Lee, Bill (actually, William James Edwards)

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Lee, Bill (actually, William James Edwards)

Lee, Bill (actually, William James Edwards), jazz bassist, composer; b. Snow Hill, Ala., July 23, 1928. He worked as a studio musician in the 1950s and 1960s in N.Y., including work with folk-pop artists such as Bob Dylan. In the late 1960s he ran a jazz program in the Bronx sponsored by the State of N.Y.; the faculty included McCoy Tyner. Today he is best known as the father of filmmaker Spike Lee, for whom he wrote the delightful jazz score to She’s Gotta Have It.

—Lewis Porter

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