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]
