Poetry. African American Studies. Cultural Writing. Music. William Parker was and remains firmly established in New York's downtown scene. He is not only one of the most important composers and bassists in the field of free improvisation but also plays a leading role as an integrating figure in the current New York avant-garde jazz scene. Parker is regarded as the leader, the uncrowned king, the father and high priest of young jazz musicians on New York's Lower East Side. WHO OWNS MUSIC? is a collection of William Parker's political writings, essays on music theory and poems. He writes as a musician, a teacher, a son and a father, but above all as a man who is intent upon making his own indelible imprint on the world.

Author City: New York, NY USA

William Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco. He also plays several other instruments from around the world, including the West African kora. While Parker has been active since the early 1970s; he has had a higher public profile since the early 1990s. He is a vital musician in the New York City experimental jazz scene, and has regularly appeared at music festivals around the world, including the Guelph Jazz Festival, in southern Ontario. Parker first came to public attention with pianist Cecil Taylor. He has long been a member of saxophonist David S. Ware's quartet and in Peter Brötzmann's groups. He is a member of the cooperative Other Dimensions In Music. Together with his wife, dancer Patricia Nicholson, he organizes the annual Vision Festival in New York City. Parker is the author of CONVERSATIONS (Rogue Art, 2011) and WHO OWNS MUSIC? (buddy's knife jazzedition, 2008).

Reviews and Other Links
author site
Kurt Gottschalk @ All About Jazz