Bill Dixon

{{distinguish|text = the American blues musician and songwriter Willie Dixon}}{{For|the Australian rower|Bill Dixon (rower)}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| image = Bill Dixon.jpg

| birth_name = William Robert Dixon

| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|10|5}}

| birth_place = Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|6|16|1925|10|5}}

| death_place = North Bennington, Vermont, U.S.

| genre = Free jazz

| occupation = Composer, visual artist, educator, musician

| instrument = Trumpet, flugelhorn, piano

| years_active = 1960–2010

| past_member_of = Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor

}}

William Robert Dixon (October 5, 1925{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=122}} – June 16, 2010) was an American composer and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in free jazz and late twentieth-century contemporary music. He was also a prominent activist for artist's rights and African American music tradition.{{Cite journal |last=Dewar |first=Andrew Raffo|date=2019|title=Without Qualification: Bill Dixon on Black Music and Pedagogy|journal=Jazz & Culture |volume=2 |pages=101–112 |doi=10.5406/jazzculture.2.2019.0101 |jstor=10.5406/jazzculture.2.2019.0101|s2cid=194353192 }} He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverb.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bill-dixon-mn0000764354/biography|title=Bill Dixon | Biography & History|website=AllMusic|access-date=July 26, 2021}}

Biography

Dixon hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. His family moved to Harlem, in New York City, in 1934.{{cite web| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/arts/music/20dixon.html | work=The New York Times | first=Ben | last=Ratliff |author-link=Ben Ratliff| title=Bill Dixon, 84, Voice of Avant-Garde Jazz, Dies | date=June 19, 2010}} He enlisted in the Army in 1944; his unit served in Germany before he was discharged in 1946. His studies in music came relatively late in life, at the Hartnette Conservatory of Music (1946–1951), which he attended on the GI Bill.{{Cite book |title=Dixonia: A Bio-Discography of Bill Dixon.|last=Young|first=Ben|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1998|isbn=0313302758|location=Westport, Connecticut|pages=4–6}} He studied painting at Boston University and the WPA Arts School and the Art Students League. From 1956 to 1962, he worked at the United Nations, where he founded the UN Jazz Society.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/22/bill-dixon-obituary|title=Free-jazz trumpeter with a hypnotic, slow-moving sound|last=Fordham|first=John|author-link=John Fordham (jazz critic)|date=July 22, 2010|newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=June 12, 2011|location=London}}{{Cite book|title=The Trumpet Kings: The Players who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet |last=Yanow|first=Scott|author-link=Scott Yanow|publisher=Backbeat Books|year=2001|isbn=9780879306403|location=San Francisco|pages=131–132}}

In the 1960s, Dixon established himself as a major force in the jazz avant-garde. In 1964, Dixon organized and produced the October Revolution in Jazz, four days of music and discussions at the Cellar Café in Manhattan.{{cite book|last=Litweiler|first=John | title=The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 | publisher=Da Capo | year=1984|isbn=0306803771|page=138}} The participants included pianist Cecil Taylor and bandleader Sun Ra. It was the first free-jazz festival of its kind. Dixon later co-founded the Jazz Composers Guild, a cooperative organization that sought to create bargaining power with club owners and effect greater media visibility. A key participant in the seminal Judson Dance Theater at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, New York City, Dixon was one of the first artists to produce concerts mixing free jazz and improvisational dance, spending several years in a close collaboration with dancer Judith Dunn, with whom he formed the Judith Dunn/Bill Dixon Company.{{Cite web|url=http://archives.nypl.org/dan/23361|title=Judith Dunn collection|website=Archives.nypl.org|access-date=July 26, 2021}}

In 1967, RCA Victor released Intents and Purposes, Dixon's first album as a leader. During this period, he also co-led some releases with Archie Shepp and appeared on Cecil Taylor's Blue Note record Conquistador! in 1966. In 1967, he composed and conducted a score for the United States Information Agency film, The Wealth of a Nation,{{Cite web|url=https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2015/07/14/wealth-comes-in-many-forms-william-greaves-usia-films/|title=Wealth Comes in Many Forms: William Greaves' USIA Films|website=Unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov|date=July 14, 2015|access-date=July 26, 2021}} produced and directed by William Greaves.{{cite journal |url=https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/items/c9265a15-92f4-4598-bb48-f4594e0afc11 |title=Bill Dixon Interview |date=1975-05-15 |website=Bennington College |access-date=February 6, 2024}}

From 1968 to 1995, Dixon was Professor of Music at Bennington College, Vermont, where he founded and chaired the college's Black Music Division.{{cite journal |url=https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/items/ab840260-c19d-4997-bcbe-ea548285ac90 |title=Remembering Bill Dixon, Bennington Faculty Member, 1968-1995 |date=2010-06-17 |website=Bennington College |access-date=February 6, 2024}} From 1970 to 1976, he played "in total isolation from the market places of this music", as he puts it.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2017/01/graded-on-a-curve-the-bill-dixon-orchestra-intents-and-purposes-and-the-archie-shepp-bill-dixon-quartet-st/ |title=Graded on a Curve: The Bill Dixon Orchestra, Intents and Purposes, and the Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet, (s/t)|last=Neff|first=Joseph|date=25 January 2017|website=The Vinyl District: The Storefront}} Solo trumpet recordings from this period were later released by Cadence Jazz Records and were collected on his self-released multi-CD set Odyssey, along with reproductions of his visual artwork and other material.

