William Robert Dixon (October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010) He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverb.

Biography

Dixon hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. 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. 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.

In the 1960s, Dixon established himself as a major force in the jazz avant-garde. 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,

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 produced and directed by William Greaves.

From 1968 to 1995, Dixon was Professor of Music at Bennington College, Vermont, where he founded and chaired the college's Black Music Division. 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 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,

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

Further reading

  • Piekut, Benjamin (2001). Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits. University of California Press. .
  • Audio Recordings of WCUW Jazz Festivals – Jazz History Database
  • "Beyond Abstraction: Bill Dixon on Music and Art: Interviewed by Graham Lock." (July 2010)
  • "Bill Dixon: In Medias Res" (feature article/interview by Clifford Allen)
  • Guardian obituary
  • New York Times obituary
  • Bill Dixon Papers, Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections