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Bob Brookmeyer Bob Brookmeyer died earlier today just three days shy of his 82nd birthday. The range of Bob Brookmeyer’s musical skills and styles is astonishing. This just deceased Jazz genius was one of the few major talents on the valve trombone. Brookmeyer was also an excellent pianist who even made a two piano-four hands album with Bill Evans. Bob Brookmeyer was an important Jazz composer and an even greater arranger. Further still was his magnificent use of the orchestra. Beyond conducting and leading Big Bands, Brookmeyer was innovative in his use of texture and instrumentation. His signature uses of the orchestra eventually led to his guiding other’s Big Bands and finally to a career as an educator. In all regards, Bob Brookmeyer was always world class. I believe that the root of it all lays in his Kansas City birth. Bob Brookmeyer would have been a master musician had he not played Jazz. When young, he had studied both classical clarinet and piano and won a major prize for choral composition while being conservatory trained. But this was all taking place in KC during the 1930s and 1940s, and that was where and when Jazz was really happening. When Bob was growing up he befriended a drummer, Edward “L’il Phil” Phillips, who had been Charlie Parker’s best buddy in the late 1930s. Kansas City Jazz is the core of Bob Brookmeyer’s being and it touched all of his adventures and experiments, providing a swinging wholesomeness to it. Bob Brookmeyer’s first big time work was as a pianist with huge names from The Swing Era. Glenn Miller’s triple threat man, Tex Beneke, was leading a band in the Miller tradition. Bob Brookmeyer followed Bill Evans as the pianist in this orchestra and was subsequently replaced by Al Haig. Thereafter, most of Brookmeyer’s employment was as a valve trombonist and he played with many stars. It was in the combos of Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan, however, that real attention was paid to Brookmeyer. Less famous in retrospect, but huge at the time (1957-1958), was the freely improvising Jimmy Giuffre Trio with its unusual instrumentation of reeds, valve trombone, and guitar (Jim Hall). These gigs led to Bob being able to reveal his own identity in a range of projects which included unique endeavors such as the album “Gloomy Sunday” on Verve or “Bob Brookmeyer & Friends” on Columbia that not only included Miles Davis’ pianist, Herbie Hancock, and Elvin Jones from the John Coltrane Quartet, but a reunion with Stan Getz and a vocal by Tony Bennett(!). If Brookmeyer had come of age earlier in The Swing Era, then he probably would have been an illustrious Big Band leader with his own unit at his disposal to play his remarkable writing. The economics of Jazz led Brookmeyer into a more checkered existence of writing for TV and freelancing. Bob Brookmeyer, in fact, spent significant time playing on TV in the Merv Griffin Orchestra and then on the Della Reese Show. Bob Brookmeyer was thankfully able to fulfill his destiny because of two things: the dawn of Jazz education and the arts funding for orchestral Jazz in foreign lands. So, in his later decades, Brookmeyer might be living abroad and leading a band for that country’s government, or he might be here, leading a college’s Jazz program. He excelled at both. His own music continue to grow. In you were in New York City and checking out Jazz a half-century ago, then you most likely would of heard Bob Brookmeyer in the company of Clark Terry. They had a great combo that gigged for about five years. Oddly, the news of Bob Brookmeyer’s death at 81, comes two days after his old buddy Terry turned 91. Bob Brookmeyer rest in peace. Frank Foster A dear man and a great friend of our Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frank Foster, died earlier today at the age of 82. Frank Foster will forever be associated with the musical domain of Count Basie. Frank was a prominent tenor saxophonist, arranger, and composer for the Count Basie Orchestra from the early 1950s into the mid 1960s. Later, after Basie had passed away, Frank Foster came back to lead the Count Basie Orchestra from the mid 1980s until the mid 1990s. Frank Foster, it should be noted, had significant careers before he joined Count, after he left Basie on July 30, 1964, and, again, after he resigned his leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra on July 2, 1995. Frank Benjamin Foster III was born in Cincinnati on September 23, 1928. Young Frank was an excellent student and excelled on clarinet as a student musician. In his mid teens, Foster was guided on alto saxophone by the lead saxophonist in the Count Basie Orchestra, Earle Warren. Warren accelerated Foster’s development on the alto saxophone and provided the already professional teenager with some big time gigs in 1944. Frank’s formal studies – both in college and at the conservatory – hindered a fulltime Jazz career from launching. That began to change when Billy Eckstine starting talking about this young player in Ohio. Mr. B was raving about a tenor saxophonist named Frank Foster. Along the way, Frank had embraced