In jazz, radical honesty is best represented by William Parker. His compositions are blunt, and they always display – albeit indirectly – strong political convictions. However, the double bass player will not play with your nerves. Neither will he up the stakes. His music, while full of awareness, is also infinitely humble. This sound poem gives a fresh example of the way languages are linked by what Parker calls “universal tonality”. Jazz, opera, and folk music coexist in this brilliantly crafted piece which re-examines the Trail of Tears, an important episode in the history of the United States of America, during which some 100.000 members of the Cherokee and Choctaw were forcibly relocated after being relentlessly and violently dispossessed. Parker’s account is blunt but full of love and searing truth.
