Bill Thurman
Bill Thurman was born in Nashville, TN where he first
heard old country and what was called "hillbilly" music. When he was age 8 the family moved to Memphis, TN where he started to play the piano and listened to everything from Bach and Ray Charles to the Beach Boys and Stravinsky. By the time he reached 14 he played piano, violin, viola, clarinet, bassoon, the tuba and electric organ in little high school bands.
He started playing professionally at age 16 with Noel Gilbert and the Memphis Strings and backed up recording artists as diverse as Paul Revere and the Raiders, Merilee Rush, B.J. Thomas, The Boxtops, Jim Dickinson, The Barkays, Al Green, O.V. Wright, Isaac Hayes, Dionne Warwick, Brenda Lee and dozens more. two of the biggest recording engineer/producers he worked for were the legendary music men
Willie Mitchell and Chips Moman.
In the 60's, 70's and 80's Thurman played viola and violin in various orchestras
as he was expected to do, but as time went by he played more pop, rock, jazz/swing, Celtic and other ethic musics including some middle-eastern. he plays the Oud the ancestor of the European lute. the Oud can be heard on four of the tunes from The Original Music from the 90's. some of the orchestras he played in were the Memphis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Tupelo, MS Orchestra, Jackson, TN Orchestra, Memphis Opera Orchestra and more. in 1975 his composition Andromeda
for chamber orchestra and soprano won
the Johannes Smit Composition Prize at
Memphis State University. it was composed
in a free form 12 tone style. Don Freund
the professor of music composition at Memphis State at that time conducted the
small orchestra which was called The Southern Chamber Ensemble. a copy of it may still exist, buried somewhere in the archives of the University of Memphis Music
Department.
some of his old fiddle and guitar heros are Kenny Baker, Vassar Clements, Johnny Gimble, Kevin Burke, Johnny Cunningham, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Eddie South, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Stuff Smith and the list goes on and on. three of his greatest jazz influences have been saxophonists Fred Ford, Charles Lloyd and pianist Herbie Hancock. a couple of his all time favorite classical violinists have been David Oistrakh and Itzhak Perlman. if he listed all the music and personalities that he's ever seen, heard and liked, then he'd have to write a book.
as a fiddler, pennywhistler, guitar player, oud player, pianist and harpist he is mainly self-taught and has always made a point of listening to some of the greatest performers of all these instruments and to learn more about music from every corner of the world. like one of his old music heroes, Debussy (who was also an old music hero to such people as Django Reinhardt, Bela Bartok, Manuel de Falla and countless others) he has been fascinated by everything from Balinese Gamelan Orchestra to tribal drum ensembles from Native Indian tribes and different countries of Africa and the middle east. at heart he is really a composer and in fact has a Masters Degree in music composition which
he was awarded from Memphis State University (as they called it then) in 1976.
after hearing the legendary Chieftans
in the mid-1980's, Thurman was inspired to play Celtic music which featured the
fiddle, Irish flute, whistle, harp and other acoustic instruments. one of the highlights
of his career was when he met Paddy Moloney in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel
in Memphis and was invited to take a guest spot on one set during the Chieftan's concert that was held in Memphis in the summer of 1995. he played pretty damn good too and got a rousing ovation! in 1996 his band Different Folks (and they certainly were!) recorded a CD called Color of Your Heart which playfully and skillfully mixed and blended reggae, celtic, bluegrass, middle eastern, a couple of Native Indian themes and more. the band was made up of Bill Thurman, Gregg Hansen and Tommy Ashker and they have sold all the copies. it is not in print for now, but many of its tunes can be heard on The Celtic Collection and also the Original Music.
Thurman lived in Texas, mainly Houston and Austin for seven years from 1996 to 2003. he played with all sorts of musicians and bands while there, but the most talented he played music with was Lloyd Wright of the multi-talented Wright Family. Thurman and Wright recorded a CD known as From Mountain View to Mountain Dew. Lloyd may have a few of those left.
after deciding that his heart was more in the beautiful highlands,woods and streams of Arkansas he moved there in 2003.
since living in Tennesee, Texas and Arkansas, Thurman has taught hundreds and hundreds of students and released seven CD's. Out of dozens of other CD's and 8 nominees Bill's composition and recording
Achille's Jig was voted 2nd Place for Best Celtic Instrumental Song in 2006 in the Just
Plain Folks music awards show which was held on November 4, 2006. their website is
www.jpfolks.net.
Bill Thurman currently lives and works in Little Rock, AR and can easily be
reached at bill.masterofmusic@gmail.com.