Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble was a quintessential institution in fusing global music with jazz, Having his archives at Pitt is an achievement to be celebrated.Chad Taylor, Artistic Director of Jazz Studies in the Department of Music at Pitt
Jazz Artist and Scholar Bill Cole Donates Archive to the University of Pittsburgh Library System
The University of Pittsburgh Library System is pleased to announce the acquisition of the archive of Bill Cole, a jazz musician, ethnomusicologist, educator, author, and composer known for his use of non-western instruments. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Cole was one of the first students to graduate from Pitt's Jazz Studies program (BA 1967; MA 1970) under academic advisor Nathan Davis. Cole received a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 1974, where his advisor, Clifford Thornton, gave him his first double reed horns, and where he first met and performed with jazz artist Sam Rivers.
Cole is a pioneering African American writer on jazz. His dissertation on Miles Davis became the basis of his first book, Miles Davis: A Musical Biography (1974). Two years later he wrote the biography of another jazz great, John Coltrane (1976). He is also a prolific music reviewer who wrote for Downbeat Magazine and other publications. Aaron Johnson, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Pitt, said, “We are delighted to welcome Bill Cole’s archives back home to Pitt and to Pittsburgh. Bill’s groundbreaking work has paved the way for a couple of generations of Black music scholars.
Cole’s academic career led him to music professorships at Amherst College (1974), Dartmouth College (1974-1990), and five years as a professor of African American studies at Syracuse University (2005-2010) from which he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2010.
Cole specializes in non-Western wind instruments, especially double reed horns, including Chinese sonas, Korean hojok and piri; and Indian nagaswarm and shenai; as well as the Australian didgeridoo and Ghanaian atenteben. His music is improvisational, involving a constant dialog between the performers involved. Cole has collaborated with Warren Smith (percussion), Joseph Daley (lower brass), Julius Hemphill (saxophone), Abdul Wadud (cello), Gerald Veasley (bass), Billy Bang (violin), poet Jayne Cortez, and choreographer Douglas Dunn.
His archive is a rich collection of his scholarly writings, including research for both of his books; reviews that he wrote, and which were written about his work; newspaper articles; programs; video and audio recordings of performances, rehearsals, and recitals; as well as records from his well-publicized efforts to overcome racism as a Black scholar at Dartmouth.
Cole still composes, records, and performs. His archive joins the Archives & Special Collections’ growing collection of jazz material which includes the archives of Sam Rivers, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Burell, and Joe Negri.
The processing of the collection is currently underway.
Contact: Kathy Haines, Head, Center for American Music
Joe Daley (left), Bill Cole (right).
Photo by Li Shen
