Billy Wallace

Jazz: Piano, Saxophone, Vocal Artist Born: 1929 August 20 Died: 2017 December 7 Billy Wallace was a self-taught genius of the modern piano lineage. Starting very young, he cut his teeth in Midwest night clubs and seedy strip joints to bring his raw talent to a sharpened edge. In the 1950's, based out of Chicago, he began touring and playing with some of the most well-known musicians of the day(Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Bill Lee, etc.). He’s credited on Max Roach’s popular album “Jazz in 3/4 Time” and helped back up such talents as Illinois Jacquet, Charlie Parker, B.B. King and Gladys Knight. In the early 70s, Wallace moved to Denver, Colorado and became well-known in some of the city’s best hotels and nightclubs. He moved to Seattle in the early 1990's and there established himself as a premier pianist on the thriving local jazz scene. Billy moved back to Denver in 2003 and there lived out the rest of his days as a keystone of the city's legendary music history. His knowledge of over 10,000 songs at any given point was a standard he held himself to always. His inspired, fiery solos often wowed audiences with dual solo lines played simultaneously with both hands. Yet to the audience at large he remains an unsung hero of modern American music. For country and rockabilly musician, please use Billy Wallace (3).