"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."

"Frank Lowe (June 24, 1943 - September 19, 2003) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone at the age of 12. As an adult he moved to San Francisco, where he met Ornette Coleman. Coleman suggested Lowe visit to New York City, which Lowe did, and he began playing with Sun Ra and then Alice Coltrane, with whom he recorded in 1971. Unusually for the jazz culture at the time, Lowe had had no extended apprenticeship or slow paying-of-dues: one moment he was an amateur, and the next he was playing with the late John Coltrane's rhythm section. With Alice Coltrane he recorded World Galaxy in 1971.

Lowe began recording with his own group in 1973, with his album Black Beings, on ESP-Disk.

Lowe was a tenor saxophonist who was extremely influenced by the first and second waves of free jazz throughout the 1960s. His composition "Spirits in the Field" was performed on Arthur Blythe's 1977 album, The Grip.

On September 19, 2003, he died of lung cancer. His legacy was a varied body of recordings and memorable performances."

"Wilber Morris was an American jazz double bass player and bandleader. He was the brother of the cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris. Wilber Morris recorded widely, and performed with such musicians as Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva, Joe McPhee, Horace Tapscott, Butch Morris, Arthur Blythe, Charles Gayle, William Parker, and Billy Bang, Charles Tyler, Dennis Charles, Roy Campbell, Avram Fefer, Alfred 23 Harth, Borah Bergman and Rashied Ali."

"Thurman Barker (born January 8, 1948, Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz drummer.

Barker's first professional experience was at age sixteen with Mighty Joe Young. Barker took his bachelor's at Empire State College, then studied at the American Conservatory of Music under Harold Jones and at Roosevelt University under Edward Parimba. He next served as an accompanist for Billy Eckstine, Bette Midler, and Marvin Gaye. He was house percussionist at the Schubert Theater in Chicago in the 1960s. In 1968 he joined Joseph Jarman's first ensemble, and soon after became a member of the AACM in its early days. Aside from Jarman, he played in the late 1960s and 1970s with Muhal Richard Abrams, Pheeroan akLaff, Anthony Braxton, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill, and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre. He recorded and toured again with Braxton in 1978-80 and with Sam Rivers in 1979Ð80. In 1985 he played in a trio with Jarman and Rivers, and in 1987 he played marimba with Cecil Taylor.

In the 1990s, Barker concentrated more on composition. His 1994 work Dialogue was premiered at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. He composed Expansions (1999) and Time Factor (2000) for the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. Since 1993 he has been an associate professor at Bard College. In 1999 he was guest professor at the University of St. Petersburg."

"Donald Rafael Garrett (February 28, 1932, El Dorado, Arkansas - August 14, 1989, Champaign, Illinois) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played double-bass, clarinet, and flute.

Garrett, who preferred to be called Rafael, was raised in Chicago, where, along with musicians like John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan, he attended DuSable High School, studying music with "Captain" Walter Dyett. He initially started playing clarinet and saxophone, but later began studying bass after meeting Wilbur Ware. Around 1951, he met Muhal Richard Abrams, who credited Garrett with being a major influence on the direction that music in Chicago would take. In 1955, Garrett met John Coltrane while the latter was touring with Miles Davis. Garrett later told an interviewer that he and Coltrane had "been friends since 1955, and whenever he is in town, he comes over to my house, and we go over ideas." (One idea that originated with Garrett, and that Coltrane liked, was that of using two bass players. Coltrane frequently employed two bassists in the early 1960s.) Garrett also introduced Coltrane and Abrams at around this time.

Garrett worked as a bassist with Ira Sullivan from 1960 to 1962, recording Bird Lives!, and also played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, recording Introducing Roland Kirk, and Eddie Harris, recording Jazz for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and A Study in Jazz. During this time, Garrett also performed with the Ira Sullivan-Rahsaan Roland Kirk Quintet, which featured Abrams on piano, as well as in a trio with Abrams and drummer Steve McCall. In 1961, he played as a second bassist with Coltrane's group alongside Reggie Workman while the group was performing in Chicago. That same year, he was one of the co-founders, with Abrams, of the Experimental Band, a forerunner of the AACM.

