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William Parker (b. Bronx, New York City, New York, January 10, 1952) is an American free jazz double bassist.

As a bassist, Parker is possessed of a formidable technique, albeit an unconventional one. Unlike a great many jazz bassists, Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. 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's city by the same name.

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.

Parker drives a band like few other bassists; in combination with a powerful drummer, a Parker-led rhythm section is an inexorable force. He is a member of the cooperative Other Dimensions In Music. Together with his wife, dancer Patricia Nicholson, he is organizing the annual Vision Festival in New York City.

Parker has recorded and performed with many musicians, including Matthew Shipp, Hamid Drake, Frank Lowe, Daniel Carter, Bill Dixon, Charles Gayle, Roscoe Mitchell, Butch Morris, Billy Bang, Fred Anderson, Kidd Jordan, Rob Brown, Joe Morris, Rashied Ali, Sunny Murray, Perry Robinson, Barre Phillips, Henry Grimes, Peter Kowald, Spring Heel Jack, El-Producto, DJ Spooky, Susie Ibarra, and Mat Maneri.

The album Sound Unity by the William Parker Quintet was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005.

In March 2007, William Parker's book, who owns music?, was published by buddy's knife jazzedition in Cologne, Germany. who owns music? assembles his political thoughts, poems, and musicological essays.

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

• A Sessionography
• FMP releases
• William Parker's book "who owns music?" at www.buddysknife.de
• 38 minute mp3 interview