Jazz violinist Billy Bang passed away on Monday at
the age of 63, after a struggle with lung cancer. Bang (born
William Vincent Walker) was born in 1947 in Alabama, but spent much
of his life in the Bronx. Growing up he played violin, flute and
drums.
Bang was drafted into the army in 1966 and served in Vietnam. In
a 2006 interview he said: “I was a tunnel rat. I took out ambushes.
I was right in the thick of everything. It was one of the hotter
times in Vietnam, during the Tet Offensive. I was an infantryman;
there was no way out of it.”
Bang was haunted by Vietnam, and told Jazz Times in
2005 that he “lived in Vietnam, totally, all the time.” After
returning from the war, Bang lived in the Bronx and turned to
drugs, getting caught up in a group of militants along the way. On
a trip to a pawn shop to buy guns, he ended up buying a $25 violin,
and gradually got involved in the New York scene.
He described the decision to play the violin as like joining the
priesthood, and played briefly in the Sun Ra Arkestra, later
forming the New York String Trio with John Lindberg and James Emery
in 1977.
Bang played with Henry Threadgill, Sun Ra, Kahil El’Zabar, and
in the William Parker Violin Trio, the Roy Campbell Ensemble and in
his own Quintet. His performances were noted for being energetic,
with one reviewer describing him as a "whirling dervish". In a 1988
live review of the Billy Bang Quartet from The Wire issue
51, Ben Watson said: “Tart and direct, Bang’s music may lead to
what cultural theorists are calling ‘categorical problems’, but the
playing itself – uncluttered, angular, scintillating – brooks no
question.”
The Rochester City Newspaper, Jazz Times, and the New York Times have also published detailed
obituaries of Billy Bang.
