The Squid's Ear Magazine

Bang, Billy

Distinction Without a Difference

Bang, Billy: Distinction Without a Difference (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

The late American violinist Billy Bang's first album, originally issued on Hat Hut Records, is reissued with an additional track, plus 4 previously unissued solo tracks recorded in Tilberg, Netherland in 1978, demonstrating this great artist's broad range of innovative techniques, mixing free-form and melodic passages in extended and joyful improvisations.
 

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Billy Bang-violin


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UPC: B072ZVV8YC

Label: Corbett vs. Dempsey
Catalog ID: CvsD035
Squidco Product Code: 24542

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks 1 to 6 and 10 recorded at Gaku Gallery, New York, August 12, 1979.

Tracks 7 to 9 and 11 recorded in Tilberg, Netherlands, October 29, 1978. Tracks 1-6 originally released in 1980 on LP on the Hat Hut label as hat Hut FOUR (1R04). All other tracks previously unissued.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The long out-of-print first solo record by American violinist Billy Bang (1947-2011), recorded in 1979 and first released on Hat Hut Records, featuring his own compositions, extrapolated at length in the intimate live concert, as well as traditional and improvised material. Remastered from original tapes and augmented by newly discovered recordings from the same concert. Part of the large cache of historical Hat Hut records that Corbett vs. Dempsey continues to release. Original cover, reprinted in all its glory with a tip-on gatefold. Classic American creative music on CD for the first time!"-Corbett vs Dempsey



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Billy Bang (September 20, 1947 Ð April 11, 2011), born William Vincent Walker, was an American free jazz violinist and composer.

Bang's family moved to New York City's Bronx neighborhood while he was still an infant, and as a child he attended a special school for musicians in nearby Harlem. At that school, students were assigned instruments based on their physical size. Bang was fairly small, so he received a violin instead of either of his first choices, the saxophone or the drums. It was around this time that he acquired the nickname of "Billy Bang", derived from a popular cartoon character.

Bang studied the violin until he earned a hardship scholarship to the Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at which point he abandoned the instrument because the school did not have a music program. He had difficulty adjusting to life at the school, where he encountered racism and developed confusion about his identity, which he later blamed for his onset of schizophrenia. Bang felt that he had little in common with the largely privileged children at the school, who included Jackie Robinson, Jr. (son of baseball star Jackie Robinson) and Arlo Guthrie, and he struggled to reconcile the disparity between the wealth of the school and the poverty of his home in New York. He left the school after two years and attended a school in the Bronx. He did not graduate, decided not to return to school after receiving his draft papers, and at the age of 18, he was drafted into the United States Army.

Bang spent six months in basic training and another two weeks learning jungle warfare, arriving in Vietnam just in time for the Tet Offensive. Starting out as an infantryman, he did one tour of combat duty, rising to the rank of sergeant before he mustered out.

After Bang returned from the war, his life lacked direction. The job he had held before the army had been filled in his absence. He pursued and then abandoned a law degree, before becoming politically active and falling in with an underground group of revolutionaries. The group recognized Bang's knowledge of weapons from his time in the Army, and they used him to procure firearms for the group during trips to Maryland and Virginia, buying from pawnshops and other small operators who did not conduct extensive background checks. During one of these trips, Bang spotted three violins hanging at the back of a pawnshop, and he impulsively purchased one.

He later joined Sun Ra's band. In 1977, Bang co-founded the String Trio of New York (with guitarist James Emery and double bassist John Lindberg). Billy Bang explored his experience in Vietnam in two albums: Vietnam: The Aftermath (2001) and Vietnam: Reflections (2005), recorded with a band which included several other veterans of that war. The latter album also features two Vietnamese musicians based in the United States (voice and ˆn tranh zither).

Bang died on April 11, 2011. According to an associate, Bang had suffered from lung cancer. He had been scheduled to perform on the opening day of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on June 10, 2011. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bang)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Improvisation For Sweet Space 5:39

2. Loweski 8:02

3. Part Of A Distinction Without A Difference 3:46

4. Theme For Masters 9:51

5. Sometime Later 8:02

6. Skip To My Lou 4:01

7. Prana 8:14

8. Echo Vamp 6:53

9. Subway Ride With Giuseppi Logan 8:40

10. A Pebble Is A Small Rock 7:12

11. Fiddle In The Floodlight 6:35

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Stringed Instruments
Solo Artist Recordings
Jazz Reissues

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