Billy Bang

Billy Bang at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay CA 8/24/86, w/William Parker, bass; Oscar Sanders, guitar; Zen Matsuura, drums
Bang’s family moved to New York City’s Bronx neighborhood while he was still an infant, and as a child he attended a special school for musicians in nearby Harlem. At that school, students were assigned instruments based on their physical size. Bang was fairly small, so he received a violin instead of either of his first choices, the saxophone or the drums. It was around this time that he acquired the nickname of “Billy Bang”, derived from a popular cartoon character.