Bill Dixon

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Bill Dixon (born October 5, 1925 in Nantucket , Massachusetts , † June 16, 2010 in North Bennington , Bennington , Vermont ) was an American trumpeter and pianist of free and modern creative jazz .

Act

At the age of 18, Dixon learned to play the trumpet. In 1958 he gave up a teaching position for music in order to lead the "United Nations Jazz Society" at the UN . A successful European tour with Archie Shepp inspired him for free jazz ; with Shepp he was co-leader of the short-lived formation "The New York Contemporary Five".

In 1964 he initiated a series of concerts in the Cellar Café in New York, which took place under the spectacular title October Revolution in Jazz . He then founded the " Jazz Composers Guild " with Shepp, Sun Ra , Cecil Taylor , Paul Bley , Roswell Rudd , Michael Mantler and Burton Greene , which undertook to decide on their concerts and records as a collective and not externally determined by managers To leave record companies. Between 1966 and 1968 he worked intensively with the dancer Judith Dunn and appeared in joint music-dance performances. In 1967 Dixon founded the Free Conservatory of the University of the Streets , in which an attempt was made to introduce people to free jazz in the Afro-American neighborhoods.

From 1968 Dixon was a member of the faculty at Bennington College in Bennington, where he stayed until 1995. In 1973 he set up the "Black Music Department" which he directed. In 1971 and 1972, Dixon was visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin . From 1970 to 1976 Dixon recorded a number of pieces that were not yet to appear on phonograms. It was not until 1980 that he released records again. These records document the development of his solo playing, but also projects that he carried out in various formations with his students. In 1976 there was also a collaboration with Franz Koglmann , who adores Dixon. Dixon brought together recordings from 1970 to 1992 on the self-produced 6CD box Odyssey . He met Tony Oxley through Cecil Taylor and was a member of his “Celebration Orchestra”, which performed at the JazzFest Berlin in 1994; In 2002 the three musicians played at the Donaueschinger Musiktage .

Dixon systematically explored the sound possibilities that the trumpet offers beyond the traditional European sound ideal, but also the romantic sound of West Coast jazz . In many years of training he has developed a tongue technique with which he “enriches the sound to be generated with a lot of air, so that you can not only hear the sound itself, but also the breath that carries it.” As a composer, his is particularly evident Pieces for solo trumpet with their mosaic-like, economic focus on the essentials of dealing with Anton Webern's music .

Dixon also appeared as a painter of abstract pictures .

Awards

The French Jazz Magazine recognized him as Musician of the Year in 1976. His 1980 records won the Italian Giancarlo Testoni Award . In 1984 he received the BMI Jazz Pioneer Award . He has been an elected member of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1988 . His album Intents and Purposes of 1967 to the list in 1998 "Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One What Listening) 100" by The Wire added.

Selection discography

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/06/16/rip-experimental-jazz-trumpeter-bill-dixon/
  2. ↑ The quintet was influenced by Ornette Coleman's musical ideas. On the album of the same name from 1963 on the Storyville label , on which Dixon did not participate, however, his composition "Trio" is included.
  3. ↑ The title did not come from the musicians involved, but from the director friend Peter Sabino. "We needed a headline for our advertisement in the Village Voice and he said, 'It's October, and what you're doing there could be described as some kind of revolution against the contemporary mainstream , so why not just the October Revolution?" n. Christian Broecking , respect! Berlin 2004
  4. ↑ Shepp soon signed a contract with Impulse! Records without asking the Guild what contributed to their failure.
  5. ↑ Michael Rieger, Free Jazz / Evolution. Jazz Podium 12/1 2007/08
personal data
SURNAME Dixon, Bill
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American trumpeter
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Nantucket
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 2010
Place of death North Bennington , Bennington , Vermont