BeBop and revamped his early playing towards the style of Charlie Parker. Still a teenager and with plenty of time to develop, Frank Foster, nevertheless, was troubled about becoming {at best} a clone of the great Bird. So, Frank Foster switched to tenor sax and soon moved to the hot bed of Jazz activity that was Detroit at the end of the 1940s. Indeed, one band that Foss played in during this time was led by trumpeter Snooky Young, who just died a few months ago. Things were swinging for Foster until Uncle Sam stepped in 1951. Frank Foster served two years in our United States Armed Forces. After his discharge, Frank Foster enlisted in the Count Basie Orchestra. Often teamed in the traditional two tenor tandem Basie always showcased with another Frank, Frank Wess, Frank Foster became very well known. His growing stardom was enhanced by his fully developed writing skills. Frank both composed and arranged a bit hit for Count Basie, the classic “Shiny Stockings”. There were many other successful Foster charts including: “Blues in Hoss’ Flat’, “Down For The Count”, and “Blues Backstage”. Frank Foster was out of the Count Basie Orchestra – this would be the first time – for a period of over 20 years. The Big Bands Era was already over when Frank had first joined Basie, yet Foster worked in many Big Bands during the second half of the 1960s, the 1970s, and the beginning of the 1980s. These included the ensembles of Woody Herman, Thad Jones & Mel Lewis, Duke Pearson, Buddy Rich, and Clark Terry. Dearest to Frank Foster, however, was his own Big Band, The Loud Minority. There was also exceptional combo work. One highlight was Frank Foster’s work in drummer Elvin Jones’ Jazz Machine. In Foster’s combo work, his own unit, the Electric Company, was closest to his heart. Absolutely closest to his heart was his wife Cecelia. Cecelia was, and is, a dynamo of Jazz activism. She led her husband to a range of non-performance activities in Jazz, including education. Just as impressive to Foster’s classroom presentations, were community events where Jazz was a centerpiece. Frank Foster was an impressive figure at such functions. Though Frank’s style was quite different than that of our Artistic Director, all the components where in place: unchallengeable musician credentials, a connection to the music’s history, a sense of humor, and substance. Frank Foster had something to say. This whole period of Frank Foster was chocked full of musical triumphs that did not speak specifically to his famous Basie pedigree. One highlight has to be itemized. In 1980, Frank Foster was commissioned to write a suite for the Winter Olympics, and Foster delivered his wonderful “Lake Placid Suite”. By the time Frank Foster left the Count Basie Orchestra – this would be for the second time – Jazz at Lincoln Center was growing quickly and Frank Foster nurtured our growth spurt. Frank Foster played with our band, he played special Jazz at Lincoln Center gigs, and he wrote great music for us. Independent to these three bounties that Foster bestowed upon our organization was Frank’s attendance at the band’s rehearsals. At them, during short breaks, Frank and Wynton would discuss the various aspects of band-leading and arranging. The younger man received many words of wisdom. And Wynton Marsalis was not the only young man in our band to be guided by Frank Foster. Vincent Gardner’s family had connected with the Foster led Count Basie Orchestra and Vincent worked with Frank Foster before he joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It really came full circle when Vincent Gardner produced our Songs Of Romance concert in March of 2008. Frank Foster was no longer playing because of a stroke, but his mind was keen and his music still great. We commissioned Frank Foster to create a suite for the occasion. Frank Foster’s career after he stopped leading the Count Basie Orchestra can actually be divided into two parts: when he was still playing and when he was only writing music. In his final years, Frank Foster was so proud and happy that he was still contributing on such a grand scale even after his tenor saxophone was silenced. Now that he’s gone, there is, nevertheless, an uplifting feeling because all of Frank Foster’s music – his tenor through recordings and the notes that he wrote that we, among others, play – can still be heard. Rest In Peace, Frank Foster Ray Bryant Ray Bryant died on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at the age of 79. The pianist-composer was a most remarkable musician who always displayed earthy passion, Swing, virtuosity, and through musical knowledge. Raphael Homer Bryant was born in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve in 1931. His mother played piano and little Ray began his piano lessons at age six. Ray Bryant, however, switched to bass – an instrument his older brother Tommy played – and Ray considered himself a bassist until his early teens. Once fully focused on the piano, Bryant’s career accelerated. Still a young teenager, Ray Bryant played with John Coltrane in some of Trane’s earliest gigs as a leader. Of a higher profile was Bryant’s work at Philadelphia’s