Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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BANG, Billy

(b William Vincent Walker, 20 September 1947, Mobile, AL; d 11 April 2011 of lung cancer) Violin, composer. Raised in Spanish Harlem NYC, he studied violin as a child but hated it. Drafted into the U.S. Army, he served in Vietnam and saw a lot of combat, which haunted him for decades; he suffered from what we would now call traumatic stress disorder, dabbling with drugs and crime. Then music reclaimed him. There is a good interview here.

He turned pro '72, touring Europe frequently from '77 onwards. He formed String Trio of New York '77 with James Emery on electric guitar and John Lindberg on bass, recording First String '79, Area Code 212 '80, Common Goal '81 and Rebirth Of A Feeling '83 and Natural Balance, all on Black Saint; Octagon '92 added Regina Carter, as did Intermobility on Arabesque; Ascendant '90 on Stash had Charles Burnham instead of Carter, and was followed by Time Never Lies '91 on Stash.

Meanwhile Bang had played with Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society and free-jazz group Material alongside Sonny Sharrock (electric guitar); and with sidepersons such as Michele Rosewoman (piano), Charles Tyler (reeds) and Dennis Charles (drums) he made a series of highly individual, unusually textured albums for Soul Note in the '80s, the quintet album Rainbow Gladiator '81 perhaps the best known; others included quartet Valve No. 10, quintet Invitation, sextets The Fire From Within and Live At Carlos 1, and A Tribute To Stuff Smith '92, with Sun Ra, John Ore and Andrew Cyrille (Ra had made his very first recording with Smith nearly 40 years earlier). Spirits Gathering '96 appeared on the new CIMP label, with Brett Allen on guitar, Akira Ando on bass, Dennis Charles on drums, and was a low-key showing from Bang; '97's Bang On! on Justin Time featured Ando, pianist D. D. Jackson and drummer Ronnie Burrage. Commandment (for the sculpture of Alain Kirili) on No More was a solo set, brave and justified: 'one of the rare unaccompanied soloists able to conjure a sense ... of a non-existent rhythm section' (Chris Kelsey in Cadence).

Usually passionate and intensely personal, Bang's violin playing broadened the instrument's jazz scope and established him as a leading figure in the avant-garde. Continuing to record for the Canadian Justin Time label, he finally just about made a living at music. With the album Vietnam: The Aftermath 2001, made with a small group of musicians who had served there, he exorcised some of those demons. Vietnam: Reflections 2005 included contributions from Vietnamese musicians.