Died On This Date (June 16, 2010) Bill Dixon / Jazz Trumpeter

Bill Dixon
October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010

Among other things, Bill Dixon was an experimental jazz trumpeter who was somewhat unique in that he often included delay and reverb in his playing.  Over the course of a career that spanned some 60 years, he formed the Jazz Composers Guild and collaborated with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp and Rob Mazurek.  Dixon was also an educator, teaching at Bennington College in Vermont for nearly 30 years and chairing its Black Music Division for nearly 20.  Bill Dixon was 84 when he passed away in his sleep on June 16, 2010.

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Died On This Date (September 6, 1978) Tom Wilson / Acclaimed Producer

Tom Wilson
March 25, 1931 – September 6, 1978

With Bob Dylan.  Photo by Don Hunstein
With Bob Dylan. Photo by Don Hunstein

Working as a record producer through the late ’50s and most of the ’60s, Tom Wilson earned a place alongside such better-known contemporaries as Phil Spector and George Martin.  After graduating from Harvard, Wilson started up Transition Records, where he signed Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor.  In the early ’60s, he moved over to Columbia Records as house producer.  While there, he produced such masterpieces as Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, Another Side Of Bob Dylan, and Bringing It All Back Home. He also produced seminal albums by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Zappa, Eric Burdon and the Velvet Underground.  Tom Wilson suffered a fatal heart attack on September 6, 1978.  He was 47.