Wanjiku Kairu interviews bassist legend William Parker

PROMOTING AND NURTURING JAZZ IN CHICAGO

Interviewed by Wanjiku Kairu

William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time.” In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists. Mr. Parker performed at the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival and our Wanjiku Kairu had the great pleasure of interviewing a few days before his performance. Here is a transcript of that interview.

Wanjiku Kairu: Hey, I'm Wanjiku Kairu with the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and today we're talking with William Parker. William, how are you doing today?

William Parker: I'm doing great, great, great. It's a little hot here in New York, but I'm doing great. Beautiful morning. And every day is, when you can see the sky and the sunshine, and hear, and filter this music that's going through you is a great day. And wonderful people.

Wanjiku Kairu: Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. I know you're out in New York. It must be great over there. We have a lot of artists coming in from New York this year.

William Parker: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Wanjiku Kairu: So tell us about the work that you're performing. What has been your inspiration for your performance?

William Parker: Well, what we're doing is a suite of several pieces, some new and some older pieces. And the inspiration is about what's gone. People like Fred Anderson who ran The Velvet Lounge, we have a piece for him called What You Got For Me Today. And because every time I visited Fred, I would come in from New York and he'd be down practicing. And I'd always tell him stories. I'm like a storyteller. And so, I'd tell Fred what was going on with his worthy constituent Kalaparusa, Maurice McIntyre, or what the guys from Chicago were doing in New York that he didn't know about. So he'd always say... So that's like a rousing boom piece. And then we're doing a piece called Wood Flute Song, which is dedicated to Don Sherry, a guy I played with 1975. We did a week at the Five Spot. And I knew him since like '74 and just a great musician, trumpet player. And he'd always have some wood flutes, introduced me to the instrument the Ducengoney from Molly. And probably, an exponent to bringing the idea of world music, which is basically music from around the world. So that piece is going to be included. Then, we're doing a piece called Huey's Sunset, which is in seven four, which deals with my fictional character, Huey Jackson, who was an embodiment of hope for little kids. He lives in the Bronx where I was born, and he's actually me actually, and he wanted to be a poet. But everybody was telling him, "Huey, you got to work for the post office. You got to get a real job." And Huey would say, "No, I want to be a poet." And so we eventually saw that little Huey created music orchestra to bring this idea of hope to all the little kids who live in the projects in the projects, in the Bronx. So we'll be doing that and some other pieces with organ. Mr. Cooper Moore playing organ. Drake, who lives in Chicago, trap drums, raw brown alto sax, and James Brandon Lewis Turner saxophone.

Wanjiku Kairu: Awesome. It sounds like you have a great mix of performers today. Now, you're from the Bronx. How has New York influenced... How has that New York influence played a hand in your development as an artist?

William Parker: Well, it's hard to say. When you are born in New York and you're in the middle of it, in the middle of the fire, you don't notice the flames. So people always say New York has this energy, and to me it's just New York. But I can imagine someone coming from a small town, and coming to New York, and seeing all the buildings, and seeing these people, and all the hustle and bustle. So that energy is in you. And we are right in the urban chaos and drama. There's always drama. It was always drama growing up in New York. And I guess that has put in a little push in the music and the creativity, is to have this drama involved. So it's been great. And then we travel, and luckily we're able to travel, around the world now and play music. It's great.

Wanjiku Kairu: Nice. That's awesome. New York is one of the most courageous cities out there. I'm originally from New Jersey.

William Parker: Oh, okay.

Wanjiku Kairu: Yeah. I'm so excited to see all these different influences come into play. That'll be really great. So you have such a full career. You've accomplished so much. You've received the Doris Duke Performing Arts Award and the Village Voice has called you the most consistently brilliant free jazz basest of all time. What has been your greatest achievement so far?

William Parker: My greatest achievement is every day when I wake up and can play music, is my greatest achievement. And meet wonderful people like you and others, and the gentleman sitting in my kitchen. The achievement is to be alive and to be able to play, and to continue to get into the middle of your imagination. Creativity, imagination, imagination, into activation. And you activate and then you create. You're able to create and things come through you. So I think... And you never know what's going to happen, who's the next person to walk through the door or you'll meet in the street. That's why you have to stay open to all possibilities. You never know.

Wanjiku Kairu: So you seem like a man of the elements. What is your favorite weather to create music in? I'm sure you've never gotten that question before.

William Parker: I've never gotten that question. When I was a kid, I used to like the rainy days because I would sit in the house and listen to Randy Weston. And listen to one track called Portrait of Vivian, his mother, and I had listen to one track over and over again. And somehow again that activated the creativity in me to look out into the clouds, look out into the rain, hear the dripping of water on the leaves. So rain symbols, rain drums, or the idea give you visions like, okay, let's tie a drum set to a tree. And then have the wind blow through the drum set and have the leaves be the brushes. So all this stuff came to me when I was a kid. Or tie a saxophone up to a tree and have it the wind blow through it. And I was convinced that if the wind blew through it, it would not sound like Charlie Parker. It would sound a little different.

Wanjiku Kairu: Yeah. Nice, nice. That's so funny. For me, when it rains, I always think it's such an emotional cleanser for me because for me, if it's raining outside then I don't have any room to be sad because it's already raining out there. So I have no choice to but to be having a good time. All right, so is there anyone that you are really excited to check out this weekend?

William Parker: Well, we arrive on the second. And we get out there, I'm not even sure the schedule. So I would've liked to, I think Henry Threadgill is playing on the first. I would've liked to check him out. But we're going to still be in New York on the first. But Carmen Lundy plays before us, I believe. And Miguel Zenon plays, so I like to check out as much music as I can check out because in New York you're too busy being in New York sometimes to hear music. But on the road, you meet people at the airport and it's good to check out and listen to people when it's not a memorial. See musicians gather when someone dies. And so let's gather when something is being born, like some music.

Wanjiku Kairu: Nice. That's awesome. It's been so great speaking with you today.

William Parker: Thank you.