William Parker is in many ways like fellow double-bassist Dave Holland: nimble, quick, creative, accurate and full of ideas. He is also one of the rare bassists whose notes manage to capture attention even in a strictly supportive role. Village Voice calls him “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time.” A fixture on New York's Lower East Side energy music scene for more than thirty-five years, Parker has rightfully become one of its leading figures as player, bandleader and composer.

You can find Parker-led efforts leading or co-leading ensembles of every stripe; from solo to full-fledged orchestras. He even has a project that is a celebration of the music of Curtis Mayfield. One of the Parkers currently in my rotation is Bobo's Pink Cadillac where Parker fronts a trio featuring Perry Robinson on an avant garde clarinet and it not only works, it's inspired.

But most recently last month, Parker released his second album using a more conventional band format of an alto (Rob Brown), trumpet (Lewis Barnes), drums (Hamid Drake) and Piano (Eri Yamamoto). He calls this band "Raining On The Moon," after the prior 2002 release of the same name, this group also features a vocalist, Leena Conquest.

The other (relatively) conventional aspect is the music itself; there are clearly identifiable, tuneful melodies, and little dissonance. But before anyone gets the notion this giant of avant jazz has sold out, it's no grab for some mainstream audience; rather, this is a showcase for one of Parker's other artistic passions: poetry.

Parker takes his poetry seriously enough to have published three books — Music Is, Document Humanum, and The Shadow People — so it made sense for him to combine his music with his poetry. In Leena Conquest, he found a perfect voice. Her soulful, gospel-tinged pipes blend in well with the instrumentalists, but it's her smart sense of phasing that gives life to Parker's prose. The resulting music is something akin to the beat poetry of the '50s and '60s, only much more substantial.

The poems set to music are deeply spiritual, dealing a lot into the abstract and symbolism, so it's often hard to ascertain the message Parker is getting across. But reading and understanding poetry is not something I've done much at all, so I'll leave a critical evaluation of Parker's literary skills to others.

Luckily, you don't really need to grasp the poetry to enjoy the music; its appeal should come more naturally. The prior Raining On The Moon had a few selections with no vocals and clearly favored instrumental play over the sung poetry. In contrast, Corn Meal Dance strives for more balance between the two, with Leena Conquest performing on every track.