William Parker solo

Opening act: Michiyo Yagi solo

Artist information:

William Parker  contrabass/USA

William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City. He has recorded over 150 albums, published six books, and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists. He has been called “one of the most inventive bassists/leaders since [Charles] Mingus,” and “the creative heir to Jimmy Garrison and Paul Chambers… directly influenced by ‘60s avant-gardists like Sirone, Henry Grimes and Alan Silva.” The Village Voice called him, “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time” and Time Out New York named him one of the “50 Greatest New York Musicians of All Time.”
Parker’s current active bands include the large-band Little Huey Creative Orchestra, the Raining on the Moon Sextet, the In Order to Survive Quartet, Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind, the Cosmic Mountain Quintet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore, as well as a deep and ongoing solo bass study. His recordings have long been documented by the AUM Fidelity record label and on his own Centering Records, among others. He also has a duo project “Hope Cries For Justice” with Patricia Nicholson Parker which combines music, story telling, poetry and dance.
Over the decades, Parker has developed a reputation as a connector and hub of information concerning the history of creative music, recently culminating in a two hefty volumes of interviews with over 60 avant-garde and creative musicians, Conversations I & II. He is also the subject of an exhaustive 468-page “sessionography” that documents thousands of performances and recording sessions, a remarkable chronicle of his prolificness as an active artist. He has been a key figure in the New York and European creative music scenes since the 1970s, and has worked all over the world. He has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Peter Brotzmann, Milford Graves, Peter Kowald, and David S. Ware, among many others.
William Parker works all over the world but he always returns to New York’s Lower East Side, where he has lived since 1975.
William Parker official site
Profile photo by Ken Weiss
Top photo by Peter Gannushkin (DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET)

Michiyo Yagi 17-string bass koto

Michiyo Yagi studied the traditional Japanese transverse harp known as the koto under the late Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai, and graduated from the NHK Professional Training School for Traditional Musicians. During her subsequent tenure as Visiting Professor of Music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, U.S.A. she premiered numerous modern compositions for koto and came under the influence of maverick American composers such as John Cage and Christian Wolff.
Yagi’s debut CD Shizuku was produced by John Zorn and released on his Tzadik label in 1999. She has since been active as a recording artist, releasing Yural (2001) with her multi-koto ensemble Paulownia Crush; Seventeen (2005), entirely performed solo on the giant 17-string bass koto; Live! at SuperDeluxe (2006), a trio performance with Norwegians Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (contrabass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums); Head On (2008) and Volda (2010) with Nilssen-Love and Peter Brötzmann; Reflexions (2010), an album of duets with the experimental New York guitarist Elliott Sharp; Soul Stream (2011), a quartet session with Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, saxophones), Lasse Marhaug (electronics) and Nilssen-Love; and Angular Mas (2013)s, a trio with Marhaug and Nilssen-Love; Ichi No Maki [Vol. 1] (Idiolect, 2014), credited to Dōjō, her “power duo” with Japanese jazz drummer Tamaya Honda and featuring guests Nils Peter Molvær (trumpet) and Nilssen-Love; and Ni No Maki [Vol. 2] (Idiolect, 2017), a second Dōjō CD with guests Akira Sakata (reeds & voice) and Keisuke Ohta (violin). An album of ambient music co-produced by the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset, and a trio recording with Giovanni Di Domenico (keyboards) and Chris Corsano (drums) are forthcoming. A CD of original compositions featuring Yagi’s vocals is nearly completed, and a contemporary classical recording of written and commissioned music is also in development. An eclectic performer who continually challenges conventions, Yagi has played at the Moers, Kongsberg Jazz, Punkt, Újbuda Jazz, Musique Actuel Victoriaville, Archipel, Bang on a Can, Tokyo Summer, Vision, Instal, Jazztopad, Sengawa Jazz, Fuji Rock, and Music Unlimited festivals. Notable co-performers include Mark Dresser, Jim O’Rourke, Sidsel Endresen, Han Bennink, Alan Silva, Kazutoki Umezu, Raz Mesinai, Yoshihide Otomo, Ned Rothenberg, Knut Buen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Satoko Fujii, Håkon Kornstad, Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Masahiko Sato, Thomas Strønen, Carl Stone, Billy Bang, Keiji Haino, Mats Gustafsson, Roger Turner, Gerry Hemingway, and Mani Neumeier. Yagi’s koto has been featured in ex-Judy & Mary guitarist/singer Takuya’s band, and she has recorded with neo-prog rocker Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), J-pop idol Ayumi Hamasaki, and singer-songwriter Angela Aki. In addition to leading the Michiyo Yagi Trio and performing solo concerts — all with an emphasis on her original compositions, extended techniques, and unique vocals based on the traditional jiuta style — she continues to be active as the leading improviser on her chosen instrument.
Michiyo Yagi official site
Profile photo by Mirei Sakaki