Billy Parker's Fourth World - "Freedom of Speech" - (1975)

THE MUSIC

The standouts on this album are the two joyous vocal tracks that start each side.
Donald Smith and Ron Bridgewater's "Dance of the Little Children" begins with a call to children to embrace their ancestry and find peace and happiness in the everyday, in order to find a future (yes, it's 1974!). Smith's vocal and piano embrace a harder, faster swing than the mellower tones of his brother's band at that time. The Bridgewater brothers move in and out of a synchronised melody, adding improvised tones around the vocal, and McBee holds a walking beat while Parker is all shimmering cymbals and offbeat snare.

The other vocal track is Ron Bridgewater's "Get With It", featuring a killer vocal by Dee Dee Bridgewater. Cecil McBee's memorable bassline does call-and-answer with the Bridgewater brothers' sax and trumpet. Parker zooms around the kit with constantly changing patterns while Smith holds the fort with simple chord patterns.

Cecil McBee's "Home" allows all of the musicians to stretch out in considered solos, while "Gemini's Lullaby" is a more straight-ahead affair.

Finally, there's Parker's sixteen-minute "Freedom Of Speech". After a three-minute drum solo - which I have to admit I always skip over - we move into a complex series of interlocking rhythms, with the brass and sax heading off into fairly free territory. Now on Rhodes, Donald Smith seems in close communication with McBee's fast, arpeggiated basslines. The two of them would come together again the next year with drummer Jack dejohnette for the album "Luv", Smith's only date as leader.

THE HISTORY ....

Most of the musicians who gathered to record this fantastic spiritual jazz record for the Strata-East label on May 24th, 1974 had crossed each other's paths in various musical pairings over the preceding few years.

Husband and wife team Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals) and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) had been working together on albums like Frank Foster's "Loud Minority", and Roy Ayers' "Coffy" and "Virgo Red".

Dee Dee was a vocalist much in demand. In the year preceding this session,she'd appeared on Carlos Garnett's funky "Black Love", Norman Connors' beautiful "Love From the Sun" and had shared memorable duet vocals with Andy Bey on Stanley Clarke's "Children of Forever" - just to name a few absolute classics!

Ten weeks before the "Freedom Of Speech" session, the couple had been joined in Tokyo by Cecil's brother Ronald Bridgewater (tenor saxaphone) to record Dee Dee's debut album, the beautiful "Afro Blue", on which the brothers had added african percussion instruments to their arsenal.

Also in the studio on May 24th, 1974 was Donald Smith, (piano, vocals), fresh from recording on his older brother Lonnie Liston Smith's "Cosmic Funk" - on which Ronald Bridgewater had also played percussion.

Cecil McBee (bass) was also there - just two weeks before, he'd completed his own Strata East date "Mutima", and in February he'd played on Mtume's "Rebirth Cycle" - with both albums also featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals. He'd also played on Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Travelling".

So 1974 was a huge year for all five of these people (and, seemingly, for great jazz music). Within a month of this album, the Bridgewaters would be back in the studio to take part in Thad Jones & Mel Lewis' big-band "Potpourri", before working on two McCoy Tyner albums, two O'Donel Levy albums and a couple for Roy Ayers. Donald Smith and Cecil McBee were six months away from recording on Lonnie Liston Smith's massive "Expansions", with McBee fitting in a few Pharoah Sanders albums in between.

Billy Parker - from the cover of "Freedom Of Speech"

AND THEN, THE MYSTERY ...

So with all this fervent activity, the question has to be asked ...

** Who was Billy Earl Parker Jr (drums), the leader of this session ??

Billy Parker remains unlisted as a musician on all major jazz sites. Hours of Google revealed little, and the only known photos are above. Even in the cover pic at the top of this post, his name seems to be fading into the ringwear ...

His only other recording appears to be as a percussionist on Charles Tolliver's "Impact" in 1975. Then there's nothing.

For a moment, I worried that he might be this killer, but then worked out that he would have been nine years old when he'd recorded this album.

Finally, by backtracking one of those Zoom info pages, I found a summary of a "SUNY Rockland Community College" 2002 press release that no longer exists :

"Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy Concert 

...
The concert, Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy, is the eighth annual tribute honoring the late percussionist and RCC educator, Billy Parker. A long-time Rockland County resident, Parker began his affiliation with RCC in 1987, building its jazz program and maintaining his life-long tradition of teaching and inspiring others. A lifelong student himself, Parker was near completion of his doctorate in music education at New York University when he died in 1996. Billy was among those rare individuals equally gifted as artist and educator and the concert series pays homage to his legacy."

Nothing on him at the actual Rockland Community College website, but a little more digging through back issues of their pdf newsletters revealed that the tenth annual "Fourth World Legacy Concert series" took place in 2005, as part of "Black History Awareness Month", but then it stopped.

