William Robert Dixon (October 5, 1925 – 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 artists' rights and African-American music tradition. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverb.
Biography Dixon hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. His family moved to Harlem, in New York City, in 1934. 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. In 1964, Dixon organized and produced the October Revolution in Jazz, four days of music and discussions at the Cellar Café in Manhattan. 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.
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, 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, 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.
Discography As leader Year recordedTitleLabelYear releasedPersonnel/Notes1962Archie Shepp – Bill Dixon QuartetSavoy19631964Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5Savoy1964Split LP1966–67Intents and PurposesRCA Victor19671970–73Bill Dixon 1982Edizioni Ferrari1982Limited edition LP1972–75Considerations 2Fore19811970–76CollectionCadence19851973–76Considerations 1Fore19811980Bill Dixon in Italy Volume OneSoul Note19801980Bill Dixon in Italy Volume TwoSoul Note19811981November 1981Soul Note19821985ThoughtsSoul Note19871988Son of SisyphusSoul Note19901993Vade MecumSoul Note19941993Vade Mecum IISoul Note19961998Papyrus Volume ISoul Note20001998Papyrus Volume IISoul Note20001999Berlin AbbozziFMP2000With Matthias Bauer, Klaus Koch, Tony Oxley1970–1992OdysseyArchive Editions2001Includes Collection, and tracks from Considerations 1 and Bill Dixon 19822007Bill Dixon with Exploding Star OrchestraThrill Jockey2008200717 Musicians in Search of a Sound: DarfurAUM Fidelity2008live2008Tapestries for Small OrchestraFirehouse 1220092010EnvoiVicto2011live
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. .
External links 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