Bass Player: William Parker

William Parker (born January 10, 1952) is an American free jazz double bassist, multi-instrumentalist, poet, and composer.^[1] 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”.

One of Parker’s releases is ‘Wood Flute Songs’ an anthology of live recordings that took place between 2006 and 2012. The attached transcription was recorded in Houston in 2007. ‘Corn Meal Dance’ is a simple little repeating four bar phrase (with subtle variations) and is a pretty simple read. Parker has a very original type of energy in his playing, drenched with personality and Blues phrasing, he is not a virtuoso like many of his celebrated colleagues but has a fresh and original voice as a player and is worth listening to. He reminds us that music is about expression rather than excess.