As William Parker told Jazzwise in 2020, he had in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic been through a period of sustained creativity during which material for whole albums was produced in short order. Already an artist with a mammoth discography, Parker assembled enough for this sumptuous 10-CD box set that adds to a number of previous multi-disc packages.

The dominant strand that runs through the work is the human voice, which features on the bulk of the music, with a brilliantly daring solo performance by Lisa Sokolov standing as a peak in the vast landscape of sounds presented. Although mainly associated with the avant-garde Parker has never been stylistically limited and the forays into blues, post-bop, funk, reggae and African inflected sounds speak much of his identity as a New Yorker liable to reflect and celebrate the immense richness of both African-American culture and a very broad cosmopolitanism.

In real terms that means there is a joyous focus on a timeless enclave of black artistry – Harlem Speaks – as well as a set of songs that are inspired by Parker's love of European cinema – Lights In The Rain (The Italian Director's Suite).

This bumper set of music thus provides a comprehensive overview of Parker, the man who is interested in all forms of expression beyond the borders of America as well as what is happening much closer to home. The specific vocabulary that he has developed over a number of decades - a sturdy, rhythmic anchor that can nonetheless drift into choppy waters when appropriate as well as a yearning melodic sensibility – is given a striking additional depth by the astute use of strings, horns, non-western instruments and voices.

Furthermore, Parker is as uncompromising as ever with regard to his lyrics, the highpoint of which is arguably ‘Mexico’, a stinging rebuff to an outgoing US president trapped in a delusional cage which is perhaps more debilitating than the ones in which he would place many a motherless child.