Bill Warfield (USA)
big band leader
Trumpeter, composer Bill Warfield was born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 2nd, 1952. Bill is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music where he won the Maynard Ferguson Scholarship, the William H. Borden award for outstanding achievement in Jazz/Commercial Music and the Carmine Caruso Award for outstanding trumpet performance. Bill moved to NYC in 1979 and quickly established himself as a creative force on the NY scene. He has performed with such diverse artists as Ornette Coleman, Mel Torme, David Sanborn, Sheila Jordan, Lew Soloff, David Liebman, Jon Faddis, Buddy DeFranco, Don Braden, Randy Brecker, the members of the Yellowjackets and Sonny Stitt. He has also been busy as an arranger, orchestrator and/or involved in music preparation for Lester Bowie, Eddie Palmieri, Earl McIntrye and Buddy Williams.
As a band leader he has recorded "New York City Jazz" for Interplay Records (1990), "The City Never Sleeps" for Seabreeze Records (1994), a collaboration with guitarist Dave Stryker on "Nomad" for Steeplechase Records (1995). ,Gene Ludwig and the Bill Warfield Big Band for Allegra (2008). “Le Jazz Hot” w/ Dave Liebman on Planet Arts Network (2010), and “A Window That Shows me The Moon” also On Planet Arts Network (2012)
Bill is listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz by Ira Gitler and Leonard Feather and the online Biographical Jazz listings by Lewis Porter. Bill is an Associate Professor of Music at Lehigh University where he directs the jazz studies program.