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Bobby. Elsewhere he contributes mightily
to such gems as Watson'’s vibrant “In
Case You Missed It,” Watson's wife
Pamela’s “Ms. B.C.,” honored Blakey alum
and fellow tenor chair occupant Wayne
Shorter’s “Witch Hunt,” and James
Williams' evocative “Soulful Mister
Timmons.” This is hard bop jazz at its
essence and Billy Pierce was a significant
contributor to that fabric.

Several years following his rewarding
term with the Messengers, while once
again juggling his Berklee teaching
responsibilities, Pierce found himself
squarely in the eye of yet another drum
mastery hurricane, when he joined the
traps revolutionary Tony Williams' brilliant
late '80s/early 90s quintet, a stint Pierce
notes as a highlight of his performing
career, declaring, “l don't think | have
ever played with anyone more intense
than him; I've gotten to play with some
of the best drummers in modern jazz,”
citing Blakey, Max Roach, Roy Haynes,
Elvin Jones and his Berklee colleague the
ancestor Alan Dawson, one of the great
drum teachers in the history of the music.
With Tony Williams' band, a quintet which
included trumpeter and one-time Berklee
student Wallace Roney, the ancestor

pianist Mulgrew Miller, and the Berklee
alum bassist Ira Coleman ‘85, they
recorded the albums Civilization (1987),
Angel Street (1988), Native Heart (1990),
The Story of Neptune (1992), and Tokyo
Live (1992), all for the Blue Note label.

Meanwhile, the pinnacle of Bill Pierce's
Berklee career was reached in 1997 when
he was named Chair of Woodwinds. “Bill
Pierce was the consummate professional
as chair of the woodwind department. He
was effective, smooth, and prone to
understatement as he exploded like one
of his solos on “Epistrophy,” says his
colleague Dr. Larry Simpson, Berklee's
senior vice president for academic affairs
and provost.

High esteem for Bill Pierce's
contributions to Berklee emanates from
colleagues far and wide, both on the
bandstand and in the classroom. Asked
about Pierce, drummer and Berklee
percussion professor Ralph Peterson,
himself a member of the Art Blakey Jazz
Messengers family as a stand-in for the
great master since his passing on to
ancestry, says this about his colleague:
“Bill has been a musical big brother and
significant adviser and counsel for me and
many other musicians of my generation.