Zeena Parkins & William Winant
The harpist Zeena Parkins and the percussionist William Winant stand tall among the most inventive players in the world on their respective instruments. For 40 years, Parkins has been a linchpin of the downtown New York scene, playing in riveting ensembles alongside Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, and William Hooker or making solo records, like 1993’s Nightmare Alley, that established new avenues of exploration and imagination on the harp. Few others have been longtime collaborators to both Björk and John Zorn. Winant, too, is an absolute percussion pioneer, from his works alongside John Cage and Jon Hassell to playing with Sonic Youth (on their indispensable Goodbye 20th Century) and Roscoe Mitchell (on the likewise Bells for the South Side). His setup is sometimes a single drum, sometimes a world of snares and balloons and bells that seem like a sculpture park.
After years of working together, the pair released Modesty of the Magic Thing on Zorn’s Tzadik in the summer of 2025. Its 11 engrossing tracks represent the convergence of several artistic lines. It was inspired by Jay DeFeo’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a series of nine drawings the Beat artist made soon before her death of a pink cup given to her by sculptor Ron Nagle. On these duets, Winant and Parkins consider those drawings and the cup itself, her dizzying harp motions and his complicated patterns on a set of microtonal bells made by Lou Harrison setting up a series of curious musical portraits. The pieces are playful and daunting, beautiful and haunted, as expressive of the light surrounding the cup as the shadows the object creates. Winant and Parkins rendezvous again at Big Ears 2026.
