Heart Trio (William Parker, Hamid Drake, Cooper-Moore)

Heart Trio is William Parker, Cooper-Moore, and Hamid Drake – three of the most important figures in creative music, united by over thirty years of deep collaboration. Their debut album, Heart Trio (AUM Fidelity, 2024), was received with critical acclaim across the international press. Parker plays guembri, shakuhachi, bass duduk, Serbian flute, and ney flute. Cooper-Moore plays his hand-crafted ashimba and hoe-handle harp. Drake plays frame drum (primary), drums, and percussion. All music is collectively improvised at the moment of creation. This is music for sunrise and sunset. Healing, centering, daily music. Longtime accomplices reunited since 2012 in the quartet In Order to Survive, the trio explores a connection to ancestral African and Eastern music, adopting instruments such as the ngoni, the shakuhachi, the duduk, and instruments created by themselves — generating mesmerizing music with an intense connection to the earth. Organic music, in desired opposition to a world increasingly hostage to technological acceleration, overflowing with humanism. “The theory behind this music is the music itself. Empty and fill the heart and soul with sound, letting it dance. Without pretense. We are trying to get to a flow — Earth, sky, and flowing water sounds that jump out of the painting.” — William Parker