In 1964, Garrett moved to San Francisco, where he taught, organized concerts, and began making instruments. In September 1965, he reunited with his friend John Coltrane, whose quartet was playing at the Jazz Workshop. Garrett and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders were both invited to sit in, and then joined the band, accompanying it to Seattle, where the group performed at The Penthouse and recorded Live in Seattle followed by Om. The group then traveled to Los Angeles, where they recorded the tracks "Kulu Sé Mama (Juno Sé Mama)", first issued on the album Kulu Sé Mama, and "Selflessness", first issued on the album Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things.

The following year, Garrett recorded with Dewey Redman (Look for the Black Star) and Archie Shepp (Archie Shepp Live in San Francisco and Three for a Quarter One for a Dime). He also played with Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, and Leon Thomas while in California. In the early 1970s, he went to Paris, where he performed with Frank Wright and Jean-Luc Ponty. In the late 1970s, he met cellist Zusaan Kali Fasteau [de], whom he would later marry, and together they formed the Sea Ensemble. The group recorded three albums and toured widely, visiting countries in Asia, North Africa, and Europe. During this time, Garrett played a number of non-Western instruments, including bamboo flutes that he made. In the 1980s Garrett also recorded with Joseph Jarman (Earth Passage - Density) and Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio (Sacred Love). He died on August 14, 1989, in Champaign, Illinois.

Over the years, in various album credits, books and articles, Garrett has been represented as having played bass clarinet. However, the authors of The John Coltrane Reference, who occasionally present updates to the book on their website (http://wildmusic-jazz.com/jcr_index.htm), provided an update dated 2008 which states that Dutch musician Cornelis Hazevoet sent the following information via an email to author Yasuhiro Fujioka: "Over the years, in liners, books and lists, Don Garrett has been attributed with playing bass clarinet. This is wrong. The man only played bass and clarinet (the small and straight horn, that is)... In 1975, Garrett played in my band and I've specifically asked him about it (because I already felt something was wrong with it). He most specifically and pertinently told me that he never played bass clarinet in his entire life, only the small, straight horn (which he played in my band too)... Perhaps, the error originated from the fact that Garrett was listed somewhere as playing 'bass, clarinet', which subsequently evolved into 'bass clarinet'. Whatever is the case, Garrett did not play bass clarinet on any Coltrane record nor anywhere else."

"Denis Alphonso Charles (December 4, 1933 - March 26, 1998) was a jazz drummer.

Charles was born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and first played bongos at age seven with local ensembles in the Virgin Islands. In 1945, he moved to New York, and gigged frequently around town. In 1954, he began working with Cecil Taylor, and the pair collaborated until 1958. Following this he played with Steve Lacy, Gil Evans, and Jimmy Giuffre. He befriended Ed Blackwell, and the two influenced each other.

He recorded with Sonny Rollins on a calypso-tinged set, and then returned to time with Lacy, with whom he played until 1964. He worked with Archie Shepp and Don Cherry in 1967, but heroin addiction saw him leave the record industry until 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s, he played regularly on the New York jazz scene with Frank Lowe, David Murray, Charles Tyler, Billy Bang, and others, and also played funk, rock, and traditional Caribbean music. He released three discs as a leader between 1989 and 1992, and died of pneumonia in his sleep in New York in 1998.

Charles died four days after a five-week European tour with the Borgmann/Morris/Charles (BMC) Trio, with Wilber Morris and Thomas Borgmann. His last concert with this trio took place at the Berlin's Willy-Brandt-Haus. With the BMC Trio he recorded some albums in his last two years. A fifth CD was released after he died: The Last Concert - Dankeschön, Silkheart Records, 1999.

In 2002, Veronique Doumbe released a film documentary, Denis A. Charles: An Interrupted Conversation, about the life of Charles."