Bill Cole

Bill Cole (right) performing with Warren Smith in Takoma Park, Maryland in October 2005

Bill Cole (* 1937 in Pittsburgh as William Shadrack Cole ) is an American jazz musician, ethnomusicologist and university professor.

Bill Cole specialized in non-European wind instruments such as the Ghanaian Atenteben , the Chinese Suona , the Korean Sohojok and Piri , the South Indian Nadaswaram , the North Indian Shehnai , the Tibetan trumpet and the Australian didjeridu . He earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University with a dissertation on the music of John Coltrane .

In addition to his many years of academic activity, he also worked with Ornette Coleman , Jayne Cortez , Julius Hemphill , Sam Rivers , James Blood Ulmer and Fred Ho . Cole founded and directed the Untempered Ensemble , in which u. a. Play Sam Furnace , William Parker , Cooper-Moore , Joe Daley and Warren Smith . Under his own name, he presented several albums for the Boxholder label , most recently in 2005 the album Proverbs for Sam, dedicated to the recently deceased Sam Furnace .

From 1972 to 1974 he was a professor of music at Amherst College , then he worked at Dartmouth College until 1990 . He later taught in the African American Studies department at Syracuse University until his retirement . Cole published two books on jazz musician Miles Davis and in 2001 a biography of John Coltrane .

Discographic notes

The Style of John Coltrane, 1955-1967. Ph.D. Dissertation. Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
Miles Davis: A Musical Biography. W. Morrow Publishers, 1974.
Miles Davis: The Early Years. Da Capo Press, 1994.
John Coltrane. Da Capo Press, 2001.

personal data
SURNAME	Cole, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Cole, William Shadrack (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz musician, ethnomusicologist, and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH	1937
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pittsburgh