Photo: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bassists · b. 1952

William Parker

American jazz musician

Born: 10 January 1952
The Bronx
Country: United States
Record labels: Thirsty Ear Recordings
Discography: 69 albums

Biography

William Parker is a jazz musician who plays double bass. William Parker was born on 10 January 1952 in The Bronx. The music is usually filed under jazz and free jazz. Record labels: Thirsty Ear Recordings. The discography here lists 69 albums, from “Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace” (1980) to “Waltz for Gregory” (2026).

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. 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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Discography

Studio and live albums

Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace 1980 · Centering Records

Zo 1994

In Order to Survive 1995 · Live

Testimony 1996

9 1997

Invisible Weave 1997 · Live

Broken/Circle 1998

Lifting the Sanctions 1998

The Peach Orchard 1998 · Live

Alain Kirili Musée Grenoble 1999 · Live

DNA 1999

New World Pygmies 1999 · Live

Zen Mountains Zen Streets 1999 · Live

2nd Set 2001

Piercing the Veil 2001

Song Cycle 2001

Eloping With the Sun 2002

Fractured Dimensions 2003 · Live

Brooklyn Calling 2004

Luc’s Lantern 2005

Two Masters (live at the Prism) 2005 · Live

Long Hidden: The Olmec Series 2006

Vision Festival X, NYC 2006 · Live

Corn Meal Dance 2007

Volume 2: Summer Snow 2007 · Live

Double Sunrise Over Neptune 2008 · Live

At Somewhere There 2009 · Live

Temporary 2009

I Plan to Stay a Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield 2010 · Live

Prism 2010

Serving an Evolving Humanity 2010 · Live

The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield: Live in Rome 2010 · Live

At Christ Church Deer Park 2011 · Live

Crumbling in the Shadows Is Fraulein Miller’s Stale Cake 2011

One Sunday 2011

Secret Garden 2011 · Live

What Shall We Do (Without You) 2011

Winter Sun Crying 2011 · Live

CHILE•NEW YORK•AfghanIRAQ 2013 · Live

Friday Afternoon 2013 · Live

Kalaparusha on the Edge of the Horizon 2013 · Live

Tender Exploration 2013 · Live

The Vancouver Tapes 2014 · Live

For Those Who Are, Still 2015

Great Spirit 2015

Live at NHKM 2015 · Live

Live at the Tranzac Vol. 1 2015 · Live

Stan’s Hat Flapping in the Wind 2016

Bass Duo 2017 · Live

Hope Cries for Justice 2017

What I Saw This Morning 2017

Flower in a Stained-Glass Window & The Blinking of the Ear 2018

Lake of Light: Compositions for AquaSonics 2018

OPTION AUDIO 005 2018

Live Ateliers Claus 2021 · Live

Mayan Space Station 2021

Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World, Volumes 1–10 2021

No Joke! 2021

Painters Winter 2021

Re-Union 2021

Universal Tonality 2022 · Live

Red Giraffe With Dreadlocks 2023

Cereal Music 2024

Heart Trio 2024

Heart Trio Flow 2024

Pulsar 2024

Why 2024

Transcendent Universe 2026

Waltz for Gregory 2026 · AUM Fidelity

Also plays on

Albums where William Parker is credited as a sideman

1981	Changing Seasons — Billy Bang	bass
1983	The Eighth — Cecil Taylor	double bass
1983	Some Order, Long Understood — Wayne Horvitz - Butch Morris - William Parker	double bass
1987	Thoughts — Bill Dixon	double bass
1988	Tzotzil / Mummers / Tzotzil — Cecil Taylor	bass
1990	In Florescence — Cecil Taylor	bass, percussion, vocals
1991	LOOKING (Berlin Version) CORONA — Cecil Taylor / Harald Kimmig / Muneer Abdul Fataah / William Parker / Tony Oxley	double bass
1994	Olu Iwa — Cecil Taylor	double bass
1994	Sacred Scrape — Peter Brötzmann / Gregg Bendian / William Parker	bass
1994	Vade Mecum — Bill Dixon	double bass
1996	Vade Mecum II — Bill Dixon	double bass
2002	Nothung — Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Michael Wertmüller	double bass
2003	Never Too Late But Always Too Early — Brötzmann, Parker, Drake	double bass, strings
2008	Beyond Quantum — Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves & William Parker	double bass
2008	CT: The Dance Project — Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Masashi Harada	double bass
2016	Song Sentimentale — Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Hamid Drake	shakuhachi, gumbri, shehnai, double bass, instruments
2021	Music From Two Continents: Live at Jazz Jamboree ‘84 — Cecil Taylor	double bass
2022	2 Blues for Cecil — Andrew Cyrille, William Parker & Enrico Rava	double bass
2022	Historic Music Past Tense Future — Brötzmann, Graves, Parker	bass, donso ngɔni, performer
—	Going Through — Jeanne Lee, Billy Bang, Frank Lowe, William Parker, Dennis King Charles & ar penck	bass