Bill Lee, a jazz bassist and composer whose versatility found him in demand among a varied spectrum of music icons and genres, from Duke Ellington to Odetta, Harry Belafonte, and—of course—those memorable film scores for his son Spike Lee, died on May 24 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 94.
Spike Lee confirmed his father’s death via Instagram, sharing a series of black-and-white portraits taken by younger brother David Charles Lee.
“My father, Bill Lee, played bass on Bob Dylan’s classic song ‘It’s All Over Now, ‘Baby Blue,’ on his album ‘Bringing It All Home.’ This morning, May 24th, my father made his transition. Today is also the birthdate of Bob Dylan,” Spike Lee wrote in a tribute on Instagram.
During Lee’s six-decade career, his unique versatility as a bassist earned him a reputation as being one of the few jazz musicians to have extensively recorded with folk music icons Peter, Paul, and Mary; Woody Guthrie; Cat Stevens; Simon and Garfunkel; Tom Paxton; and Ian & Sylvia, as well as with bluesman John Lee Hooker and on Aretha Franklin’s Columbia Records album debut “Aretha” (1960). He recorded more than 250 albums, from jazz to pop and folk. Lee seemed to unconsciously gravitate toward folk music—his experience of Black life in the south was embedded in his musical compositions, which accounts for his folk operas being so successful at Town Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the Newport Jazz Festival.
Lee was most renowned for composing those outstanding scores for his son’s early films, including “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986), “School Daze” (1988), “Do The Right Thing” (1989), and “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990). Terence Blanchard took over the scoring role starting with “Jungle Fever,” although Lee did compose two of the film’s songs.
Lee had small parts in all but “Do the Right Thing.” He first composed the score for his son’s short film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” that Spike submitted as his master’s degree thesis at the NYU film school. In 1983, it became the first student film to be showcased at Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films Festival.
“What an honor it was to have Bill Lee as a friend and mentor, being a lead vocalist in his band, producing and celebrating a couple of his birthday concerts, and collaborating with him as the composer of the soundtrack for my one-man play by Laurence Holder, ‘MONK,’” said jazz producer and director Rome Neal.
Lee found a blissful independence with Strata-East Records, owned by musicians trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell. There, he recorded three critically acclaimed albums, including “The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe: A Spirit Speaks,” which was a collaboration with his two sisters, Consuela Lee Moorehead, a jazz pianist and music instructor at Hampton University (HBCU) in Virginia, and A. Grace Lee Mims, a librarian with outstanding soprano talents. “The Brass Company: Colors” and the third album, self-titled, consisted of an ensemble that he founded and directed: the New York Bass Violin Choir, a collaboration of seven basses.
Tolliver said that recording was one of the label’s most impressive projects. “I remember vividly, the performance that Bill (presented) at Central Park—he called it ‘A Giant Trio.’ It featured Bill’s seven basses, a piano choir of seven pianos with Stanley Cowell, and Max Roach and his Um Boom drum ensemble,” recalled Tolliver. “Man, what an incredible performance. My only regret is we didn’t record it. Bill was the personification of the Black musicians’ experience after Reconstruction. He composed the way he lived.”
William James Edwards Lee III was born in Snow Hill, Alabama, on July 23, 1928, the son of Alberta Grace (Edwards), a concert pianist and teacher, and Arnold Wadsworth Lee, a cornet player and band director at Florida A&M University. In addition to his sisters Consuela and Grace, he had four other siblings: Clifton, Arnold Jr., Leonard, and Clarence.
At an early age, Lee studied drums, flute, and piano. In 1951, he graduated from Morehouse College (following in his footsteps, Spike Lee became the family’s third-generation Morehouse grad) in Atlanta, Georgia. His college sweetheart, Jacqueline Sheldon, attended the neighboring Spelman College, and they were married in 1954. As a bassist in his early 20s, he was inspired by Charlie Parker. He performed with small jazz groups in Atlanta and Chicago before moving to Brooklyn, NY, in 1959, with his bride.
With her, he had five children; film director Spike Lee, Christopher (who died in 2014), still photographer David Lee, actress Joie Lee, and filmmaker Cinqué Lee.
Their maternal grandfather, William J. Edwards, was a graduate of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. His experience at the institute inspired him to continue the legacy of Booker T. Washington by starting an arts school in Snow Hill in 1893 for Black students pursuing academic subjects and vocational training. By 1918, the Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute had multiple buildings with more than 300 students. Although Edwards died a few years later, the institute endured until its closing in 1973.
In the 1970s, when the electric bass became prominent among jazz groups as jazz-fusion became the new sound, Lee, an acoustic bass purist, refused to follow suit and lost work as a result. “Some things you just can’t live with,” he told the Boston Globe in 1992. “Just thinking about doing it, my gut reaction hit me so hard in the stomach. I knew I could never live with myself.”
“Everything I know about jazz I got from my father,” the filmmaker told the New York Times in 1990. “I saw his integrity—how he was not going to play just any kind of music, no matter how much money he could make.”
Over the years, Lee became a noted first-call musician and bandleader in the West Village and Harlem. This writer met Bill Lee during one of his performances at the Lenox Lounge. He had a cast of young guns playing with him: his son, alto saxophonist Arnold Lee (from his second wife, Susan Kaplan); trumpeter Theo Croker; and drummer Kassa Overall—all were attending the Oberlin Conservatory at that time.
“Bill Lee is one of the great American composers of our time,” said Croker. “His harmonic beauty was unique and his choice of melody always struck a chord inside of the listener. He was a masterful orchestrator of imagery.”
Lee’s love for music was not confined to performing and composing—he also taught African American music history at Long Island University. His dedication to nurturing young talent as an educator and musician has influenced generations of students.
Despite his significant contributions to the music world, Lee often said his most outstanding achievement was his family.
In addition to Susan Kaplan and Spike Lee, the elder Lee is survived by sons David and Cinqué, daughter Joie Lee, and Arnold Lee, his son with his second wife; a brother, A. Clifton Lee; and two grandchildren. Christopher Lee died in 2014, and first wife Jacquelyn Lee died in 1977.