Previous Message

Ken Bradshaw below points out the recent passings of Rolf Harris and Tina Turner, both high profile music pros in their heydays, and I'm afraid that those deaths will overshadow another one that for me is more significant in the worlds of folk and jazz music.

Bill Lee has died at the age of 94. The few obituaries I've seen so far understandably identify him prominently as the father of director Spike Lee - understandably because for a while back in the '80s especially Spike was as well-known as just about any other American director - but that saddens me in a way. Except for the humorous photo of David "Buck" Wheat on the cover of the KT's Goin' Places LP, Bill Lee was the only bass player I recall whose picture actually made it on to an album sleeve - a black and white photo on the back cover of an album, maybe one of the Chad Mitchell Trio's, though I'll have to check that.

An announcement of Bill Lee's death appeared on Facebook with an immediate comment by Dick Weissman, original member of The Journeymen with John Phillips and Scott McKenzie - Weissman notes "Always re-assuring to see him on a recording session."

The administrator of a folk music page on FB, Tony Gillespie, wrote "Sad new to report: Bill Lee, the father of director Spike Lee, and bassist for a who's who of musical royalty, has passed away at the age of 94. Lee was an accomplished jazz bassist, but he played on several folk albums by musicians such as Cat Stevens, Harry Belafonte, Chad Mitchell Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, Odetta, Simon and Garfunkel, Ian & Sylvia, Tom Rush, Peter, Paul and Mary, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Carolyn Hester, Josh White, Malvina Reynolds, Eric Bibb, The Clancy Brothers, and Bob Dylan. On the original release of Dylan's classic song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," Lee, on bass guitar, is the only musician performing other than Dylan himself ."

The funny thing to me is that in a way, the better a bassist is, the less you hear him - and that was the case with Lee. His work was so skillful and so tasteful and so perfect at underpinning the melodies and instruments that you usually had to make an effort to hear what he was actually playing. Like Buzz Wheeler's work on The Kingston Trio debut LP, Lee's playing added a bit of syncopation and swing to the usually 4/4 time folk tunes that he backed. Taking the time to try to hear what Lee was playing is well worth it -he was a masterful musician.

If you're on Facebook, you can access this link - I've included all of the text above, but there's a good 1965 pic of Bill Lee with Judy Collins on the page:

Bill Lee Announcement On FaceBook