Bill Lee (musician)


William James Edwards Lee III is an American musician. He is the father of Spike Lee and Joie Lee. He has composed original music for many of his son's films, including She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues. Lee was involved in many releases from the Strata-East jazz record label, including directing the 1980 album The New York Bass Violin Choir.

Personal life

Lee was born in Snow Hill, Alabama, the son of Alberta Grace, a concert pianist, and Arnold Wadsworth Lee, a musician. In 1951, he graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He married his college sweetheart who was enrolled at a neighboring college, Jacqueline Shelton, a 1954 Spelman College graduate. With his first wife, Jackie, he had five children, including the film director Spike Lee, still photographer David Lee, actress Joie Lee, and filmmaker Cinqué Lee. With his second wife, Susan, he has one son, Arnold Lee, who plays alto saxophone.
Lee was arrested on October 25, 1991 in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn for carrying a small bag of heroin during a police drug sweep of a park near his home. Lee would later say of his arrest, "I'm glad I was arrested, It woke me up."

Relationship with Spike Lee

Though Bill Lee scored his son's first four movies, they had a falling out shortly after the arrest on drug charges. "I don't have anything to do with Spike now," Lee told New York Newsday in 1994. "We haven't talked for two years."
Bill Lee has said their problems started with his son's intolerance of his second marriage. The family feud began in 1976, when Spike Lee's mother Jacquelyn died of cancer and Susan Kaplan moved in with Bill. Spike has been quoted as saying, "my mother wasn't even cold in her grave." Bad feelings intensified with Jungle Fever, Spike Lee's film on interracial romantic relationships, as Bill Lee's second marriage was to a white woman.

Career

Lee has played the bass for many artists including Chris Anderson, Cat Stevens, Harry Belafonte, Chad Mitchell Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, Aretha Franklin, Odetta, Simon and Garfunkel, Ian & Sylvia, Tom Rush, Burt Bacharach, Peter, Paul and Mary, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Carolyn Hester, John Lee Hooker, Josh White, Duke Ellington, Malvina Reynolds, Eric Bibb, The Clancy Brothers and Bob Dylan. On the original release of Dylan's classic song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," Lee, on bass guitar, is the only musician performing other than Dylan himself.

Film music