playing, using double bow and other extended techniques to bring the bass to the forefront of the band while still holding down the bottom. He developed a unique approach to the interplay of improvisation as a key element in composition as his bands well represent. Parker is an author and educator, a humorist and idealist (he co-led with Patricia Nicholson the Artists for a Free World Marching Band in over 40 demonstrations from 2017 to 2021). He has recorded over 250 albums, published 10 books, and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists. ​ Parkerʼs current active bands include his young new 15 piece-band Huey's PocketWatch, the renowned sextet, Raining on the Moon, Mayan Space Station, his opera Trail of Tears, as well as special projects such as The Essence Of Ellington, the Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield among others. He has composed music for The Wroclaw Symphony Orchestra as well as host of commissions by large and small ensembles. He has composed music and librettos for numerous multi-media operas including Vision Peace and Battle Cries at LaMaMa, Mass for the Healing World in Verona. In addition he has written hundreds of pieces of vocal and small band music. All of Parkerʼs music incorporates his concept of Universal Tonality. They all include improvisational languages and possibilities. ​ Over the decades, Parker has gained a reputation as a leader in the Black Creative Improvised Music and art scene, He has been a connector across artistic disciplines with a long term collaboration with poet, author David Budbill, and with Amiri Baraka and various dance companies including an ongoing collaboration with Patricia Nicholson, dancer and poet that began in the 1970ʼs, and is now entitled Hope Cries for Justice. Parker has his own visual art practice creating collages and paintings. Parker has published a series of short poetry books. ​ He has been an important source of first and secondhand information on the history of creative music, speaking on panels and teaching in classrooms. As well as with his four hefty volumes of interviews with creative musicians published by RoguArt, Conversations I, II. III & IV. He is the subject of an exhaustive 468-page “sessionography” that documents thousands of performances and recording sessions, a remarkable chronicle of his prolific creative life. Parker is also the subject of an acclaimed biography, published in ? by Cisco Bradley entitled, Universal Tonality. ​ William Parker performs all over the world but he always returns to New Yorkʼs Lower East Side, where he has lived since 1975.