SAADET TURKOZ, VOICE
WILLIAM PARKER, BASS
PREMIERE
Kazakh-Turkish singer Saadet Türköz and New York bassist William Parker have met many times playing various international festivals, but tonight marks the first time the two will meet to play their own music. “THE MUSIC IS COURAGE, MUSIC IS NOW AND FOREVER…”
Singer Saadet Türköz, now resident in Switzerland, was born in Istanbul in 1961 in a family of Uigur migrants from China. Through her improvisations (inspired mainly by melodic language of the Koran) and Turkish and Kazakh songs she tries to transform her reminiscences and ancestral memory of her nation. Her voice and music create unique images and sophisticated atmosphere that are beyond cultural borders.
William Parker is a master musician, improviser, and composer. He plays the bass, shakuhachi, double reeds, tuba, donso ngoni and gembri. Parker played in the Cecil Taylor unit from 1980 through 1991. He also developed a strong relationship with the European Improvised Music scene playing with musicians such as Peter Kowald, Peter Brotzmann, Han Bennink, Tony Oxley, Derek Bailey, Louis Sclavis, and Louis Moholo. He began recording in 1994 and leading his own bands on a regular basis founding two ensembles, In Order To Survive, and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. In 2001, Parker released O’Neal’s Porch, which marked a turn toward a more universal sound working with drummer Hamid Drake. The Raining on the Moon Quintet followed, adding vocalist Leena Conquest and the Quartet from O’Neal’s Porch. Most notable among many recent projects is the Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield. He has taught at Bennington College, NYU, The New England Conservatory of Music, Cal Arts, New School University and Rotterdam Conservatory of Music.