Billy Bang was an innovative jazz violinist. He was born as William Walker in Alabama, but moved to Harlem, New York at a young age and was given a violin at junior school. He acquired the nickname of Billy Bang, a popular cartoon character at the time. At school in Massachusetts he played the drums with fellow student Arlo Guthrie.
He was drafted to fight in the Vietnam war and after returning to America he became involved in the anti-war movement. In the late 1960s, inspired by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins, he returned to the violin and started playing in the New York free jazz scene.
He studied with Leroy Jenkins and performed with sax players Sam Rivers and Frank Lowe. Bang formed the group Survival Ensemble in the early 1970s. In 1977 he founded The String Trio of New York with guitarist James Emery and bassist John Lindberg, making several influential records. He also played with bass player Bill Laswell in Material and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson in Decoding Society.
He played with the funk outfit Forbidden Planet in the 1980s and collaborated with artists such as trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Marilyn Crispell and guitarist James 'Blood' Ulmer. In 1992 he played with Sun Ra, John Ore and Andre Cyrille on the album 'Tribute to Stuff Smith'. The album 'Spirits Gathering' (1996) featured drummer Dennis Charles and the mainstream jazz of 'Bang On!' followed in 1997.
He released 'Big Bang Theory' in 2000 and then two albums based on his Vietnam war experiences, 'Vietnam: The Aftermath' (2001) and 'Vietnam: Reflections' (2005). In 2007 he released the live album 'Above and Beyond: An Evening in Grand Rapids'.
Bang died in 2011 at the age of 63 after contracting lung cancer.
