Barron, Bill, 1927-1989

Bill Barron, born William Barron Jr., was born March 27, 1927 in Philadelphia. He played tenor and soprano saxophone as well as being a gifted composer and teacher. He began playing the piano at age nine like his younger brother Kenny eventually would, but switched to saxophone.

At age seventeen, Barron joined the Carolina Cotton Pickers, and soon went on toured the South in the early 1940s. After serving in the army for three years beginning in 1943, he enrolled in the Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia, formerly Combs College of Music, where he studied composition, theory and arranging as well as saxophone and clarinet. He went on to perform with such artists as Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, Cecil Taylor, and Jimmy Heath throughout the 1950s. After moving to New York in 1958, he continued to work with Taylor and Jones, and formed his own group, the Barron Brothers. Barron joined up with trumpeter Ted Curson in 1964 and toured Europe, where he continued to thrive, mainly in Sweden and Denmark. Barron performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965 with Cecil Taylor.

He directed the Muse Jazz Workshop of the Children's Museum in Brooklyn between 1968 and 1974. Barron received his doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1975 and began teaching at Wesleyan University. Barron went on to become the chairman of the music department in 1984 and remained there until his death on September 21, 1989 in Middletown, Connecticut.

Some of Barron's more famous recordings include "The Next Plateau" (1989) and "Jazz Caper" (1982); compositions include "Motivation" and "Hold Back Tomorrow." Kenny Barron played on all of his brother's recordings. Wesleyan University maintains a collection of Bill Barron's music and papers.

From the guide to the The William "Bill" Barron (1927-1989) Collection, 1970s-1988, (Rutgers University Libraries. Institute of Jazz Studies)