Bill Davison

Wild Bill Davison
Davison performing at Eddie Condon's, New York, c. June 1946
Davison performing at Eddie Condon's, New York, c. June 1946
Background information
Birth nameWilliam Edward Davison
Born(1906-01-05)January 5, 1906
Defiance, Ohio, US
DiedNovember 14, 1989(1989-11-14) (aged 83)
Santa Barbara, California, US
GenresJazz
OccupationMusician
InstrumentCornet
Years active1920s–1980s
Formerly ofEddie Condon

William Edward Davison (January 5, 1906 – November 14, 1989),[1] nicknamed "Wild Bill", was an American jazz cornetist. He emerged in the 1920s through his work playing alongside Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teschemacher in a cover band where they played the music of Louis Armstrong, but he did not achieve wider recognition until the 1940s.[2] He is best remembered for his association with bandleader Eddie Condon, with whom he worked and recorded from the mid-1940s until Condon's last concert at the New School for Social Research in New York in April 1972 (Chiaroscuro Records, CRD 110).[1]

His nickname of "Wild Bill" reflected a reputation for heavy drinking and womanizing in his younger years.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 115/6. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
  2. ^ Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.