Experiments in Jazz

Jazz drum­mer William Hook­er brings his trio to Nolan Park on Sat­ur­day, July 8, for two free per­for­mances co-pre­sent­ed with the West Harlem Art Fund. Per­for­mances will spe­cial­ize in free jazz, an exper­i­men­tal form of con­tem­po­rary music. Also on view is Design in Flux, a quilt exhi­bi­tion guest curat­ed by William Daniels. 

About the Artists

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, Mon­tréal 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. ​“William knows no genre bounds and cease­less­ly search­es for new forms of music, always with the intent to inspire.” New York City Jazz Record. 

Ayu­mi Ishi­to was born and raised in Ishikawa, Japan. At the age of 19, she began play­ing tenor sax­o­phone in a col­lege big band at Rit­sumeikan Uni­ver­si­ty in Kyoto. In 2007, Ayu­mi received a schol­ar­ship to attend Berkee Col­lege of Music in Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts. She spent three years there study­ing per­for­mance and com­po­si­tion. After grad­u­at­ing from Berklee, Ayu­mi moved to New York in 2010. Ayu­mi has been play­ing with many dif­fer­ent groups. One of her recent projects, Open Ques­tion, received 4 stars review in Down­Beat mag­a­zine in 2022. Her project The Space­men was select­ed for the Best Jazz of 2021 in Bandcamp. 

As a com­pos­er, Ayu­mi has been lead­ing her quin­tet since 2011 and per­form­ing her com­po­si­tions. The band released two albums, ​“View From A Lit­tle Cave” in 2016 and ​“Mid­nite Cin­e­ma” in 2019. 

Kevin Ram­say is a com­pos­er, pro­duc­er, recording/​mixing/​mastering/​sound engi­neer, and musi­cian on sev­er­al crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed inter­na­tion­al albums. Brook­lyn born and based, Ramsay’s work focus­es pri­mar­i­ly on the­o­ret­i­cal, prac­ti­cal aspects of sound recording/​reproduction with unpre­dictable pair­ings of acoustic and elec­tron­ic instru­ments. Kevin’s cur­rent works explore new ways to cap­ture, mix, and process immer­sive audio for play­back, on mul­ti­chan­nel sound sys­tems. In addi­tion to serv­ing as the Lead Sound Engi­neer at Har­vest­works Dig­i­tal Media, he con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with a vari­ety of inter­na­tion­al artists com­mit­ted to using sound as their main cre­ative medi­um. Kevin has worked with notable artist such as Michael Byron, Hen­ry Thread­g­il, Art Jones, Joan Jonas, Pauline Kim- Har­ris and Con­rad Har­ris (String Noise), Anne Tar­dos, Danilio Cor­reale, Maria Grand, Prince Har­vey, Emilio Vavarel­la, Malik Ameer Crum­pler, Daniel Bel­quer, Jon-Car­los Evans and many others.

The West Harlem Art Fund is one of the 2023 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Residence