A pre-eminent bassist in modern free jazz, William Parker is one of the scene's catalysts. His formidable technique can be heard as a lead instrument in trios (Painter's Spring), duos (Piercing the Veil), and recordings with David S. Ware (including Flight of I and Shakti), and Matthew Shipp (The Flow of X and Our Lady of the Flowers). With his wife, dancer, choreographer, and poet Patricia Nicholson, Parker founded the Improvisers Collective. He has paid tribute to major artists from the Great Black Music tradition, including Curtis Mayfield and Duke Ellington, and has explored soul-jazz, spoken word, vocal music, and conceptual jazz works such as Alphaville Suite. He is also a poet, painter, and cultural critic. In 2022, as part of a trio whose members had all worked with Cecil Taylor, he released the tribute recording 2 Blues for Cecil; he also issued a star-studded 2002 archival large-ensemble session titled Universal Tonality.