William Parker If There's a Hell Below (Curtis Mayfield)
WILLIAM PARKER
Online Video

Jazz music community with review and forums

I Plan To Stay A Believer is the definitive document of William Parker's The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project, comprised of exuberant concert recordings spanning the past decade (2001-2008). The project features fully charged interpolations of the mighty songbook of soul music legend Curtis Mayfield by an equally mighty 8-piece band, occasionally accompanied by highly inspired choirs, including two pieces from the group's very first 2001 performance in Paris with a chorus of 90 children and another pair from New York in 2008 which feature a full gospel choir.

Bassist/composer William Parker is among the most active and highly regarded musicians performing today. This is the first project in his 35-year career devoted to the music of another composer. Curtis Mayfield was a prophet, a preacher, a revolutionary, a humanist, and a griot. All are descriptors for William Parker as well.

As Parker writes in the liner notes, "Every song written or improvised has an inside song which lives in the shadows, in-between the sounds and silences and behind the words, pulsating, waiting to be reborn as a new song."

I Plan To Stay A Believer brings Curtis Mayfield's positive messages of hope and fortitude in the face of potentially overwhelming odds back into the present moment where these energies remain in great need.

The group features all long-standing compatriots of Parker's: the peerless rhythm section of Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, along with elder masters Dave Burrell on piano and poet/activist Amiri Baraka. The horn section features saxophonists Sabir Mateen & Darryl Foster and trumpeter Lewis Barnes. Deeply soulful singer Leena Conquest is also featured in Parker's Raining on the Moon group / Corn Meal Dance album singing William's words of deep insight and inspiration. -SJ
Share this online video
Added by js more than 2 years ago

Shouts

Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Thrive Post-Fusion Contemporary
FABIENNE AMBÜHL (AMBUEHL)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Beneath the Skin Vocal Jazz
NNENNA FREELON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ozark Concerto Third Stream
JAKE HERTZOG
Buy this album from MMA partners
Joe Morris, Caleb Duval, Michael Larocca : Refreshment Jazz Related Improv/Composition
JOE MORRIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

After the Last Sky
ANOUAR BRAHEM
js· 1 day ago
Positive Energy
GREG ABATE
snobb· 3 days ago
The 23
NELS CLINE
snobb· 4 days ago
Simple Pleasure
CHARLES CHEN
js· 4 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us