So perhaps Parker was one of those musicians who shift their creative skills to teaching ? Whatever the case, his one date as leader was a special one, and he managed to bring together all these people at the peak of their powers. He's also a great drummer.

But then people began to read this blog post, and in the comments, Aaron Fuller said :

"Billy Parker was my uncle. He was an incredibly talented, smart, and kind man. I'm very happy to see that folks are still enjoying his masterpiece.

Just to give you a bit more information about him... He was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and then attended college at Michigan State University. He met my aunt in Lansing. They lived in NY and toured in Europe for quite a while. Some time later they relocated to Nyack, NY and he ended up on the faculty of the community college while he pursued advanced degrees from NYU. He was an Ellington scholar. Although his name isn't well-known even among the most avid jazz fans, I think that if you were to talk to some of the great NY musicians that were around in the late 60s and 70s you would find that most knew him. He also had a huge impact as a music educator and I have no doubt that his former students are all over the place, continuing to put his love of the art into practice." 

Then later, Aaron came back and said "Simon, I spoke with my aunt a bit more about the recording of the album. She said that one of the reasons she thinks it turned out so well is that Billy made sure to pay all of the musicians really well and give them their pay up front. Billy had apparently gotten some sort of grant from the NEA around that time that probably really helped on the funding front. I asked how he knew this group of players and she thought that he'd probably met some of them when he was playing around Europe (Italy, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, mostly). Often times bigger American acts would come around and need to pick up a drummer for their gigs and then be thrilled to find a New York guy at their disposal. He apparently made a lot of good long-term contacts. She's been giving everyone in our family the records she still has. We told her she could probably make some good money selling them online, but she is more interested in making sure that we all have copies and keep listening to it." 

Erik Lawrence adds : "I was about 17 or 18, growing up near Nyack, NY when I met Billy in the late 70's. We played together a lot for several years... these were the 80's when it wasn't so easy to record or put out records, unfortunately. He was working a job as a sort of medical courier before diving into education with both feet. He taught me and the other local ambitious creative players a lot. From what I remember he grew up with Juni Booth and we even did a gig with him at one point, outdoors at the Edward Hopper House in Nyack. I can research the date and find out if a recording exists. I was teaching jazz history at Rockland Community College and stopped after a few years. Billy went in and began to develop a jazz studies program there and taught some young students who played in that later version of 4th World. He was an amazing spirit and only knew how to play in an uncompromising way. I don't remember exactly when he passed. I'm sure Aaron might know. (Aaron please give my best to Carol. I'l love to be in touch with her). Beautiful spirit! Ask Cecil McBee about him. We spoke about him quite a bit recently." 

Ibn Shabazz, Billy Parker's son, would like to find out more information about Billy : 

My name is Ibn Shabazz and William "Billy" Earl Parker, Jr. was my father. I was born, Paul Earl Parker in Buffalo, NY and I am his only son. I am amazed that this album has stood the test of time. I'd like to gather as much information on him as could. I keep pulling up some country singer named Billy Parker when I do a google search. If anyone could help me I would be forever grateful.

Final words from Billy Parker, from the cover notes :

"The Fourth World was born out of the need to preserve and develop on a tradition brought to these shores from Africa centuries ago."

BILLY PARKER"S FOURTH WORLD
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH"
Strata-East, Catalogue #SES-19754.
Recorded May 24th, 1974. Released 1975

TRACKLIST

01 DANCE OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN (4:56)
Arranged by - Cecil Bridgewater
Composed - Donald Smith
Lyrics By - Ronald Bridgewater

02 GEMINI'S LULLABY (6:58)
Composed By - Cecil Bridgewater

03 HOME (8:17)
Composed By, Arranged By - Cecil McBee

04 GET WITH IT (4:03)
Arranged By - Cecil Bridgewater
Composed By - Ronald Bridgewater

05 FREEDOM OF SPEECH (16:00)
Composed By - Billy Parker

CREDITS

Piano, Vocals - Donald Smith
Bass - Cecil McBee
Drums, Producer - Billy Parker
Saxophone [Tenor] - Ronald Bridgewater
Trumpet - Cecil Bridgewater
Vocals - Dee Dee Bridgewater

Artwork By [Inside Cover Design] - Vernon Grant
Engineer [Recording] - Ron Carran
Mixed By - Randy Adler
Liner Notes - Billy Earl Parker Jr.
Photography - Darnell C. Mitchell

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Thanks to all the bloggers who i've linked to in this post, hope you enjoy some traffic :)

BIG thanks to Reza for the nice new vinyl rip, replacing the crap one I've had up at Ish's wants list for a few months ...

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