He was one of four featured musicians in the Canadian documentary Imagine the Sound (along with Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and Paul Bley), 1981.

In the later years of his life, Dixon recorded with Cecil Taylor, Tony Oxley, William Parker, and Rob Mazurek.

Dixon was noted for his extensive use of the pedal register, playing below the trumpet's commonly ascribed range and well into the trombone and tuba registers. He also made extensive use of half-valve techniques and used breath with or without engaging the traditional trumpet embouchure. He largely eschewed mutes, the exception being the Harmon mute, with or without stem.

On June 16, 2010, Bill Dixon died in his sleep, aged 84, at his home in North Bennington, Vermont, after suffering from an undisclosed illness.{{Cite news|url=http://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/432523/rip-experimental-jazz-trumpeter-bill-dixon/|title=RIP Experimental Jazz Trumpeter Bill Dixon|first=Michael J.|last=West|date=June 16, 2010|newspaper=Washington City Paper|access-date=July 26, 2021}}

Discography

= As leader =

class="wikitable sortable"

!Year recorded

!Title

!Label

!Year released

!Personnel/Notes

1962

|Archie Shepp – Bill Dixon Quartet

|Savoy

|1963

1964

|Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5

|Savoy

|1964

|Split LP

1966–67

|Intents and Purposes

|RCA Victor

|1967

1970–73

|Bill Dixon 1982

|Edizioni Ferrari

|1982

|Limited edition LP

1972–75

|Considerations 2

|Fore

|1981

1970–76

|Collection

|Cadence

|1985

1973–76

|Considerations 1

|Fore

|1981

1980

|Bill Dixon in Italy Volume One

|Soul Note

|1980

1980

|Bill Dixon in Italy Volume Two

|Soul Note

|1981

1981

|November 1981

|Soul Note

|1982

1985

|Thoughts

|Soul Note

|1987

1988

|Son of Sisyphus

|Soul Note

|1990

1993

|Vade Mecum

|Soul Note

|1994

1993

|Vade Mecum II

|Soul Note

|1996

1998

|Papyrus Volume I

|Soul Note

|2000

1998

|Papyrus Volume II

|Soul Note

|2000

1999

|Berlin Abbozzi

|FMP

|2000

|With Matthias Bauer, Klaus Koch, Tony Oxley

1970–1992

|Odyssey

|Archive Editions

|2001

|Includes Collection, and tracks from Considerations 1 and Bill Dixon 1982

2007

|Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra

|Thrill Jockey

|2008

2007

|17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur

|AUM Fidelity

|2008

|live

2008

|Tapestries for Small Orchestra

|Firehouse 12

|2009

2010

|Envoi

|Victo

|2011

|live

= As sideman or co-leader =

Cecil Taylor, Conquistador! (Blue Note, 1968) – recorded in 1966
Franz Koglmann, Opium for Franz (Pipe, 1977) – recorded in 1976; three tracks were reissued on the compilation Opium (Between the Lines, 2001)
The Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra, The Enchanted Messenger: Live from Berlin Jazz Festival (Soul Note, 1995) – live recorded in 1994
Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley, Taylor/Dixon/Oxley (Victo, 2002) – live
Bill Dixon/Aaron Siegel/Ben Hall, Weight/Counterweight (Brokenresearch, 2009)[2LP]
Cecil Taylor, Duets 1992 (Triple Point, 2019) – recorded in 1992

= As producer or composer =

Robert F. Pozar Ensemble, Good Golly Miss Nancy (Savoy, 1967) – producer
Ed Curran Quartet, Elysa (Savoy 1968) – recorded in 1967. producer.
The Marzette Watts Ensemble, The Marzette Watts Ensemble (Savoy, 1969) – recorded in 1968. producer and composer.
Marc Levin and his Free Unit, The Dragon Suite (BYG Actuel, 1969) – producer
Jacques Coursil Unit, Way Ahead (BYG, 1969) – composer

References

External links

[http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/collections/wcuw_festivals/1979.html Audio Recordings of WCUW Jazz Festivals – Jazz History Database]
[http://pointofdeparture.org/archives/PoD-30/PoD30BillDixon.html "Beyond Abstraction: Bill Dixon on Music and Art: Interviewed by Graham Lock."] (July 2010)
[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33956 "Bill Dixon: In Medias Res" (feature article/interview by Clifford Allen)]
[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/22/bill-dixon-obituary Guardian obituary]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/arts/music/20dixon.html?scp=1&sq=bill%20dixon%20jazz&st=cse New York Times obituary]
[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/mss_481 Bill Dixon Papers], Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections