Bill Kirchner

Although saxophonist, author and educator Bill Kirchner led his own New York City-based nonet on a pair of recordings for Sea Breeze -- 1983's What It Is to Be Frank and the following year's Infant Eyes -- for many years he was instead better known for his work away from the spotlight, teaching jazz composition and jazz history at the Big Apple's New School and arranging for artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz, and Patti Austin. Beginning in 1992, Kirchner also earned acclaim as the producer and annotator behind jazz reissues from labels including Mosaic, Verve, BMG, Fantasy, GRP and Columbia; his work on 1996's Smithsonian release Big Band Renaissance: The Evolution of the Jazz Orchestra earned an NAIRD Indie award for Best Liner Notes, while his efforts on 1997's Miles Davis and Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings were honored with a Grammy. Kirchner also edited the book A Miles Davis Reader; in 1998, he also released Some Enchanted Evening, his first album in well over a decade. Trance Dance: Live in Concert followed a year later.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo