William Hooker Quartet
Lifeline
FormatCDLabelSilkheartGenreJazz & Improvisation
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Silkheart Records is proud to announce the release of Lifeline, the latest recording from visionary drummer, composer, and bandleader William Hooker, performed with his dynamic quartet. Lifeline captures the fierce urgency and expansive imagination that has defined Hooker’s work for decades, pushing the boundaries of jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary art music.
Throughout Lifeline, Hooker and his quartet dive deeply into music as a living, breathing force. Every piece reflects a profound engagement with freedom, structure, and transfiguration—balancing fire and delicacy, rhythm and atmosphere, intensity and silence. The album affirms Hooker’s role not only as a drummer of elemental power but as a catalyst who sparks transformative creativity in ensemble settings. Renowned for his uncompromising vision and collaborations with boundary-breaking musicians, Hooker once again assembles a group of fearless improvisers who bring their own distinct voices to his framework. Together, the William Hooker Quartet achieves a remarkable interplay that transcends genre and expectation.
Lifeline stands as both personal statement and collective journey—an offering that honors the spirit of innovation, resilience, and connection inherent in music at its most vital. For long-time listeners of Hooker’s output, this album embodies both continuity and revelation. For new audiences, it offers an entryway into one of the most compelling and committed practices in contemporary improvised music.
Format
Track 1 digitally recorded August 6th, 1988 at the Real Art Ways Jazz Festival, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Tracks 2, 3 recorded by analog techniques on December 12th, 1988 at WKCR-FM, Columbia University, New York City
The master tapes were edited at Kaleb Sounds Inc., New York City during May 1989
Tracks 2, 3 "Does not appear on the album" (i.e., bonus tracks on CD).
Total time: 68:14
Release notes
Track 1 digitally recorded August 6th, 1988 at the Real Art Ways Jazz Festival, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. Tracks 2, 3 recorded by analog techniques on December 12th, 1988 at WKCR-FM, Columbia University, New York City The master tapes were edited at Kaleb Sounds Inc., New York City during May 1989 Tracks 2, 3 "Does not appear on the album" (i.e., bonus tracks on CD). Total time: 68:14
| R.A.W. Jazz Festival Performance | |||
| 1a | Schools Of Thought | 7:20 | |
| 1b | Revisited (Science) | 12:30 | |
| 1c | Maitreya | 12:10 | |
| 1d | Tune | 11:00 | |
| 1e | Beauty's Apocalypse | 5:00 | |
| 2 | Dual Meaning | 9:52 | |
| 3 | Dignity | 8:20 | |
- Alan Michael
- Alto Saxophone (1)
- Claude Lawrence
- Alto Saxophone (1)
- William Parker
- Bass (1)
- William Hooker
- Composed By, Liner Notes, Drums, Vocals [Recitation], Producer [Produced By] (1)
- Jörgen Renhorn
- Design, Layout
- David Baker
- Edited By
- Keith Knox
- Edited By, Executive-Producer
- Brian Johnson
- Engineer (1), Producer [Produced By] (1)
- FSMAB
- Executive-Producer
- Val Wilmer
- Photography By [Front Cover Photo]
- Mark Hennen
- Piano (2, 3)
- Ethan Singer
- Producer [Produced By] (2, 3), Recorded By (2, 3)
- Mitch Goldman
- Producer [Produced By] (2, 3)
- Charles Compo
- Tenor Saxophone (2, 3)
- Masahiko Kono
- Trombone (2, 3)
