Biography
Bill Lee (also credited as William Lee) was an American jazz bassist and composer. Born William James Edwards Lee on 23 July 1928 in Snow Hill, Alabama, he died on 24 May 2023 in Brooklyn, New York.
He played double bass as a session musician for artists including Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, Duke Ellington and Harry Belafonte. Lee composed original scores for several of his son Spike Lee’s early films, including She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989) and Mo’ Better Blues (1990), and also scored the short Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983).
