Jazz Drummer William Hooker Returns To Governors Island This Weekend

Returning to Governors Island this coming Saturday is jazz drummer William Hooker. He brings a trio to the Nolan Park section of the island in Building 10B. This free concert is co-presented with the West Harlem Art Fund.

Free jazz, is an experimental form of contemporary music. And Hooker brings some seasoned musicians for audiences to enjoy. There is no fee for the public. Just bring your enthusiasm.

Also on view is the quilt exhibition Design in Flux. The show featuring nine quilt members from the tri-state area. William Daniel's guest curated the show.

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, 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.

"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. Also her another 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.