William_Parker_(musician)

William Parker (musician)

William Parker (musician)

American jazz musician

William Parker (born January 10, 1952) 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.[1] The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time"[2] and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".[3]

Quick Facts Background information, Born ...
William Parker, Vision XIII Festival

Early life and career

Parker was born in the Bronx, New York City, and grew up in the Melrose housing project.[1] His first instrument was the trumpet, followed by the trombone and cello.[4] 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.[3]

While Parker has been active since the early 1970s, he first came to public attention playing with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1980s.[1] He has performed in many of Peter Brötzmann's groups,[5] and played with saxophonist David S. Ware from 1989 until his last concert performance in 2011.[6] He is a member of the Other Dimensions In Music cooperative.[7] 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.[8][9]

Parker's "breakout" albums were released in the early 2000s, first with the William Parker Quartet (with saxophonist Rob Brown, drummer Hamid Drake, and trumpeter Lewis Barnes): O'Neal's Porch was included in Best of 2001 lists in The New York Times,[10] DownBeat,[3] and the Jazz Journalists Association;[11] in 2002, Raining on the Moon, featuring guest Leena Conquest, received rave reviews in publications including Pitchfork.[12] 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,[13] the BBC's Radio Three,[14] The Village Voice,[15] and PopMatters.[16] Double Sunrise Over Neptune, also released in 2008, was listed as one of the top 10 2008 (through end of August) Jazz CDs at Amazon.[17]

Increasing prominence throughout the 2000s also led to a revisiting of his back catalogue, with the release of a number of early recordings.[18]

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,[1] and status as "free-jazz caretaker"[4][1] and "unofficial mayor of the New York improvisational scene".[19]

He has performed at music festivals around the world, including the Guelph Jazz Festival in southern Ontario.[20]

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.[3]

In 2006, Parker was awarded the Resounding Vision Award from Nameless Sound.[21] In March 2007, his book, Who Owns Music?, was published by buddy's knife jazzedition in Cologne, Germany.[22] Who Owns Music? assembles his political thoughts, poems, and musicological essays. In June 2011, Parker's second book, Conversations, a collection of interviews with notable free jazz musicians and forward thinkers, mainly from the African-American community, was published by RogueArt.[23]

Discography

As leader

More information Release year, Artist ...

As co-leader

More information Release year, Artist ...

As sideman

With Fred Anderson

With Billy Bang

With Albert Beger

  • Evolving Silence, Vol. 1 (2005)
  • Evolving Silence, Vol. 2 (2006)

With John Blum (pianist)

  • Astrogeny (Eremite, 2005)

With Peter Brötzmann

With Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet

With the Brötzmann Clarinet Project

With Brötzmann's Die Like A Dog Quartet

With Rob Brown

With Roy Campbell, Joe McPhee & Warren Smith

With Daniel Carter and Federico Ughi

  • LIVE! (577 Records, 2017)
  • Navajo Sunrise (Rudi Records. 2013)
  • The Dream (577 Records, 2006)

With Bill Dixon

With Hamid Drake and Bindu

With Marco Eneidi

With Charles Gayle

With Frode Gjerstad

  • Remember To Forget (Circulasione Totale, 1998)
  • Ultima (Cadence Jazz Records, 1999)
  • The Other Side (Ayler Records, 2006)
  • On Reade Street (FMR Records, 2008)

With Alan Glover

  • Kings Of Infinite Space (Omolade Music 2006)
  • The Juice Quartet Archives (Omolade Music 2010)

With Wayne Horvitz

With Gianni Lenoci

  • Secret Garden (Silta)

With Frank Lowe

  • Black Beings (ESP-Disk', 1973)
  • The Loweski (ESP-Disk', 2012)

With Jimmy Lyons

With Raphe Malik

With Michael Marcus

  • Under The Wire (Enja, 1990)

With Thollem McDonas & Nels Cline

With the Melodic Art-Tet (Charles Brackeen, Ahmed Abdullah, Parker, Roger Blank, Tony Waters)

With Roscoe Mitchell

With Jemeel Moondoc

With Joe Morris

With Other Dimensions In Music

With Ivo Perelman

With Hugh Ragin

With Matthew Shipp

With Steve Swell

With Cecil Taylor

With David S Ware

Books

Films

  • 2001 – Inside Out in the Open (2001). Directed by Alan Roth. Asymmetric Pictures. Distributed by Third World Newsreel.

References

  1. [1]
    Blumenfeld, Larry (May 26, 2002). "Music; A Father to the Followers of Free Jazz". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  2. [2]
    Scherstuhl, Alan (February 8, 2021). "The Irreducible William Parker". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  3. [3]
    French, David (October 2008). "William Parker: His Own 'New Thing'". DownBeat. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  4. [4]
    Cantor, Dave (January 29, 2021). "William Parker And The Observance Of Beauty". DownBeat. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  5. [5]
    Shoemaker, Bill (April 25, 2019). "Peter Brötzmann/William Parker/Hamid Drake: Never Too Late but Always Too Early". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  6. [6]
    Cantor, Dave (November 7, 2019). "The Focused Energy of Saxophonist David S. Ware". DownBeat. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  7. [7]
    Sharpe, John (December 17, 2006). "Other Dimensions In Music At The JVC Jazz Festival In Paris, Oct. 19-20". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  8. [8]
    Fordham, John (July 5, 2019). "William Parker/In Order to Survive: ShapeShifter Live review – rattlingly rebellious avant-garde jazz". The Guardian. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  9. [9]
    Hendrickson, Tad (February 13, 2013). "The Blueprints of Modern Bass". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  10. [10]
    Ratliff, Ben (December 23, 2001). "MUSIC: The Year in Classical Music: The Critics' Choices; The Value of Humor And Recklessness". The New York Times. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  11. [11]
    Masters, Greg (2002). "Top Ten Consensus". JazzHouse.org. The Jazz Journalists Association. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  12. [12]
    Dahlen, Christ (August 20, 2002). "William Parker: Raining on the Moon". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  13. [13]
    Blumenfeld, Larry (December 27, 2008). "The Best Musicians Span Continents, Generations, by Larry Blumenfeld". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  14. [14]
    "Jazz on 3, Best Albums of the Year". Bbc.co.uk. December 22, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  15. [15]
    Davis, Francis (December 31, 2008). "2008 Voice Jazz Poll Winners". The Village Voice. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  16. [16]
    Layman, Will. "The Best Jazz of 2008, by Will Layman". Popmatters.com. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  17. [17]
    "Best Jazz of 2008". Amazon.com. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  18. [18]
    Spicer, Daniel (2012). "William Parker Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987 Review". Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  19. [19]
    Michalowski, Piotr (October 2013). "Bassist William Parker: The mayor of improv". Ann Arbor Observer. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  20. [20]
    "William Parker solo (USA)". Guelph Jazz Festival. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  21. [21]
    "Nameless: 20 Years of Sound". Nameless Sound. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  22. [22]
    Parker, William (2007). Who Owns Music?. Cologne, Germany: Buddy's Knife Jazzedition. ISBN 978-3-00-020141-7. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  23. [23]
    "William Parker Conversations". September 30, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
  24. [24]
    Smith, Stewart (January 19, 2021). "William Parker Accentuates the "Free" in Free Jazz". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  25. [25]
    "William Parker: Painters Winter / Mayan Space Station (AUM Fidelity)".
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