Blue Note where he and Tommy were part of a house rhythm section which supported the likes of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. At age 23, Ray Bryant moved to New York City and enjoyed his initial period of prominence. Epic Records signed him as a new star on the horizon. Bryant also recorded prominently with Sonny Rollins, establishing a remarkable partnership (Rollins usually went without a keyboard) that would continue, episodically, deep into the 1960s. With Sonny in 1956, Ray actually made the first recordings of Max Roach Plus Four after the auto accident that killed Clifford Brown and Richie Powell. The following year, Ray Bryant, along with brother Tommy, joined drummer Charli Persip as Dizzy Gillespie’s rhythm section. Ray is the pianist on Gillespie albums with: Sonny Rollins; Sonny Stitt; Benny Golson; and the two Sonnys combined. That’s Bryant playing piano on the historic “The Eternal Triangle”. Next, the Bryant brothers became the two sideman in the Jo Jones Trio – that’s Papa Jo Jones. This unit was very prominent in New York City nightlife and their performances of landmark Ray Bryant compositions “Cubano Chant” and “Little Susie” helped reawaken Epic Records’, and later parent label Columbia’s, interest in their young talented pianist. This led to a prime time of popularity for Ray Bryant. Most often using a piano led trio, Bryant make a string of successful albums and HIT singles that are a very early illustration of Jazz making inroads into Rock’n’Roll’s domain. Thereafter – it would last a half-century - Ray Bryant tended to led his own combos. Still, and even given his fame, there was an enormous amount of side work. This is best explained by Ray Bryant’s eclectic interest in music in general, most Jazz styles, and the commonality of The Blues that Bryant excelled at so greatly. The late Ray Bryant would explain this situation with a simple “I’m very fond of gigging and enjoy making music with others.” This would pretty much sum things up except for the neo-jitterbug movement that started in the 1980s and the inclusion of “Madison Time” in the movie “Hair Spray”. A new generation, with birthdates in the 1970s, ‘80s, and lookout the 1990s, sought out Ray Bryant to play “Madison Time” at their swing dances. The tune made Ray Bryant a star all over again. Many of his final performances featured him playing for swing dancing, but Bryant continued to make all types of Jazz appearances and many records. These were all robust performances that masked the fact that Ray’s health was slowly deteriorating. This was apparent to us here at Jazz at Lincoln Center, when Ray appeared to be quite weak at an appearance at our Swing University course on John Coltrane. Ray Bryant rest in peace. Snooky Young It is a sad duty to report of the death of Snooky Young. His passing is now stated in the press to have occurred one week ago (May 5, 2011) and not yesterday (5/11/11), the day the news surfaced. The great trumpeter was 92. It would seem that if you appeared nightly for over a quarter century on network television doing what you do so well that you would be well known. This was not the case for Snooky Young – who was in the Tonight Show Orchestra for most of Johnny Carson’s thirty year run. Indeed, though revered as one of the greatest trumpeters in Jazz, Snooky never had the level of fame that many Swing Era sideman obtained. The late Snooky Young not only never complained about this transgression of fortune, he barely noticed and was totally at peace with his relative anonymity. Snooky Young was the consummate sideman: his glory was in knowing that the other musicians knew how great he was. Eugene Edward “Snooky” Young was part of an amazing generation of Jazz musicians from southwest Ohio. He was born in Dayton on February 3, 1919 and initially played in a professional band of family members. Still in his teens, Snooky worked in the Wilberforce Collegians that represented the school but was a gigging ensemble; and Young also played with Eddie Heywood. That would be Eddie Heywood, Senior! the father of the pianist who would be Billie Holiday’s musical director. Snooky Young’s big break came in 1939 when he was hired by Jimmie Lunceford. Snooky’s very first solo with the Lunceford band – “Uptown Blues” on December 14, 1939 – is still rated as one of the great solos from The Swing Era. Playing both lead trumpet and also doing featured solos in Big Bands was Snooky Young’s meal ticket for the next quarter century. Following his years with the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, Snooky Young played for Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and most prominently with Count Basie. During his last of several lengthy stays with the Count Basie Orchestra, Snooky Young contributed mightily to the blockbuster albums: “The Atomic Basie” aka E=MC²; “Breakfast Dance and Barbecue”; and the duo band album with Duke Ellington, “For The First Time”. Then, Snooky Young came off the road, taking a position as a staff musician for the NBC network. This led to his playing with Doc Severinsen in the Tonight Show Orchestra continuing to Johnny Carson’s