Bill Loughborough

Born January 3, 1926, Died April 7, 2010. William Loughborough was student of electrical engineering at M.I.T. and radar specialist with the Navy in World War II. However, he is best known for his varied musical activities. Between 1940 and 1960 he was most active in jazz, playing with Bunk Johnson and Chet Baker. Around this time he worked with Harry Partch and built his Marimba Eroica instrument. In 1954 he designed and invented percussion instrument called the Boo Bam, along with several others. He formed Musical Engineering Associates for the construction of these instruments as well as publishing of musical documents and the organization of an Electronic Composer's Guild. In 1959, he passed Musical Engineering Associates to Henry Jacobs. Loughborough composed a piece which was used by Jacobs in the Vortex concerts at the Morrison Planterium between 1957 and 1959. In a completely different area he was a song writer whose lyrics have been performed by Bob Dorough, Tuck & Patti, Al Jarreau, Irene Kral, The Kingston Trio, Manhattan Transfer, and Anita O'Day.