Bill Ware

Bill Ware ( born January 28, 1959 in East Orange as William A. Ware III) is an American jazz musician who has emerged primarily as a vibraphonist and composer. He worked with distorted tones, some of which he produced with defective pickups. After Wolf Kampmann he is a " reviver of the vibraphone by Gary Burton. "

Life and work

Ware, who comes from a musical family, started as a bass player; After training at Jazz Mobile he taught at William Patterson College and founded in 1986 with the Cuban drummer Roberto Borrell, the Latin band AM Sleep. Since the late 1980s, he was one of the Jazz Passengers. In 1993, he put under his own name with the Club Bird All Stars before the album Long and skinny. With Brad Jones and percussionist EJ Rodriguez, he founded the trio vibe, a kind of counterpart to Medeski, Martin & Wood, which presented several albums until 2008, most recently a Stevie Wonder tribute album. With Jones, he also played in the Y2K Jazz Quartet. With Marc Ribot, he took 2001 Ellington tribute album to Sir Duke. He also presented two Duoalben with cellist Sara Wollan. Furthermore, he toured from 1993 to 1995 with Steely Dan and played acid jazz with the Groove Collective and the Brooklyn Funk Essentials. John Lurie brought him to his concept album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits.

His composition Imitation of a Kiss was first performed in 2002 with the Jazz Passengers, Deborah Harry and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler at the Barbican Centre in London. He has also written several symphonies and a Double Concerto for Vibraphone and Piano. He has also composed film scores.

Lexical entries

• Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians
• Wolf Kampmann: Reclam Jazz Encyclopedia. Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5.