Bill Graham (musician)

Bill Graham ( born September 8, 1918 as William Henry Graham in Kansas City ( Missouri)) was an American alto and baritone saxophonist of the swing and modern jazz and music educator.

Life and work

Bill Graham grew up in Denver, where he studied at the University for two years at the Music Institute in Tuskegee, and after the army at Lincoln University. In Denver, he had his own orchestra, which among other Paul Quinichette starred. He worked with Count Basie and Ed Wilcox before he mainly worked 1946-1953 with Dizzy Gillespie. He accompanied with his orchestra, the singer Sarah Vaughan in 1953 and toured through Europe, where they performed in the Salle Pleyel in Paris. He also played in this time with Erskine Hawkins, Herbie Fields and Lucky Millinder. He then spent two years with a own band in New York. From 1955 to 1957 he played again in the Count Basie Orchestra, was involved in the album " April in Paris " (1956) and appeared with him in 1957 at the Newport Jazz Festival. 1956/57, he participated also at photographs of Paul Quinichette. At the beginning of 1958 he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra, where he ( with Mahalia Jackson) starred in the new recording of " Black, Brown and Beige". After experimenting with his own bands (1958 /59), he worked with Mercer Ellington, but was also in the rhythm and blues sector by Little Willie John, to hear Joe Williams and Wynonie Harris. In the 1960s, he retired from the jazz scene largely back and worked as a music teacher in New York.

Auswahldiskographie

• Dizzy Gillespie: Pleyel Jazz Concert 1953 ( Vogue )
• Paul Quinichette: The Complete Dawn Sessions ( Blue Moon, 1956-57 )

Literature / Sources

• Carlo Bohländer et al: Reclams jazz leader. Stuttgart, Reclam, 1991
• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia, Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1993
• Bielefeld Catalog Jazz 2001
• All Music Guide (English )

• Jazz saxophonist
• American musician
• Born in 1918
• Man