User:BillStevensMusic

Bill Stevens has been driven by a quote he attributes to Miles Davis, “I have to change”, but he will be the first to tell you that his music is embedded in a deep understanding of history brought to the present and beyond. He is always thinking about the process of creation, finding the new, pushing boundaries both in his playing and especially in his compositions where he has always looked to follow the voice inside of him toward his own spiritual path throughout a life in music.

Although Bill’s current music is based in sound and color through electro-ambient sound settings that often utilize spoken word, fine art inspiration and field recordings, he also has a robust back catalog of straight ahead Jazz, modal Jazz in an ECM style with an emphasis on Impressionistic harmony and Romantic based melodies, free Jazz and avant-chromatic funk.

It has been a journey with many accomplishments (signed by iti Records, grants from the Seattle Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities, conference speaker and guest performer in Norway and Australia to name a few), but there have been challenges on the path as well (years of overcoming a distinct fear of performing, a break from the exhaustion of maintaining a career in music that turned into a six year sabbatical to a debilitating almost career ending bout with bells palsey that affected his ability to play the trumpet. Bill refers to his sound on the horn today as a ‘fragile beauty’). But Bill’s middle class upbringing in Syracuse, NY taught him the value of hard work, that anything worth caring about as much as he cares about his music is worth fighting for. It was out of these trials that Bill began to commit toward sharing his love of music with a younger generation in the New York City public schools. Bill has worked to inspire and provide his students with creative experiences through his love of music, performance and composition.

Bill wants his fans to know how important they are to him. He always ends his newsletter by saying, “Thank you for being the most important part of my music”. For Bill this is not just a slogan, but his mantra. He genuinely cares about the lives of the people who listen to his music by often saying that his mission each time he performs or each time someone listens to his music at home is to transport them away from their daily grind, to have them momentarily forget about their job, issues at home, whatever the case may be to find a moment of relaxation and inner peace transforming them through instrumental abstract concepts as a fuel to empower and enlighten.

Bill Stevens has performed professionally in Miami, Florida; upstate New York; New York City, San Francisco and Seattle, Washington. He has performed with Billy Eckstine, Earl ‘fatha’ Hines, Spyro Gyra, Ira Sullivan, Denis DiBlasio, Randy Johnston, Ronnie Leigh, Out of the Blue, Julian Priester, Brad Shepik, Chuck Metcalf, Marc Seales, Bob Meyer, John Bishop, Owen Howard, Dom Minasi, George Usher, Pete McCann, Ben Gramm, Adam Kolker, Jay Bianchi, Josh Sinton, Ben Rosenblum, Brian Woodruff among others and ensembles under his own name including currently the Bill Stevens Group, Sound House with Bill Stevens, Doug Cuomo and Gary Fogel, the Bill Stevens Songbook and Standard Time Ensemble. Additionally, Bill performs in the Brass Quartet - As Though I Had Wings, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble and the New York Jazz Workshop Big Band. Bill has been the recipient of performance and composition grants from the Seattle Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Music Center. He has been a guest speaker and performer with the Joint Research Centres Conference at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway in 2017, the Australasian Jazz & Improvisation Research Network in 2018 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 2020 with the International Association for the Study of Popular Music at the University of Antwerp in Begium, the Netherlands, the International Society of Improvised Music at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia in 2020 and invited to compose new sound pieces for the Cities and Memory: Future Cities Project in Oxford, UK. Since 1990, in New York City, Bill has performed in various Jazz clubs, festivals and music conferences. He has studied with Elliott Topalian, Herbert W. Harp, Gilbert Johnson, Randy Brecker, Jack Walrath, Laurie Frink and with bassist Joe Solomon. Bill Stevens lives in New York City with his wife Laura and their son Miles lives and works in Brooklyn, NY as a Strength Coach and Nutrition Counselor for Future Fitness.