retirement. During the run up to their last show, Carson had Snooky do a featured spot on a Tonight Show. Snooky played trumpet and sang providing a grand and humorous version of the old Lunceford hit, “Tain’t What You Do”. That was 1992 and Snooky Young was seventy-three: but although Johnny Carson retired, Snooky Young never did and he making gigs as a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra deep into 2010. Snooky Young made his biggest splash at Jazz at Lincoln Center during those final years. On October 17, 2008 Snooky Young became an NEA Jazz Master on our Rose Theatre stage. Snooky was even involved with Wynton right up to the end. As our Artistic Director was preparing for the prestigious Norton Lecture at Harvard (April 28, 2011), he sought out one of Snooky Young’s few records as a leader. Wynton was paying keen attention to the track “Old Blue” from Young’s masterful Lp “Horn Of Plenty”. Yes, Snooky Young was old, and his death makes all blue. We’ve lost a great man and one of our last connections to The Swing Era. George Shearing Jazz does not possess too many superstars and we lost one of those few yesterday (2/14/2011) when piano giant George Shearing died. George Shearing, one of Jazz’s all-time greats, is on the exceedingly short list containing the names of Jazz musicians who, in composing a Jazz piece, created a song that took its place in the American Popular Songbook. For George Shearing THE hit was “Lullaby of Birdland”. George Shearing was also one of the first non-American born Jazz musicians to earn a place in the music’s pantheon. When he did so some 62 years ago, Shearing became the first to gain that honor while playing and living in the USA. George Shearing was born in London on August 13, 1919. He was sightless from birth. As a child, he showed a remarkable gift for music which included the ability to improvise. Perhaps because he was sightless, his music teachers steered him away from Western Classical and nurtured his skill at playing by ear. Shearing came of age during The Swing Era when Jazz was most popular – this might have even be true for the United Kingdom – and Shearing soon started his career. Shearing’s first recordings, all done in England when he was young, reveal a stunning virtuosity and a chameleon quality. He was known as “England’s Art Tatum”, “England’s Teddy Wilson”, and “England’s Boogie-Woogie King”. Young George also had a stunning capability in the Harlem Stride Piano and was occasionally called “England’s Fats Waller”. Shearing actually met Fats when Waller toured England in 1938. Fats Waller would continue to extend his enthusiasm toward Shearing until his death in 1943. Shearing’s skill in the early Jazz piano traditions made it all the more remarkable when his early recordings made in the USA and done for MGM, showed a complete grasp of BeBop, and an ability to both conflate all his stylistic devices while creating an entirely new group concept – his George Shearing Quintet - which used vibes, electric guitar, bass, drums, and, eventually, exotica percussion. Miles Davis, for one, took notice. Davis’ appreciation for Shearing is precursor to Miles’ subsequent involvement with Dave Brubeck’s music: Miles heard a timbre and a chord voicing thoroughly unique which could, nevertheless, be used by other musicians. George Shearing, in fact, made it easier to use his concept because he was a composer and provided the Jazz scene and even the world of music with repertoire that bore the stamp of Shearing’s identity. For Miles Davis, the key piece was “Conception” and for the world it was the “Lullaby of Birdland” which was composed in 1952. The George Shearing Quintet exhibited their unique sound for 30 years. At the end of the 1970s, one began to hear George Shearing more often in piano led trios, and even more often in piano and bass duos. The final decades of George Shearing’s performance career found him emphasizing more and more the American Popular Songbook. Shearing’s lyricism, present in his earliest recordings, and a supreme understanding of composition motivated him to stress the greatness of the canon and the wonder that it can provide the Jazz musician. The strength of his conviction explains the wealth of recordings – often made with stars such as Nancy Wilson, Mel Torme, and Peggy Lee – that are chocked full of the anthems of Arlen, Berlin, Gershwin, Rodgers, and others. Such recordings are the balance of his splendid discography which spans almost 70 years. From 1948 on George Shearing maintained a home in Manhattan - he loved Central Park and was often seen there on a bicycle built for two with his wife in front. But many of the highest honors he was to earn returned him to his native land. The culmination was his being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
