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William Tilland

Bill Tilland is a peripatetic music reviewer who has contributed to numerous print music 'zines such as Option, Sound Choice, AP. and Signal to Noise, and then to various online blogs such as Sonumu, BBC Music Onlline. and All Music Guide

About Me

My family wasn’t the least bit musical, and music was hardly ever played in my parents’ or grandparents’ houses when I was growing up. Consequently, my first vivid musical memories were of my grandparents turning me loose in their basement with an old windup Victrola and a stack of moldering 78s. I specifically remember marveling at the sound of the saxophone in a rendition of “Wabash Blues,” although I doubt that I knew what a saxophone was (or a Wabash, for that matter). I also remember being astounded upon hearing Caruso's rendition of “O Sole Mio” although I had no prior awareness of Caruso. I was probably six or seven years old at the time. Some years later, I remember being captivated by Bill Haley & His Comets, whom I heard on a little turquoise GE transistor radio that I received on my thirteenth birthday. It was my constant companion. And I soon began to amass a collection of 45s, including not only the early Elvis of Sun Records, but also R&B and doo wop by the likes of the Flamingos, Cleftones, Platters, Jackie Wilson, and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. I had a killer doo wop and R&B collection in my teenage years, and was Czar of the Record Booth at my high school sock hops. Nobody complained about my playlists, even though no-talent teen heartthrobs such Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Freddie Cannon were conspicuously absent. I knew what I was doing. In university, I temporarily abandoned my adolescent enthusiasms and embraced the new “folk revival,” but the likes of the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Marry were not sustaining. So I decided to got all tweedy and intellectual, and give classical music and jazz a chance. Classical music involved the usual suspects (Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Wagner), but I distinctly remember my first four jazz LPs – Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” (of course), Ray Charles' “In Person” (not a huge stretch), Len Winchester with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Miles Davis’s “Milestones.” I had no prior exposure to jazz (except perhaps for dim memories of “Wabash Blues,’ and the instrumental breaks on some of my more sophisticated R&B 45s) but I played these jazz acquisitions over and over again until I “got it.” “Milestones” was my greatest challenge, but it yielded the greatest rewards. I promptly subscribed to Downbeat magazine, and received a Thelonious Monk LP (“Monk’s Music) as a subscription bonus. I was on my way. I was hip.

Life went on, and in graduate school my musical enthusiasms continued to expand. And I have an insatiable curiosity about musical expression, so my investigations didn’t stop when I ventured out into the workplace. I started writing music reviews for a number of music 'zines, and embraced blues, Krautrock, techno, alt-country, and avant classical, not to mention mainstream stuff like the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Buffy Saint Marie ( had moved to Canada, so the latter three were obligatory). But jazz remained my touchstone, and my foundation. Coltrane and Miles were always in rotation.

In the last ten years or so, my focus has been more and more on jazz and world music, and especially on cross cultural hybrids and combinations thereof. Jazz has now conquered the world, and has insinuated itself into virtually every genre of music. Ultimately, it’s the improvisational element that seduces me. Good jazz always takes me on a journey, and its landscapes are new and fresh every time.

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