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Listen to Billy Bang, watch music videos, read bio, see tour dates & more!

Billy Bang

Jazz

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Top Songs By Billy Bang

Listen to 2Nite by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
2NiteBilly Bang
Listen to Power (feat. Honorable C Note) by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
Power (feat. Honorable C Note)Billy Bang
Listen to No Way Out (feat. Honorable C Note) by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
No Way Out (feat. Honorable C Note)Billy Bang
Listen to Wat It Iz (feat. Honorable C Note) by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
Wat It Iz (feat. Honorable C Note)Billy Bang
Listen to Willow Weep for Me by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
Willow Weep for MeBilly Bang
Listen to My Freak (feat. Billy Bang & the Rej3ctz) by Dangerfield, see lyrics, music video & more!
My Freak (feat. Billy Bang & the Rej3ctz)Dangerfield
Listen to Doi Moi by Billy Bang, see lyrics, music video & more!
Doi MoiBilly Bang
Listen to At Play in the Fields of the Lord (feat. Frank Lowe) [Live] by Billy Bang & Billy Bang Quintet, see lyrics, music video & more!
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (feat. Frank Lowe) [Live]Billy Bang & Billy Bang Quintet
Listen to Petty Tyrants by Ahmed Abdullah, Brent Bagwell, Billy Bang, John Betsch, William Parker, Oscar Sanders & Charles Bobo Shaw, see lyrics, music video & more!
Petty TyrantsAhmed Abdullah, Brent Bagwell, Billy Bang, John Betsch, William Parker, Oscar Sanders & Charles Bobo Shaw
Listen to Pent up House (feat. Frank Lowe, Billy Bang & Wilber Morris) by The Jazz Doctors, see lyrics, music video & more!
Pent up House (feat. Frank Lowe, Billy Bang & Wilber Morris)The Jazz Doctors

More albums from Billy Bang

Listen to Billy Bang Lucky Man by Billy Bang
ALBUMBilly Bang Lucky ManBilly Bang
Listen to The Red Pill Project by Billy Bang
ALBUMThe Red Pill ProjectBilly Bang
Listen to Banglorious by Billy Bang
ALBUMBangloriousBilly Bang
Listen to Vietnam: Reflections by Billy Bang
ALBUMVietnam: ReflectionsBilly Bang
Listen to Vietnam: The Aftermath by Billy Bang
ALBUMVietnam: The AftermathBilly Bang
Listen to Spirits Entering by Billy Bang & Kahil El'Zabar
ALBUMSpirits EnteringBilly Bang & Kahil El'Zabar
Listen to Big Bang Theory by Billy Bang
ALBUMBig Bang TheoryBilly Bang
Listen to The Power by Billy Bang, Hamiet Bluiett & Kahil El'Zabar
ALBUMThe PowerBilly Bang, Hamiet Bluiett & Kahil El'Zabar
Listen to Bang On by Billy Bang
ALBUMBang OnBilly Bang
Listen to Big Cliff by Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio & Billy Bang
ALBUMBig CliffKahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio & Billy Bang
Listen to A Tribute to Stuff Smith by Billy Bang
ALBUMA Tribute to Stuff SmithBilly Bang
Listen to Outline No. 12 by Billy Bang
ALBUMOutline No. 12Billy Bang

About Billy Bang

Listen to Billy Bang, watch music videos, read bio, see tour dates & more!
Hometown
Mobile, AL, United States
Born
October 20, 1947
Genre
Jazz
Although he played an instrument more closely identified with uptown concert halls than downtown jazz clubs, there was no mistaking the primary source of Billy Bang's musical inspiration. While his violin technique was extensive and his familiarity with contemporary classical forms apparent, Bang's rough-edged, sometimes almost guttural tone, old-fashioned sense of swing, and lexicon of vocalic expressive devices defined him as a jazz musician. Bang improvised lines that might have been lifted straight from a George Crumb composition, yet he invested them with an emotionalism and spontaneity unique to jazz. Whether in the abstract (as a solo violinist, elaborating on skeletal melodic material) or as part of a greater whole (with Sun Ra's Arkestra, for example), a Bang performance was always awash with surprise. Bang was born in Alabama as Billy Walker, but as an infant moved with his mother to Harlem. He was a small youngster, so when he evinced an interest in music as a junior-high student, he was given a violin. About this time he began being called Billy Bang after a cartoon character. Prompted by a fascination with Afro-Cuban rhythms, he switched to percussion in the early '60s. As a hardship student at a Massachusetts prep school, Bang played drums with his fellow student, the folksinger Arlo Guthrie. Bang was drafted into the service and was sent to Vietnam. He became radicalized upon returning to the U.S. and worked in the antiwar movement. Bang began playing music again in the late '60s. Bang was inspired by the free jazz of the mid-'60s, especially the music of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. The influence of germinal free jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins (and Coleman's violin work) led Bang back to his original instrument. Bang studied with Jenkins and involved himself with the burgeoning New York free jazz scene. He collaborated with saxophonists Sam Rivers and Frank Lowe and performed often in the downtown lofts that housed the avant-garde music of the day. Bang formed his own group, the Survival Ensemble, in the early '70s. In 1977, Bang co-founded (with bassist John Lindberg and guitarist James Emery) the String Trio of New York. It was for his work with the latter group that Bang became best known (he left the band in 1986). He also played with bassist Bill Laswell's Material and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, and led his own groups. In the mid-'80s, Bang played briefly with a funk band called Forbidden Planet. He also collaborated on various projects with pianist Marilyn Crispell, trumpeter Don Cherry, and guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer. In the '90s, Bang fronted his own ensembles and occasionally led ad hoc groups on record dates. A 1992 session with Sun Ra (on what was possibly Ra's last recording), bassist John Ore, and drummer Andrew Cyrille resulted in Tribute to Stuff Smith (Soul Note). Bang recorded Spirits Gathering with a band that included drummer Dennis Charles for the CIMP label in 1996. The next year, he made his most straight-ahead jazz album, Bang On!, for Justin Time. That same year, he recorded Commandment (For the Sculpture of Alain Kirili), an album of solo violin, for Alan Schneider's NoMore label. The new millennium saw the release of Big Bang Theory in 2000, followed by a pair of albums drawing on Bang's Vietnam experience, 2001's Vietnam: The Aftermath and 2005's Vietnam: Reflections. A live set, Above and Beyond: An Evening in Grand Rapids, appeared in 2007. Suffering from lung cancer, Billy Bang died due to complications from the disease at his home in Harlem on April 11, 2011 at the age of 63. ~ Chris Kelsey

Similar to: Billy Bang

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Listen to Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, watch music videos, read bio, see tour dates & more!
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Listen to Billy Bang Quintet, watch music videos, read bio, see tour dates & more!
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Listen to The Roy Campbell Ensemble, watch music videos, read bio, see tour dates & more!
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Billy Bang has also released music as a member of String Trio Of New York, The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, Billy Bang's Survival Ensemble, Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, The Jazz Doctors, The Roy Campbell Ensemble, Billy Bang Quintet, Billy Bang Sextet, William Parker Violin Trio, and Billy Bang Quartet.