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William Parker, Daniel Carter, Federico Ughi, & Watson Jennison Quartet

  • Bop Shop Records 1460 Monroe Avenue Rochester, NY, 14618 United States (map)

As a trio Daniel Carter, William Parker and Federico Ughi have been touring Europe and have recorded 2 cds (see below). This is our reunion tour with Watson, an American master musician, from the 60's NYC scene, who left the country because of Vietnam and has been living between Toronto and Sweden ever since.

Daniel Carter (born 1945 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is an American free jazz saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s. A review of a recent recording describes Carter's timbre as "an almost Lee Konitz-like cool."

Carter is a prolific performer and has recorded or performed with William Parker, Federico Ughi, DJ Logic, The Negatones, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Soul-Junk, Anne Waldman, Cooper-Moore, Matthew Shipp and scientist/musician Matthew Putman among others. He is a member of the cooperative free jazz groups Test, Other Dimensions In Music, and Ghost Moth.

William Parker is an improviser, and composer. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donson ngoni and gembri. He was born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York. He has studied bass with Richard Davis, Art Davis, Milt Hinton, Wilber Ware, and Jimmy Garrison. William Parker entered the music scene in 1971, playing at Studio We, Studio Rivbea, Hilly’s on The Bowery, the Salt and Pepper club and The Baby Grand, and quickly became a sought after bass player in the New York music scene. He has played with many musicians from the avant-garde such as, Bill Dixon, Sunny Murray, Charles Tyler, Billy Higgins, Charles Brackeen, Alan Silva, Frank Wright, Frank Lowe, Rashid Ali, Donald Ayler, Sonny Simmons, Jeanne Lee, Gunter Hampel, Karl Berger Dave Burrell, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Milford Graves and with traditionalists like Walter Bishop, Sr. and Maxine Sullivan.

William’s early collaborations with the dancer and choreographer Patricia Nicholson created a large repertoire of composed music for ensembles ranging from solo works to big band projects. Parker played in the Cecil Taylor Unit from 1980 through 1991. He has also performed with musicians from the AACM such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Ernest Dawkins, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Watson Jennison was born in West Virginia and after spending time in New York City and Stockholm, Sweden, now makes his home in Toronto,Canada. Although he studied Visual Arts in college and continues to paint and exhibit his work, music has always been a very important part of his life. He has been involved in the improvisational jazz community in Toronto for the past 25 years, collaborating with and performing along side numerous musicians. He plays the soprano sax, drums, piano, recorder, and other instruments as well. In addition to playing in Toronto, Watson has performed in other cities in Ontario as well as in New York City.

Federico Ughi - drummer and composer based in New York. Federico Ughi’s music infuses the New York avant-garde sound with a sense of melody inspired by the Italian classical and folk traditions of his childhood in Rome. Ornette Coleman has been a major influence for Federico as well as a mentor. Born in Rome, Italy Federico relocated to London at age 21 to play music, from there moving to New York in 2000 again to play music. He has been based in Brooklyn, NY ever since.He has performed or recorded with Daniel Carter, William Parker, The Cinematic Orchestra, Blue Foundation among others. Federico Ughi has performed throughout Italy, the UK, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, China, Mexico, Canada and the US.

Earlier Event: May 21
Laura Dubin & Antonio Guerrero
Later Event: June 10
Mary Gauthier