Bill Dixon
b. 5 October 1925, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, USA. Though born of the generation that brought bebop to fruition, Dixon did not rise to prominence until the early '60s, when he emerged as one of the leading pioneers of the New Music. He grew up in New York, started on trumpet at the age of 18, studied painting at Boston University and then attended the Hartnott School of Music (1946-51). In the '50s he freelanced in the New York area as a trumpeter and arranger, and struck up friendships with Cecil Taylor and, later, Archie Shepp, with whom he co-lead a quartet and helped to found the New York Contemporary Five (which also featured Don Cherry, John Tchicai and J.C. Moses: Dixon himself never actually played with the group). In 1964 he organized the October Revolution—six nights of concerts by young avant gardists such as Taylor, Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Paul Bley, Milford Graves and the not-so-young Sun Ra—which is generally acknowledged as the event which gave the New Thing its identity as a movement. Its success led him to form the short-lived Jazz Composers Guild, one of the first musicians’ self-help organizations (its history is recounted in Valerie Wilmer's AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE). In 1965 Dixon met dancer/choreographer Judith Dunn, with whom he worked for many years, their first notable collaboration being at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966. That same year Dixon played on Taylor's CONQUISTIDOR, his tersely lyrical style a rare counterweight to the pianist's volcanic energy, and also recorded his own INTENTS AND PURPOSES, with tracks by a 10-piece orchestra, a quintet and two brief, overdubbed solo pieces. Dixon's insistence on total artistic control over his music and its presentation has meant that INTENTS AND PURPOSES(on RCA) remains the only recording he has been able to release on a major USA label. Already known as a teacher of art history, he became involved in music education, helping to initiate New York's University of the Streets community programme and, in 1968, taking up a teaching post at Bennington College in Vermont, where he set up a Black Music department (and where he continues to work). In 1976 he was invited to perform at the Paris Autumn Festival, where he premiered his Autumn Sequences From A Paris Diary over five days with regular associates Stephen Horenstein (saxophones) and bassist Alan Silva. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Dixon has been recording his music himself, a little of which has appeared on European labels such as Soul Note and Fore, while a limited-edition two-album box-set of his solo music was released by the independent USA Cadence label in 1985. A painter too, who has exhibited widely in Europe and the USA, Dixon's music could be described as painterly, though its attention to form, line, texture and colour is as much the mark of a composer (and of a superb instrumental technique). His musical evocations of times, seasons, moods etc. are more abstract than representational and record titles such as CONSIDERATIONS and THOUGHTSINDICATE the essentially reflective quality of his music. In his small-group recordings he has often shown a preference for darker sonorities, sometimes using two or three bassists, and the results are remarkable for their balance of intellectual freight, sensitivity to nuance and implicit structural coherence. One of America's most original, and neglected, instrumentalist/composers, Dixon is currently working on an autobiography, THE FIFTH OF OCTOBER. In 1986 he published L'OPERA, a collection of letters, writings, musical scores and drawings.