William Bauer

William R. Bauer specializes in jazz, with an emphasis on the roles that timbre and prosody play in jazz vocal and instrumental performance practice. The University of Michigan Press published his book Open the Door: The Life and Music of Betty Carter to critical acclaim. Trained as a composer/improviser, he earned the Dalcroze Certificate and License in studies with Robert Abramson. In addition to teaching theory and musicianship, keyboard improvisation, and jazz studies in the College of Staten Island’s Department of Performing and Creative Arts, he also teaches in CSI’s Verrazano School and CORE 100 faculties. He directs the Music SILOH Project, an oral history investigation into the role that music has played in Staten Island’s cultural life.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS:

• Louis Armstrong’s Early Recordings: The Codification of Jazz Performance Practice (Ladham, NJ: Scarecrow Press, forthcoming, 2009).
• “Speaking in Tones: Louis Armstrong’s ‘Hotter Than That,’” in preparation.
• “Louis Armstrong’s ‘Skid Dat De Dat’: Timbral Organization in An Early Scat Solo,” Jazz Perspectives 2 (Fall 2007), 133-165.
• “All of Me: The Role of Timbre in Louis Armstrong’s Reinvention of an American Popular Song,” Colloque Interdiscipliaire de Musicologie, l’Observatoire International de la Création Musicale, l’Université de Montreal (posted Spring, 2006).
• Betty Carter's Finest Hour: Liner notes. New York, NY: Verve records, 314 589 778-2 (March 2003). (Compilation Producer; Musical and Production Consultant).
• “Scat Singing: A Timbral and Phonemic Analysis,” Current Musicology 64 (2003), 303-323.
• Open the Door: The Life and Music of Betty Carter. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002. 415 pages. Reprint and 2nd edition, 2003.
• “Betty Carter.” Scribner's Encyclopedia of American Lives. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 103-105.
• Portraits in Jazz. Newark, NJ: New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), March 2003. Catalogue of Photography Exhibit: Jazz and Newark: Newark Cultural Legacy Series 2001-02.
• Betty Carter: A Biography and Style Analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Publications, 1997 (433 pages).
• “Billie Holiday and Betty Carter: Emotion and Style in the Jazz Vocal Line.” Annual Review of Jazz Studies 6 (1993), 99-151.
• Review of “Stuart Nicholson’s Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Biography and Nadine
• Cohodas’s Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington,” ARSC Journal 37:2 (Fall 2007)
• Review of “Barry Kernfeld's What to Listen For in Jazz: Review.” Annual Review of Jazz Studies 8 (1997), 247-259.