{"id":5899,"date":"2016-05-31T16:32:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=5899"},"modified":"2016-05-31T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T16:32:08","slug":"the-vision-fest-rolls-on-at-21-and-william-parkers-vision-hits-jazz-at-lincoln-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/31\/the-vision-fest-rolls-on-at-21-and-william-parkers-vision-hits-jazz-at-lincoln-center\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vision Fest Rolls On at 21, And William Parker's Vision Hits Jazz at Lincoln Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WP_by_Peter_Gannushkin-09MR-1\"<\/a>
William Parker\/ photo by Peter Gannushkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nOnce, it might have been\u00a0hard to imagine bassist and composer William Parker<\/strong> headlining two nights at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in Manhattan.
\nIt will happen July 26<\/a> & 27<\/a>. And really, it makes perfect sense.
\nAs a bassist, composer and bandleader, Parker is one of modern jazz’s defining presences; as much as any musician, he fulfills a vision Dizzy Gillespie, the club’s namesake, had decades ago of jazz as an expansive and cross-cultural music, one never stuck in place and always connected to a larger social and political awareness. And by now anyone’s wrongheaded\u00a0view of Parker as simply a “downtown” musician (though that’s where he’s lived for a long time, and where he has anchored a community) have been erased by two forces: the sheer breadth and depth of Parker’s work; and the collapse in general of limiting categories when it comes to real jazz.\u00a0Also, more than a decade past the organization\u2019s founding, Jazz at Lincoln Center has notably broadened its bookings and ethos.
\nAt Dizzy\u2019s, Parker<\/a>, who composes music at a dizzying pace, will present new compositions. These will be performed on July 26 by a quintet, and on the 27th<\/sup> by an 8-piece edition of his In Order to Survive Ensemble (the second set, billed as \u201cExtended Breath,\u201d may involve yet more musicians). Both nights will feature the wondrous tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan and drummer Hamid Drake (and any chance to hear Parker and Drake together is a reason to show up and get a good seat.)
\nOnce, it might have been hard to imagine Parker absent from New York City’s annual Vision Festival<\/a><\/strong>\u2014this country’s essential gathering of avant-garde improvising musicians, and\u00a0a broader celebration of artistic purpose that also highlights dance, poetry and visual arts.
\nYet that, too, will happen.
\nParker was a founding force behind the festival, now in its 21st year, and a ubiquitous onstage presence.\u00a0This year, he’ll be in Calgary, Alberta, as composer & musical director of the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks<\/a>\u00a0brand\u00a0New Universe<\/a>\u00a0piece & performance space during Vision Fest.
\nOddly perhaps, that circumstance makes a certain sense, too: The Vision fest’s\u00a0offerings (June 7-12) are so broad and strong, its cast of characters so deserving of their spotlights, that this year’s edition is no less satisfying with Parker on the road. (Full schedule here<\/a>.)
\n
\"Henry<\/a>
Henry Grimes\/ photo by Hollis King<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nAs happens annually, one artist is honored for a lifetime of achievement with a full evening as headliner. This year’s focus (June 7) is on bassist and violinist Henry Grimes<\/strong>, whose elemental work in the late 1950s is worth seeking out on recordings, and whose unlikely career resurgence in in 2003, involved a helping hand from Parker.
\nGrimes\u2019 story is itself wondrous.\u00a0He was among jazz\u2019s most sought-after bassists in the late \u201950s, and he played on free-jazz recordings in the \u201960s with the likes of Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Don Cherry. Then he just dropped out, disappeared from the scene for more than three decades.
\nI’ll never forget hearing Grimes,\u00a0playing a green-stained bass given to him by Parker, during a triumphant appearance at the 2003 Vision Festival. \u201cSomething happened,\u201d Grimes told me following that performance. \u201cIt was like a thick air came into the club and came right down on everybody in it. Everything that I\u2019ve strived for came true, with bigger implications for the future.\u201d Those implications have turned into realities in the years since.
\nOn June 7, Grimes will lead two powerhouse groups\u2014one a quartet that includes one of Grimes’ contemporaries, drummer Andrew Cyrille, the other a septet including guitarist Marc Ribot, who has worked closely with Grimes since his return to the scene. In between, Grimes will be joined by several vocalists, performing songs by Lisa Sokolov, drawn from the original poems Grimes sometimes recites in performance.
\nThere are many highlights to this year’s fest. Among them:
\n\u2014Jen Shyu<\/a>‘s genre-and-border-defying songs (June 8)
\n\u2014Sun Ra Arkestra 60th anniversary celebration (June 8)
\n\u2014Saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc leading a quintet including pianist Matthew Shipp (June 9)
\n\u2014Garland of Blessing (Hamid Drake – drums,\u00a0Kidd Jordan – sax,\u00a0Cooper-Moore – piano,\u00a0Michael Bisio – bass\u2014June 9)
\n\u2014trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>with a viola Quartet and Electronics\u00a0(June 11)
\n\u2014saxophonist Kidd Jordan leading a quintet to close the fest (June 12)
\nAnd I’ll especially highlight the June 10 performance by Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba<\/strong><\/a>, a group that showcases no just a rare union of religious and folkloric Afro-Cuban forms with modern large-ensemble jazz but also the place of Afro-Latin lineage within the Vision Festival’s legacy.
\nI’ve been following New Yor-Uba closely. In an email, Rosewoman described the extended new work she will present at Vision as her attempt to “jump the octave” with this group, through a rhythmic suite and tribute to 23 orishas. The group includes bat\u00e1 and conga master Rom\u00e1n D\u00edaz, surrounded by others suitably skilled in rhythmic magic, such as bassist Yunior Terry, drummer Robby Ameen and percussionist Mauricio Herrera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once, it might have been\u00a0hard to imagine bassist and composer William Parker headlining two nights at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in Manhattan. It will happen July 26 & 27. And really, it makes perfect sense. As a bassist, composer and bandleader, Parker is one of modern jazz’s defining presences; as much as any … <\/p>\n

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