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Billy Bang: Peaceful Dreams
by Carl Medsker
Developing a unique, recognizable voice is a vital accomplishment for a jazz musician. Within a few notes, there is no mistaking the distinctive violin of Billy Bang. In nearly every aspect of the instrument, he was singular: timbre, articulation, bowing technique, percussive use of the bow, pizzacto playing, glissandos, phrasing and yes, the occasional dissonance. He once said he was influenced more by saxophonists than string musicians. Categorizing Bang as avant-garde exposes the limitation of labels. While energetic, free flights ...
Continue ReadingThe Jazz Doctors: Intensive Care / Prescriptions Filled
by Chris May
Beyond its initiates, the so-called New Thing which emerged in mainly, but not exclusively, Black US jazz in the 1960s/70s, was perceived so amorphously that prairie-wide distinctions between its practitioners went unregarded. Among the general jazz audience, the musicians were lumped together as a horde of crazed zombies who lacked all technique, and who had replaced creativity with noise and anger, and beauty with ugliness. Tenor saxophonists were particularly prone to such dismissal and, given the number ...
Continue ReadingBilly Bang: Lucky Man
by Karl Ackermann
When he performed in Germany, they called him the “black devil violinist," his frenetic playing wrapped in a gyrating, trance-like state. For Billy Bang, who believed he had schizophrenia, the epithet bore a resemblance to his inner turmoil. He was born William Walker in Mobile, Alabama but grew up in the South Bronx. He studied violin and classical music, and his talent earned him a hardship scholarship to the Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Bang felt out of place in ...
Continue ReadingBilly Bang: Da Bang!
by AAJ Italy Staff
Da Bang!, registrato il 2 e 3 febbraio a Helsinki, è con tutta probabilità l'ultima registrazione del violinista Billy Bang, deceduto solo due mesi più tardi a New York per un male incurabile. Nel solito elegante libretto che accompagna le pubblicazioni TUM Records sono riportati alcuni brevi poemi declamati dagli stessi autori (Amiri Baraka il più noto) nel corso della commemorazione, organizzata presso la St. Peter's Church di New York, dalla comunità di amici e colleghi. Più che enfatizzare la ...
Continue ReadingBilly Bang: Da Bang!
by Eyal Hareuveni
The final recording of the late violinist Billy Bang from February 2011, days before his final performance in the TUMfest 11 in Helsinki, is a celebration of his life as musician. Bang chose for this recording compositions of innovative musicians in the history of jazz--Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins-- that were part of his quintet repertoire for years. His trusty quintet supports his musical ideas and improvisations beautifully, and the album booklet features touching and insightful ...
Continue ReadingBilly Bang: Da Bang!
by Glenn Astarita
Da Bang was recorded two months before violinist Billy Bang's battle with cancer ended in April, 2011. The album title is lifted from Bang's former FAB Trio band mate, drummer Barry Altschul. Indeed, Bang was an influential presence, partly due to his cutting-edge improvisational faculties. He was an artiste markedly comfortable in most any setting. On this outing, Bang covers modern jazz standards and contributes one original composition. The quartet gels on the late Don Cherry's “Guinea," which ...
Continue ReadingBilly Bang: Da Bang!
by John Sharpe
Even were one not viewing Da Bang! through the lens of this being violinist Billy Bang's last album, recorded just two short months before he succumbed to cancer in April 2011, there is still a detectable elegiac air which pervades even the brightest tracks. That's not the fault of the cast, although trombonist Dick Griffin comes across as a somewhat downbeat soloist, nor the material though it includes a selection of old warhorses. Rather it is down to the unvarnished ...
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