I According to Parker’s liner notes accompanying the 1998 reissue, the album title is from a line of poetry by Kenneth Patchen: “through acceptance of the mystery peace & only through peace can come acceptance of the mystery.” The composition of the same name is dedicated to and inspired by Patchen. “Desert Flower” is for “those human beings who flower within the desert, whether that desert is the Sahara, or the streets of Watts or Capetown.”
William Parker‘s 1980 debut album is named for a line in a Kenneth Patchen poem.
caught William Parker big band show in New York at Nublu which is also a Brazilian club; I caught the end of the Brazilian act, which was Hamilton Holande; before I realized I could sneak into the end of the Brazilian act, I watched William Parker mustering his troops; I cut in to exchange words with Rob Brown, a long time sax collaborator; when I approached William and said I was from palo alto he said “Kenneth Patchen
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I thought it was fantastic. It seemed like the whole set was a riff on Curtis Mayfield people get ready. I could see the lead sheet that the keyboard is working from it was labeled “get on board”. I got on board.
Kenneth died in palo alto in the early 1970s. He spent the last year of his life here; he slowed a bit by a back injury, the time you said he moved to palo alto from the city to be closer to a treatment. I found a volume of his work at Bell’s Books. The New York Times review said obituary said that he I will make a little room if you find a chair no worries.
is that poetry?
I also remember aleta hayes to him. The vocalist in Williamsburg were three distinct voices and styles. The first one was like a news announcer with good addiction and power and her mostly spoken voice. The second one was a small Asian woman who was firey and expressive. The third was slightly older reminded me of Laurie Anderson, but with good melodies. I wrote down the names of the performers. I admit the trombone player earlier in the evening on our way to get a falafel on the corner market. My wife was assertive with a large hairy man who didn’t realize he was blocked in her interview.. plus we were lucky to be sitting stage right in a loft.
fantasize about bringing William Parker to palo alto he had been at Stanford and I believe San Jose in recent years (20?).
writing this reminds me of reading howl on the balcony of Bell’s Books with Beth Custer blowing clarinet or or Larry Ochs reading below Nils Freydahl at Lytton Plaza, one dark and stormy night around noon with the sun under a Canopy.
And1:
reading into Kenneth Patchen is a link or two away from Al Neil, who played behind Kenneth an early manifestation of the trope of jazz and poetry, perform simultaneously or symbiotic interdependently or cahoots
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 