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Bill Messenger
Bill Messenger studied musical composition on scholarship at the Peabody Conservatory under Louis Cheslock. In 1963, he attended a master class with Nadia Boulanger, the teacher of Aaron Copeland. When he was a teenager he played back-up piano for Cass Elliot, who later became the lead singer of the rock group “The Mammas and the Pappas.”
Mr. Messenger holds two Master Degrees from Johns Hopkins University and has done additional graduate work in musicology at the University of Maryland.
His music criticism has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine and The Baltimore News American. The readers of Baltimore Magazine voted him"Baltimore's Best Pianist.” (1983)
He has published numerous articles on American popular music and is the writer-performer-narrator of the Teaching Company's seven hour audio/video series Jazz: (1-800-TEACH-12)..His latest book, The Melody Lingers On (Venture Press, 814-234-4561), will appear in bookstores in July 2004.From Cakewalk to Fusion
Mr. Messenger’s programs are marked by a dry humor that, while historically accurate, call attention to the absurd and paradoxical. Critic Rob Lippman has called him "a cross between Max Morath and Victor Borge."
