Bill Dixon, Trumpet, 1925, Nantucket, MA
Bill, an excellent trumpeter of his era, was also a teacher and composer. New York was his home, and he started playing the trumpet at the age of eighteen. While in college, Boston University, Bill studied painting, not music. When he did decide on music he attended the Hartnott School of Music from 1945 to 1951. In the early '60s Bill worked with Archie Shepp, with whom he led a free-jazz quartet. A few years later he worked with modern musicians such as Sun Ra, John Techical, Rosewell Rudd, Paul Bley, and Milford Graves. He performed at many concerts with these modernists, always to capacity audiences. Dixon, always thinking ahead, next organized the Jazz Composers Guild, an influential but short-lived collective that tried to support the playing of jazz out of night clubs and free of agents. In 1965 Dixon began a ten-year association with the dancer, Judith Dunn. They were very popular for a while, presenting concerts of free-jazz and dance at major festivals. In 1968 Bill taught at Bennington College where he founded a department of black music. As a trumpeter he has an unusual conception of melodic improvisation, and makes much use of squeezed notes, unconventional intonation, distorted tones, and other expressive devices. In 1976 Bill traveled to Europe where he presented new compositions at the international jazz festivals in Paris, Verona, and Zurich.
Fred Norman, Arranger, 1910, Leesburg, FL
Fred was a performer talented in several areas, and in1932 he joined Claude Hopkins's orchestra as trombonist and singer and also occasionally wrote arrangements. He remained with Hopkins for eight or nine years, and then began a long association as an arranger for Benny Goodman. During this period he also arranged for Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Powell, and Jack Teagarden. In the 1950s Fred worked for several record companies as music director, for Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. He also worked as a staff arranger for the bands of Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, and Charlie Spivak.
Jimmy Blanton, Bass, 1918, Chattanooga, TN
Shep Meyers, Piano, 1936, New York, NY
