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William Hooker

William Hooker's body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the modern drum kit. His work is frequently grounded in a narrative context. Whether set against a silent film or anchored by a poetic theme, Hooker brings dramatic tension and human warmth to avant-garde jazz. His ability to find fertile ground for moving music in a variety of settings that obliterate genre distinctions offers a much-needed statement of social optimism in the arts." Thomas Stanley.

William Hooker (drummer,composer and poet) has created works that range from jazz and "new" music to experimental genres. He has released over 70 CDs as a leader. Mr. Hooker has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Edgefest Jazz Festival, The Vision Festival, The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, The Wadsworth Atheneum, Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Walker Art Center,the first on MTV, The Kitchen, Roulette, Real Art Ways. He has also presented his work at the JVC Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, CMJ Music Festival,Vilnius Jazz Festival, Experimenta Argentina,The Knitting Factory and the Victoriaville Music Festival.

William Hooker has received commissions and support from the New York State Council on the Arts,Meet the Composer,Tokio Marine Insurance Company, Colleges and Universities such as Oberlin, Fordham, Columbia,New York University, Boston University, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale and many more. Accompanying musicians have included Billy Bang,David Ware,William Parker,Thurston Moore, David Soldier,Roy Campbell,DJ Spooky,Steven Bernstein,Zeena Parkins,Lee Ranaldo,Jason Hwang,Sabir Mateen, Elliot Sharpe,David Murray,Ted Daniel,JD Parren and many more.

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Album Review

William Hooker: Light - The Early Years 1975-1989

Read "Light - The Early Years 1975-1989" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


L'etichetta lituana NoBusiness Records, orientata verso il free storico e la musica più recente che ne è derivata, si distingue anche per le raffinate riedizioni in tiratura limitata. Light, sottotitolato The Early Years, 1975- 1989, presenta in quattro CD l'attività del batterista e compositore William Hooker, catturata in quegli anni in locali, studi radiofonici, loft e luoghi di cultura di New York. Il materiale è in parte inedito, in parte pubblicato originariamente su vinile dall'etichetta dello stesso Hooker, la Reality ...

Album Review

William Hooker, Thomas Chapin: Crossing Points

Read "Crossing Points" reviewed by Enrico Bettinello


L'aggiornato e appassionato blog Free Jazz dedica a questo disco una recensione di pochissime righe, quasi una lista di tags che forse meglio di ogni ragionamento riesce a dare le coordinate della musica del duo tra il batterista William Hooker e il sassofonista Thomas Chapin. Certo, a elencare qualità [a volte anche apparentemente ossimoriche come lirismo e cattiveria] e chiari riferimenti -da Coltrane/Rashied Alì a Ayler -è facile fare centro, ma sicuramente non servono troppe parole quando ...

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Album Review

William Hooker: Light The Early Years 1975-1989

Read "Light The Early Years 1975-1989" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The good news is that record executives are no longer the gatekeepers of taste and style in music today. Inexpensive recording equipment and the advent of digital music allow the artist, and the audience to cast a wide net these days. This wasn't the case forty years ago, especially for the improvised jazz scene. Studio time was expensive and the production of vinyl LPs, in the quantities free jazz sold, was cost prohibitive. Documents of the time, when improvised music ...

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Album Review

William Hooker: Light

Read "Light" reviewed by John Sharpe


Light constitutes another welcome instalment from the back pages of NYC free jazz by the Lithuanian No Business imprint, following on from Jemeel Moondoc's Muntu Recordings (2009), Commitment's Complete Recordings 1980/1983 (2010) and William Parker's Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987 (2012) box set, among others. The label has released some of drummer William Hooker's most accomplished work in recent years, such as Bliss -Earth's Orbit (2010) and Live At Vilnius Jazz Festival (2014) as well as previous documents from the ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five with William Hooker

Read "Take Five with William Hooker" reviewed by William Hooker


About William Hooker: I grew up in New Britain, Connecticut and basically was a good student, and came from a good home. I did all that I could possibly do to make my way through New Britain High School, Nathan Hale Junior High, and Central Conn. State College. I tried to get good grades to be an exceptional student as far as playing in the band and orchestra, in leading the chorus and student councils. I was brought up ...

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Album Review

William Hooker & Liudas Mockūnas: Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival

Read "Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival" reviewed by John Sharpe


Veteran drummer William Hooker continues to expand his varied discography on the No Business imprint, with the addition of Live At Vilnius Jazz Festival. Like Crossing Points (2011) with the late reedman Thomas Chapin, it's a meeting with a resourceful saxophonist -this time Liudas Mockūnas, a co-founder of the label. But unlike the former encounter, on this occasion Hooker avoids the all out aural assault which tested Chapin to the limits, settling instead for power exercised with restraint and precision. ...

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Album Review

William Hooker & Liudas Mockūnas: Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival

Read "Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Did somebody say “bring it?" Must have, because the combination of muscleman drummer William Hooker and Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas surely delivers the goods in this 53-minute duo improvisation performance at the Vilnius Jazz Festival in October 2013.The four lengthy tracks are part of a continuous set the two seared into their audience's ears. Certainly, the combination of Hooker's dynamo and Mockūnas' lung bursting breath are present here, so is a discriminating subtle sound. Hooker, a ...

