Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Billy Pierce was born September 25, 1948 in Hampton, Virginia and was raised in Florida by parents who were both educators. The household valued music and Pierce and his siblings each learned an instrument. He took up the saxophone as a child and started out listening to records by Dave Brubeck. Later he was drawn to the music of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. Since he was only 16 when he graduated from high school, his parents steered him toward a college in the South so he wouldn’t be too far from home. After he turned 18, and studied with Joe Viola, Andy McGhee and Joe Allard at Berklee College of Music,

Also known as Billy, he went on to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in the early 1980s and in the Tony Williams quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. He has led numerous sessions and released an equal number of CDs. He is the school’s woodwind department chair.

He has recorded with Blakey and Williams as well as with Makoto Ozone and Superblue. Saxophonist Billy Pierce continues to perform, compose and record.

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