Being avant-garde
“The most avant-garde thing we can be is a human being”: William Parker, composer, bassist, bandleader, who turns seventy today.
William Parker in the NYT
“He’s the kind of figure it might be tempting to label a giant if such shorthand weren’t sure to strike him as distastefully hierarchical.”
William Parker Quartet, Wood Flute Songs
How do these musicians stand it when they can’t be making music?
The William Parker Quartet
“Those who insist that music must swing to be jazz never seem to understand that swing does not require a preëstablished structure of measures and chord changes.”