William Hooker, Part Four - The Symbol of the Unconquered

"Part Four," by William Hooker, recorded live on February 14, 2009 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY.

Percussionist William Hooker improvises to pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheauxs 1920 silent classic, The Symbol of the Unconquered. Originally advertised as a chance to come see the annihila¬tion of the Ku Klux Klan, the film is part of the emergence of a radical black voice in the mass media. William Hookers 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.

This production is part of "Free Jazz at the Sanctuary," a 13-part series of jazz performance videos featuring some of the world's most talented improvisers performing a wide spectrum of music in the genre broadly known as free jazz.

Each hour-long show is available on DVD directly from Downtown Music Gallery
(www.downtownmusicgallery.com).

For more information on this series visit www.JazzSanctuary.org

The complete series consists of performances by:
•The Thirteenth Assembly (Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone)
•Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (Kahil El'Zabar, Ernest Dawkins, Corey Wilkes)
•From Between Trio (Michel Doneda, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright)
•Michael Vlatkovich Quartet (Christopher Garcia, Jonathan Golove, David Mott, Michael Vlatkovich)
•Sax Soup Poetry and Voice (Joe Giardullo, Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte)
•Trio Tarana (Sam Bardfeld, Ravish Momin, Brian Prunka)
•The Ras Ensemble (Clif Jackson, Dave Miller, Ras Moshe, Tor Yochai Snyder)
•William Hooker
•Empty Cage Quartet (Ivan Johnson, Paul Kikuchi, Jason Mears, Kris Tiner)
•Weasel Walter Trio (Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson, Weasel Walter)
•Splatto Festival Chorus (Dave Barrett, Michael Bisio, Ed Mann, Todd Reynolds)
•Amiri Baraka and Rob Brown
•Fay Victor Ensemble (Ken Filiano, Anders Nilsson, Michael TA Thompson, Fay Victor).

"Free Jazz from the Sanctuary" is a co-production of NY Media Alliance and the Arts Department at Rensselaer, made possible in part with support from the NYS Council on the Arts and the NYS Music Fund, established by the NYS Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers.

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