Dr. Billy Taylor William Edward Taylor, Junior was born in Greenville, North Carolina and came of age in our nation’s capital at the peak of Jazz’s popularity. In D.C., Billy Taylor studied formally with the very same piano teachers that Duke Ellington had learned from a generation earlier. Billy graduated with numerous honors and awards from Washington, D.C.’s prestigious Dunbar High School. The launching of his Jazz career was delayed by his college years at Virginia State. Even while in college, Billy Taylor tested the waters of the Big Apple’s Jazz scene and settled here shortly after graduating. Whether prescient or by preference, Billy Taylor looked for work in the combos of West 52nd Street as opposed to the Big Bands that dominated The Swing Era. Beyond a handful of gigs leading his own piano trios, young Billy Taylor played on 52nd Street with Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, and many others. A landmark breakthrough for Billy’s coming stardom was his replacing Teddy Wilson in the big hit show “The Seven Lively Arts” at the Billy Rose Theatre in late 1945. The pattern and events to Billy’s rising stardom was broken, strikingly, by the next few years’ activities. In early 1946, Billy Taylor joined the Mario Bauza directed Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Thereafter, Billy Taylor’s music always displayed both the Spanish and Latin Tinge. Next, Taylor was a member of the Don Redman Orchestra that provided the first significant display of American Jazz to post World War II Europe. Taylor stayed on in Paris for significant study but also freelanced. Returning to the United States, Billy Taylor largely led his own piano trios and quartets. Over time, in the early 1950s, Billy Taylor’s direction led to clarity in the use of Latin percussion in piano groups and Taylor eventually provided instrumental definition to the piano trio: that it would be piano, bass, and drums and not piano, electric guitar, and bass as had been the norm. During this period Billy Taylor also played in Dizzy Gillespie’s combo with Coltrane and Charlie Parker and Strings. Some of these hirings had to do with Billy Taylor’s position as staff pianist for Birdland, but soon his trio became too popular for Billy to freelance or take outside work. That Billy Taylor’s professional schedule was so full also relates to his pioneering efforts in Jazz broadcasting, work that also found him a pioneering Black in mainstream TV and in the last years of big time AM radio. Taylor was the Jazz voice of the legendary radio station, WNEW. On WNEW in 1961, in a huge breakthrough in live performance on radio replete with detailed interviews, Billy Taylor reunited Count Basie with his band’s original members. After his WNEW years, Billie Taylor helped launch Black Radio at WLIB as Program Director and as the primary Jazz announcer. From the 1950s, Billy Taylor was often seen in the just emerging “educational” (they were on commercial stations) TV broadcasts on Jazz. The clarity that Billy Taylor was a star and was becoming even more a superstar in the troubled economic times for Jazz of the 1960s can be seen through his ever present and highly successful trio, his prominence as Black enterprise was making its mark in the mainstream of broadcasting, and broadcasting, itself. Given this, Taylor – much as with our own Wynton Marsalis, today – was called on for Jazz insight by a range of non-Jazz entities. During the 1950s and 1960s, this was largely the press and publishers. Billy Taylor took wise advantage of these opportunities to provide thoughtful, lasting lessons. But by the 1970s, the dominant venue had become television. On TV, Billy Taylor performed and musically directed the shows of David Frost, Dick Cavett, and the budding Bravo network. His finest TV hours may have been some of the initial PBS Jazz telecasts. The culmination of his TV work was his over twenty years as Arts Critic for CBS Sunday Morning. Some Jazz people win Grammies, Billy Taylor won Emmys. Two primary triumphs of Billy Taylor’s career need to be delineated: his educational career and his community service. Quiet as it’s kept, Billy Taylor went back to school at age 53 and became Dr. Billy Taylor. Highlights of his teaching career include stints at Yale and - in his “hometown” - Howard University. The most lasting elements to his classroom years are his books, notably “Jazz Piano: A Jazz History”. Descending from his formal teaching came significant seminars and special projects for the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From a Jazz perspective, the highlight to Billy Taylor’s activities for his/our community was Jazzmobile which he founded nearly a half-century ago. The clinics, the school visits, that Jazzmobile still provides can be cited as a prototype to our own here at Jazz at Lincoln Center and, then, there are Jazzmobile’s free summer concerts. Jazzmobile may have ebbed in recent years, BUT Billy Taylor and Jazzmobile carried the ball ably and nobly for many decades. And, yes, Dr. Billy Taylor was involved with Jazz at Lincoln Center, most recently at a Jazz Talk on March 14, 2007. Billy was scheduled to be with us as a sitting NEA Jazz Master on January 11th. James Moody We are deeply saddened by the passing of James Moody, the outstanding jazz saxophonist, band leader, composer, and long-time friend of Jazz at Lincoln Center, whose vitality and humor will be greatly missed. View Mr. Moody's New York Times Obituary Abbey Lincoln The astounding