Composer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist, author and educator William Parker is one of the most prolific and visionary figures in creative music.
Described by the Village Voice as “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time,” he was the bassist of choice for Cecil Taylor for more than a decade. Parker is a prolific composer who has written operas, oratorios, ballets, film scores, and soliloquies for solo instruments.
Fascinated by Eastern cultures, he collects instruments from all over the world, which he poetically and skillfully incorporates into his performances and at seventy-five years old, he remains at the forefront of creative music — a master musician, a spiritual activist, and a living bridge between generations. Parker has participated in approximately 500 recordings with over 50 albums under his own leadership and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Vision Festival 2024, coinciding with the Heart Trio’s self-titled and acclaimed debut release in 2024.
United by over thirty years of deep collaboration, The Heart Trio features pianist, composer, multi-instrumentalist instrument builder and “one of creative music’s most singular voices,” Cooper-Moore, and drummer Hamid Drake, “one of the most spiritually grounded percussionists in the world.”
Exploring a connection to ancestral African and Eastern music and adopting instruments such as the ngoni, the shakuhachi, the duduk, and instruments created by each of the trio members, the trio “generates mesmerizing music with an intense connection to the earth.” Parker plays guembri, shakuhachi, bass duduk, Serbian flute, and ney flute.
Cooper-Moore plays his hand-crafted ashimba and hoe-handle harp, and Drake plays the frame drum, drums, and percussion. All the music is collectively improvised at the moment of creation, and, as Parker notes, “The theory behind this music is the music itself. Empty and fill the heart and soul with sound, letting it dance. Without pretense.
We are trying to get to a flow — Earth, sky, and flowing water sounds that jump out of the painting.” Jazzwise described the trio’s album as "an outernational fantasy of panglobal grooves... convincingly proposing the kind of Fourth World vibe [Don] Cherry pioneered."
$35/$25 Outpost Members (No Member Passes). $15 Students with current valid ID