William Parker (musician)


William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".
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Early life and career

Parker was born in the Bronx, New York City, and grew up in the Melrose housing project. His first instrument was the trumpet, followed by the trombone and cello. Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, but in his youth studied with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware in learning the tradition.
While Parker has been active since the early 1970s, he first came to public attention playing with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1980s. He has performed in many of Peter Brötzmann's groups, and played with saxophonist David S. Ware from 1989 until his last concert performance in 2011. He is a member of the Other Dimensions In Music cooperative. His work as leader came to greater prominence in the 1990s with groups such as the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and In Order to Survive.
Parker's "breakout" albums were released in the early 2000s, first with the William Parker Quartet : O'Neal's Porch was included in Best of 2001 lists in The New York Times, DownBeat, and the Jazz Journalists Association; in 2002, Raining on the Moon, featuring guest Leena Conquest, received rave reviews in publications including Pitchfork. The album Sound Unity by the William Parker Quartet was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005. Petit Oiseau was chosen as one of the best jazz disks of 2008 by The Wall Street Journal, the BBC's Radio Three, The Village Voice, and PopMatters. Double Sunrise Over Neptune, also released in 2008, was listed as one of the top 10 2008 Jazz CDs at Amazon.
Increasing prominence throughout the 2000s also led to a revisiting of his back catalogue, with the release of a number of early recordings.
Parker is a prominent musician in the New York City experimental jazz scene, where he leads a number of groups and is associated with the Vision Festival, organized by his wife, the dancer Patricia Nicholson; he is also frequently noted for his community dedication, mentorship, and status as "free-jazz caretaker" and "unofficial mayor of the New York improvisational scene".
He has performed at music festivals around the world, including the Guelph Jazz Festival in southern Ontario.
Parker frequently plays arco. Bass has been his primary instrument for the duration of his career, but he also plays trumpet, tuba, bamboo flutes, shakuhachi, flute, double reeds, the West African kora, gembri, and donso ngoni, an instrument first introduced to him by Don Cherry.
In 2006, Parker was awarded the Resounding Vision Award from Nameless Sound. In March 2007, his book, Who Owns Music?, was published by buddy's knife jazzedition in Cologne, Germany. Who Owns Music? assembles his political thoughts, poems, and musicological essays.
In June 2011, Parker began publishing his ongoing interviews with creative musicians in the experimental music scene, some taken on their deathbeds. To date, Conversations I-IV have been released by RogueArt, with more volumes slated. Parker's conversations, inspired by Arthur Taylor's Notes and Tones, are one of the only extant archives from this corner of the jazz scene. The books are accompanied by records, a mix of Parker's free solos and interview clips, and published photos by scene photographer Jacques Bisceglia.

Discography

As co-leader

Release yearArtistTitleLabel
1994Peter Brötzmann / Gregg Bendian / William ParkerSacred Scrape / Secret ResponseRastascan
1996Derek Bailey, John Zorn, William ParkerHarrasAvant
1996Rashid Bakr / Frode Gjerstad / William ParkerSeeing New York From The EarCadence Jazz Records
1999David Budbill & William ParkerZen Mountains/Zen Streets: A Duet For Poet & Improvised BassBoxholder
1999Ye-Ren: Toshi Makihara, Gary Hassay, and William ParkerAnother Shining PathDrimala
2000Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, William Parker2 Days in AprilEremite
2001William Parker & Hamid DrakePiercing the VeilAUM Fidelity
2002Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Michael WertmüllerNothungIn Tone Music
2003William Parker, Joe Morris, Hamid DrakeEloping with the SunRiti
2006Kidd Jordan / Hamid Drake / William ParkerPalm of SoulAUM Fidelity
2007William Parker & Hamid DrakeSummer SnowAUM Fidelity
2007Anders Gahnold, William Parker, & Hamid DrakeThe Last DancesAyler Records
2008Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves, William ParkerBeyond QuantumTzadik
2009Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, Craig TabornFarmers by NatureAUM Fidelity
2010Ninni Morgia & William ParkerPrismUltramarine
2011Farmers by Nature Out of This World's DistortionsAUM Fidelity
2013William Parker / Conny Bauer / Hamid DrakeTender ExplorationJazzwerkstatt
2014Billy Bang & William ParkerMedicine BuddhaNoBusiness
2014Farmers by Nature Love and GhostsAUM Fidelity
2015Oliver Lake & William ParkerTo RoyIntakt
2017William Parker & Stefano ScodanibbioBass DuoCentering
2020Parker, Matthew Shipp, Daniel Carter, Gerald CleaverWelcome Adventure! Vol. 1577 Records
2022Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, and Enrico Rava2 Blues for CecilTUM Records
2022Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves, and William ParkerHistoric Music Past Tense FutureBlack Editions Archive
2024William Parker, Hamid Drake, Cooper-MooreHeart TrioAUM Fidelity

As sideman

With Fred Anderson
With Billy Bang
With Albert Beger
  • Evolving Silence, Vol. 1
  • Evolving Silence, Vol. 2
With John Blum (pianist)
  • Astrogeny
With Peter Brötzmann
With Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet
With the Brötzmann Clarinet ProjectBerlin Djungle
With Brötzmann's Die Like A Dog QuartetDie Like a Dog: Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler Little Birds Have Fast Hearts, No. 1 Little Birds Have Fast Hearts, No. 2 From Valley to Valley Aoyama Crows Close Up
With Rob Brown
With Roy Campbell, Joe McPhee & Warren Smith
With Daniel Carter and Federico Ughi
  • LIVE!
  • Navajo Sunrise
  • The Dream
With Bill DixonThoughts
With Hamid Drake and BinduBlissful
With Marco Eneidi
With Charles Gayle
With Frode Gjerstad
  • Remember To Forget
  • Ultima
  • The Other Side
  • On Reade Street
With Alan Glover
With Wayne Horvitz
With Gianni Lenoci
  • Secret Garden
With Frank Lowe
  • Black Beings
  • The Loweski
With Jimmy Lyons
With Raphe Malik
With Michael Marcus
  • Under The Wire
With Thollem McDonas & Nels ClineThe Gowanus Session
With the Melodic Art-Tet Melodic Art–Tet
With Roscoe Mitchell
With Jemeel Moondoc
With Joe Morris
With Other Dimensions In MusicOther Dimensions In Music Now! Time Is of the Essence Is Beyond Time Live at the Sunset Kaiso Stories
With Ivo Perelman
With Hugh RaginRevelation
With Matthew Shipp
With Steve SwellSwimming in a Galaxy of Goodwill and Sorrow
With Cecil Taylor
With David S Ware

Books

  • Who Owns Music?
  • Conversations I
  • Conversations II
  • Conversations III
  • ''Conversations IV''

Films