vocalist, lyricist, and composer Abbey Lincoln, 80, died on August 14, 2010. Abbey’s initial emergence as a singer of pop and gospel flowered into an astounding Jazz career in the late 1950s. Parallel to her Jazz activities was a pronounced activism in the Civil Rights Movement, including a key insight of the USA’s fight for equality to that of the then still colonies in Africa. With her then husband, Max Roach, she created the masterpiece “WE INSIST! The Freedom Now Suite” and she followed it with a trailblazing record of her own on February 22, 1961 “Straight Ahead.” In recent decades, Abbey’s composing and lyric writing gifts demonstrated themselves in a series of records from her 60th birthday forward that won numerous awards, including the brilliant “You’ve Got To Pay The Band” that featured Stan Getz. From that point, Abbey Lincoln was an occasional performer and frequent presence here at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Stanley Martin "Kay" Kaufman Stanley Martin “Kay” Kaufman, 86, passed away peacefully in his home on June 21st, 2010. In his 70+ year career, Stanley enjoyed successes as a drummer, percussionist, artist manager, creative director, conductor, arranger, and composer. After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, Stanley rose to musical prominence in the mid 1940s as the back-up drummer and manager for the Buddy Rich Band. He was also drummer for such headline acts as Josephine Baker, Patty Paige, and Frankie Lane. He was a creator, manager, and conductor for the world-renowned “Hines, Hines & Dad,” continuing to manage Maurice Hines as well as stars such as Michelle Lee and Paul Burke. In the decades to follow, Stanley became Entertainment Director of the New York Yankees, a position he served proudly throughout his life. In 1992 Stanley founded and was the creative force behind Sherrie Maricle & The DIVA Jazz Orchestra, a band that will carry on his extraordinary musical legacy. Stanley is survived by his sister, Sybil Goday, niece Mace Goday, grand niece Sybil Happy Goday, as well as the thousands of lives he touched with his extraordinary generosity, kindness, understanding, and compassion. Bill Dixon Bill Dixon was born on October 5, 1925 on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts. Growing up, Dixon very much enjoyed Jazz but was as interested in the visual arts as he was with music. Much changed during his World War II army service. At a jukebox in the non-commissioned officer’s club at Fort Francis E. Warren, Bill heard Charlie Parker and BeBop. Music would dominate thereafter and Dixon would attend Parker’s demonstrations at Bill’s music school (Hartnett Conservatory) and jam with Bird at a musician’s clubhouse. Bill Dixon played Jazz primarily on trumpet, but was equally involved with composition. From the start of the 1960s, Bill Dixon was a primary in Jazz’s new music movement. His innovations included: the first recordings, done with Archie Shepp; his compositions; performances that featured from scratch improvisation; and a range of activities that merged Free Jazz with other things, in particular modern dance. During these pivotal years of Free Jazz’s emergence, Bill Dixon often collaborated with Cecil Taylor. Dixon also aided the new music as an administrator and producer of performance and artist’s guilds. His landmark efforts included the October Revolution (a series of new Jazz displays at the Cellar Club in 1964) and the Jazz Composer’s Guild that provided the prototypes for the Loft Scene, artist’s labels. and artist’s consortiums that were to follow. Added to this, in 1967, Bill Dixon’s “Intents And Purposes’ on RCA Victor was a landmark event to The Third Stream (the merger of Jazz and Western Classical) as well as to the concept of from scratch improvisation. At that point, Bill Dixon, now in his forties, added teaching to his many activities. The centerpiece to his educational career was over 30 years at Bennington College in Vermont. Parallel to this was an international touring schedule and several reunion performances with colleagues from the halcyon days. Bill Dixon did not have much interaction with Jazz at Lincoln Center. But Bill worked extensively with Ben Young, who teaches Ornette Coleman and Free Jazz for our Swing University. Dixon was a fixture at WKCR, a radio station currently broadcasting the marathon “Bill Dixon Memorial Broadcast”. As KCR’s Irv Schenkler declared 38 years ago “This music needs to be heard!”. There, Dixon often broadcast with Ben Young, author of “Dixonia” and occasionally with your Curator. At WKCR, Bill Dixon encountered a young student, Isaac Diggs, whose grandfather – also named Isaac Diggs – had served in World War II with Dixon when they had struggled against racist treatment of Black soldiers. I was honored to have known and worked with Bill Dixon. On a personal note, I remember a distant December when I was drinking sherry – Harvey’s Bristol Cream – with Bill at the old West End; as I would a few days later in the exact same spot with Jonah Jones. Now, Bill Dixon, too, belongs to The Ages. Hank Jones
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