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so my teacher would be proud of me. |
consider myself very blessed to have had
Master Pierce as my teacher, and | know
the thousands of his former students feel
the same.”

Born in Hampton, in the Tidewater area
of Virginia, Pierce grew up in Florida,
nurtured by a family of educators who
encouraged instrumental music. An early
16-year old high school grad, at 18 he left
the South for Boston, where he remained
focused on immersing himself as both
dedicated student by day and gigging
saxophonist by night. He performed
numerous jobs, including as a member
of R&B show bands at Boston's legendary
Sugar Shack backing some of the
signature singing groups of the day,
including the Temptations, the Dells, the
Stylistics, and the Supremes. Touring with
Stevie Wonder provided young Billy with
his first real taste of the road. Eventually
his broader career focus prevailed and
he returned to Berklee to complete his
studies in 1973, before joining the faculty
part-time in 1975.

Boston's jazz scene continued to
beckon after his classroom responsibilities
concluded for the day, culminating one
night when friends presciently urged him

to sit in with drum master Art Blakey's
renowned hard bop academy, the Jazz
Messengers. As has been the case with so
many of his Messengers predecessors and
continued with his eventual successors,
Bill's three years of globetrotting road-
work with Art Blakey provided him with a
convenient proving ground of his mettle
as a player—both for his own confidence
and for recognition in the wider

jazz world.

Long recognized deservedly as one of
jazz music's great “finishing schools,” Art
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers is one of
the most distinctive band platforms in the
modern history of jazz. So many of
the great soloists, subsequent band
leaders and productive recording artists
are graduates of the Art Blakey school,
and certainly Billy Pierce is in that
pantheon. His tenure with Blakey
coincided with the cusp of the Young
Lions era of the mid-1980s/1990s phase
of the music's development. That era
introduced the world to such vibrant
young players as the Marsalis Brothers
(principally Wynton and Branford),
Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison,
Kenny Garrett, Javon Jackson, Lonnie
Plaxico, Robin Eubanks, Wallace