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Recording

New NoBusiness Records Archive Series Release: William Hooker "Light. The Early Years 1975-1989"

New NoBusiness Records Archive Series Release: William Hooker "Light. The Early Years 1975-1989"

Source: NoBusiness Records

Featuring David S. Ware, David Murray, Roy Campbell Jr., Mark Hennen, Jemeel Moondoc and others. NoBusiness Records is pleased to announce a new archive release from it’s series of important musicians and group recordings from the 70s and 80s, which either were never released before or released on small private labels but long out of print and now newly remastered. This release is dedicated to William Hooker’s early music and covers his most important works during the period from 1975 ...

Performance / Tour

William Hooker Brings Drum Thunder To Outpost 186 Cambridge MA on Sunday April 14th

William Hooker Brings Drum Thunder To Outpost 186 Cambridge MA on Sunday April 14th

Source: Chris Rich

The venerable William Hooker rolls into town for a solo performance involving projected visuals and a duet segment with trumpeter Forbes Graham. The proceedings will commence at 8 pm with a suggested donation of $10.00. Mr. Hooker has been an avid collaborator with Knitting Factory notables such as Elliot Sharp, Thurston Moore and Zeena Parkins in addition to the many stellar adherents of the Free Jazz core stretching back several decades to his work with Cecil Taylor, David S. Ware ...

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Recording

William Hooker Duets with Thomas Chapin! "Crossing Points" Documents the Convergence.

William Hooker Duets with Thomas Chapin! "Crossing Points" Documents the Convergence.

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

I have a friend who is dedicated to the music. He prides himself on NOT being a collector, of not making a fetish out of owning thousands upon thousands of recordings to line up in long rows and nod knowingly about the music when guests arrive. “Yes, you see I own all this music, so you know that I know all about it." He doesn't imply that. He rejects it. He is in the music for the music. Yet his ...

170

Recording

William Hooker and Thomas Chapin - Crossing Points (Nobusiness, 2011)

William Hooker and Thomas Chapin - Crossing Points (Nobusiness, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Multi-instrumentalist Thomas Chapin was one of my guiding lights when I started getting into jazz really heavily in the 1990's. His Knitting Factory releases are all stellar, and he could play anything from swing to bop to free, but was possibly at his best when combining all genres or dispensing with the notion of genre entirely.

This duet album finds him in the company of master drummer William Hooker for a two man blast off into the cosmos. Make no ...

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Performance / Tour

Wave Lengths

Wave Lengths

Source: Ars Nova Workshop

On February 17, Ars Nova Workshop presents a free concert at The Rotunda with William Hooker's Two Sides of Now and Norwegian duo Vertex. Tonight (February 11) on WRTI’s premier jazz program The Bridge, host J. Michael Harrison interviews William Hooker. Broadcasting live at 10pm (EST) from WRTI’s headquarters at Temple University, you can stream the interview here. Along with Dave Burrell's Echo, Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz, and Sunny Murray's Sunny's Time Now, drummer William Hooker's Is Eternal Life is ...

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Recording

William Hooker Trio - Yearn for Certainty (Engine)

William Hooker Trio - Yearn for Certainty (Engine)

Source: Master of a Small House

An admirable eclecticism and open-mindedness underscores William Hooker's career as a drummer. He's reliably followed his muse even when the ideas advancing his numerous projects have suffered under suspect application. This concert at Roulette is an apposite example of that phenomenon. On cardboard tray card it brims with potential intrigue. String bender David Soldier and reedist Sabir Mateen are two stalwart Downtown heroes with infrequent intersections between them. Hooker's decision to enlist them both is inspired. Holding the occasion in ...

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Recording

Drummer William Hooker Releases "The Season's Fire" on Important Records

Drummer William Hooker Releases "The Season's Fire" on Important Records

Source: All About Jazz

Featuring Eyvind Kang and Bill Horist Dharma on Kmbjazz Featuring Sabir Mateen

William Hooker is an artistic whole, a vast circle of vision and execution. A body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the ...

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Music Industry

William Hooker in Seattle - Sat. 10/20 & Sun. 10/21

William Hooker in Seattle - Sat. 10/20 & Sun. 10/21

Source: All About Jazz

PeruviaNighTrain Productions & Wall of Sound are proud to present:

~ two very special shows ~

feat. Knitting Factory recording artist William Hooker (drums)

and Tzadik (John Zorn's label) rec. artist Eyvind Kang (violin)

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Here's the lowdown:

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- WILLIAM HOOKER (nyc) & EYVIND KANG (seattle)

{with a special guest appearance by Bill Horist}

- CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS

- CHARLES GOCHER (of the Sun City Girls)

feat. Pint-Sized Spartacus

AT: THE RAINBOW - 722 NE 45th St. [Seattle] ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Light - The Early...

NoBusiness Records
2016

buy

Live at Vilnius Jazz...

NoBusiness Records
2014

buy

Heart Of The Sun

Black Saint
2013

buy

Channels of...

NoBusiness Records
2013

buy

Crossing Points

NoBusiness Records
2011

buy

Earth's Orbit

NoBusiness Records
2010

buy

Videos

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