"CHOC (highest recommendation)" –Jazz Magazine (FR)
"Rewind: Top 50 Releases of 2015" –The Wire
"Music of gravitas from a modern day icon." –Jazzwise
"Bassist, composer and bandleader William Parker is a bottomless well of creativity, and his endless run of superb recordings continues with For Those Who Are, Still" –JazzTimes
"A release of combustive and sacred energy, in which profoundly masterful singers play a central role, including the rooted singing and spoken word of gorgeous contralto Leena Conquest on Disc 1; deeply organic incantations of Senegalese griot Mola Sylla and classically-trained Indian singer Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay on Disc 2; and eight fierce principal singers of the NFM Choir on Disc 3. Parker and his ensembles walk into the face of Civil Rights horror and ride currents of the cosmic-as-ever-present on long-form works harnessing order into chaos and unleashing chaos into order. This is a must-have set for all Parker fans and anyone who wants to expand their ears; it is movingly outside the box." –The New York City Jazz Record
Essential music for those who are, still here. Meaning you and I. More extensive listening -&- details are on each component album's page. It was decided to post them up here as individual albums as well, principally to make this grand and varied collection of work easier to parse!
William Parker is a premier jazz composer, bassist/multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. His contributions to music over the last four+ decades are un-quantifiable. Since beginning to regularly record and release his work as a leader/composer in the mid-90s, he has produced numerous masterworks of an eternal nature. This box set is one of them.
It is comprised of four distinct long-form works: Parker’s first score written -&- performed by symphony orchestra; a commissioned piece for standing new music ensemble; a chamber-jazz song series for voice / sax / piano / bass; a long-form / multi-sectional composition created specifically for a particularly global assemblage in Universal Tonality mode. The four works are linked by a focus on and greater adherence to William Parker’s long-form composition; the depth and breadth of the resultant performances thereof is astonishing."
AUM Fidelity
