Bill Dixon


 * This article is about the American trumpeter/composer: for the designer of board games, see Bill Dixon (game designer).

Bill Dixon (October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010) was an American musician, composer, visual artist, and educator. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverberation as part of his trumpet playing.

Biography
Dixon hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts. His studies in music came relatively late in life, at the Hartnette Conservatory of Music (1946–1951). He studied painting at Boston University and the WPA Arts School and the Art Students League. During the early 1960s he had a job at the United Nations, and founded the UN Jazz Society.

In 1964, Dixon organized and produced the 'October Revolution in Jazz' in New York City and founded the Jazz Composers Guild. He was relatively little recorded during this period, though he co-led some releases with Archie Shepp and appeared on Cecil Taylor's Blue Note record Conquistador! in 1966.

He was Professor of Music at Bennington College, Vermont, from 1968 to 1995. From 1970 to 1976 he played "in total isolation from the market places of this music", as he puts it. Solo trumpet recordings from this period were later released by Cadence Jazz Records, and later collected on the self-released multi-CD set Odyssey along with 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 recent years he recorded with Cecil Taylor, Tony Oxley, William Parker, Rob Mazurek, and many others.

On June 16, 2010, Bill Dixon died in his sleep at his home after suffering from an undisclosed illness.

As leader

 * Soul Note Records
 * 1980: Bill Dixon in Italy volumes 1 & 2 with Alan Silva, Freddie Waits
 * 1981: November 1981 with Silva, Laurence Cook, Mario Pavone
 * 1985: Thoughts with Peter Kowald
 * 1988: Son of Sisyphus
 * 1994: Vade Mecum volumes 1 & 2
 * 1999: Papyrus volumes 1 & 2
 * Other labels
 * 1962: Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet (Savoy)
 * 1964: Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy, split LP)
 * 1967: Intents and Purposes (RCA)
 * 1981: Considerations 1 & 2 (Fore)
 * 1984: Collection (Cadence)
 * 1999: Berlin Abbozzi (Free Music Production) with Matthias Bauer, Klaus Koch, Tony Oxley
 * 2001: Odyssey (Archive Editions)
 * 2007: 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound (Aum Fidelity)
 * 2008: Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra (Thrill Jockey)
 * 2009: Tapestries for Small Orchestra (Firehouse 12)

As sideman

 * Conquistador! (Blue Note, 1966, Cecil Taylor)
 * Opium for Franz (Pipe, 1977, with Franz Koglman)
 * The Enchanted Messenger: Live from Berlin Jazz Festival (Soul Note, 1996)
 * Taylor/Dixon/Oxley (Victo, 2002, with Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley)
 * Bill Dixon/Aaron Siegel/Ben Hall: Weight/Counterweight (Brokenresearch, 2009)

As producer or composer

 * The Marzette Watts Ensemble: The Marzette Watts Ensemble (Savoy, 1969) (producer and composer)
 * Marc Levin and his Free Unit: The Dragon Suite (BYG, 19??) (producer)
 * Jacques Coursil Unit: Way Ahead (BYG, 1969) (composer)