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Dixonia: A Bio-Discography of Bill Dixon
In this thorough research guide to the career and music of Bill Dixon the author has documented how Dixon refined a sonically unique pan-tonal language of trumpet playing. As a trumpeter, composer, educator, and theoretician, Bill Dixon has politically and musically influenced many phases of the development of Black music in the second half of the 20th century. This authoritative guide details information about the life and music of Bill Dixon. Bill Dixon comments throughout the text on the familiar and unfamiliar aspects of his career as it unfolds between performances and recordings. The recollections of those who have collaborated with Bill Dixon over the years supplement the thorough research here presented on the life and career of Bill Dixon and, additionally, the New York avant garde artistic sphere in which he worked.
Bill Dixon has refined a sonically unique pan-tonal language of trumpet playing. As a trumpeter, composer, educator, and theoretician, Bill Dixon has politically and musically influenced many phases of the development of Black music in the second half of the 20th century. This authoritative guide details information about the life and music of Bill Dixon. Bill Dixon comments throughout the text on the familiar and unfamiliar aspects of his career as it unfolds between performances and recordings. The recollections of those who have collaborated with Bill Dixon over the years supplement the thorough research here presented on the life and career of Bill Dixon and subsequently, on the New York avant garde artistic sphere in which he worked.
Music and music history scholars, especially those interested in jazz and Black music, will be attracted to the wealth of information provided, often from primary sources, on Bill Dixon and Black music through the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The discography included encompasses issued and non-issued recordings as well as listings for every known Bill Dixon performance. Collaborations with dancers, directors, filmmakers and painters, among others, are also documented.
Bill Dixon has refined a sonically unique pan-tonal language of trumpet playing. As a trumpeter, composer, educator, and theoretician, Bill Dixon has politically and musically influenced many phases of the development of Black music in the second half of the 20th century. This authoritative guide details information about the life and music of Bill Dixon. Bill Dixon comments throughout the text on the familiar and unfamiliar aspects of his career as it unfolds between performances and recordings. The recollections of those who have collaborated with Bill Dixon over the years supplement the thorough research here presented on the life and career of Bill Dixon and subsequently, on the New York avant garde artistic sphere in which he worked.
Music and music history scholars, especially those interested in jazz and Black music, will be attracted to the wealth of information provided, often from primary sources, on Bill Dixon and Black music through the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The discography included encompasses issued and non-issued recordings as well as listings for every known Bill Dixon performance. Collaborations with dancers, directors, filmmakers and painters, among others, are also documented.
440 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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May 22, 2018
Ben Young has compiled an amazingly detailed look at the life and music of composer/trumpeter Bill Dixon here. His goal was to list every known recording (issued or not) and performance Dixon participated in, with as much detail and commentary as was available and appropriate. The result is something between a reference book and a biography, probably leaning toward the former. Not everyone will want to do what I did, which is read it front to back over several days. (I do confess to skimming some of the later entries, which involved Dixon leading student groups.) But it was mostly compelling reading, at least to someone as obsessed by music as I am, and I learned a lot. For instance, I didn't know know that in the second half of the 1960s, Dixon's main artistic alliance was with dancer Judith Dunn, and that almost all of his performances during this period were with her.
The reader also gets a strong sense of what Dixon was like - uncompromising, perhaps to the point of being difficult. But at the same time, he was generous and somewhat self-effacing - his stubbornness was on behalf of his artistic principles, not his ego. I was struck by the passage that described the process of naming a new performing facility at Bennington College, where he taught for many years. His students overwhelmingly voted to name the hall after Dixon, but he immediately dismissed that idea and suggested naming it after Paul Robeson. And that's the name that was adopted.
Seek out and listen to some of Dixon's odd, austere, beautiful music. And if you like it, check out this book.
The reader also gets a strong sense of what Dixon was like - uncompromising, perhaps to the point of being difficult. But at the same time, he was generous and somewhat self-effacing - his stubbornness was on behalf of his artistic principles, not his ego. I was struck by the passage that described the process of naming a new performing facility at Bennington College, where he taught for many years. His students overwhelmingly voted to name the hall after Dixon, but he immediately dismissed that idea and suggested naming it after Paul Robeson. And that's the name that was adopted.
Seek out and listen to some of Dixon's odd, austere, beautiful music. And if you like it, check out this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review