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.

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