Although he plays an instrument that's more closely
identified with up-town concert halls than downtown jazz clubs,
there's no mistaking the primary source of Billy Bang's musical
inspiration. While his violin technique is extensive and his
familiarity with contemporary classical forms apparent, Bang's
rough-edged, sometimes almost guttural tone, his old-fashioned
sense of swing, and his lexicon of vocalic expressive devices
define him as a jazz musician. Bang improvises lines that might
have been lifted straight from a George Crumb composition, yet
he invests them with an emotionalism and spontaneity that is
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 is always awash with surprise.
Bang was born in Alabama as Billy Walker, but as an infant moved
with his mother to Harlem. Bang 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 anti-war 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 often 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 produced Tribute to Stuff Smith (Soul
Note). Bang recorded Spirits Gathering -- with a band that
included the 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. ~ Chris Kelsey,
All Music Guide
