Bill Moody (author)
American novelist (1941–2018)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bill Moody (September 27, 1941 – January 14, 2018)[1] was an American writer of detective fiction and a professional jazz drummer.
Bill Moody | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 27, 1941 Webb City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | January 14, 2018 (aged 76) Vallejo, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Novelist; jazz musician |
| Children | Sarah May |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Mystery |
Biography
Moody grew up in Santa Monica, California and attended Boston's Berklee School of Music.[2]
Moody moved to Las Vegas in the mid-70s and stayed 20 years as a professional jazz drummer.[3] He also taught at the University of Nevada.[4]
Moody lived in northern California and taught creative writing at Sonoma State University.[3]
Writing career
In 1994, Moody's first published novel Solo Hand introduces his Evan Horne character, and addresses music royalties and blackmail.[5]
Moody wrote Death of a Tenor Man (1996) while teaching at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. The subject of this novel is the mysterious death of saxophonist Wardell Gray.[2][6]
His third Evan Horne mystery The Sound of the Trumpet (1997) involves lost recordings of trumpeter Clifford Brown.[7]
Bird Lives! (1999) centers around the murders of "smooth jazz" artists.[8]
In Looking for Chet Baker (2002) Horne investigates the disappearance of a friend who has been writing a paper on Chet Baker.[9]
Shades of Blue (2008) is not a murder mystery, but instead Horne investigates what might be original compositions of two famous Miles Davis recordings.[10]
In Fade to Blue (2011) Horne teaches an actor how to fake piano playing for a movie, but is drawn in to a murder investigation.[11]
Mood Swings (2014) is a collection of nine stories, each providing a view of the world of jazz through the eyes of nine musicians.
Moody has written two espionage novels: Czechmate: the Spy Who Played Jazz was written in 1986 but not published until 2012, and The Man in Red Square was published in 2013.[12]
Moody wrote his 1993 non-fiction book The Jazz Exiles based on his experiences living and working in Europe for three years.[2]
Music career
Moody has played with many jazz musicians, including Jon Hendricks, Lou Rawls, Maynard Ferguson, Russ Freeman, and Carson Smith.[2][4]
Bibliography
Evan Horne Series
Fictional mysteries featuring jazz pianist Evan Horne.
Other novels
Collections
Mood Swings (2014) ISBN 9781943402090
Nonfiction
The Jazz Exiles (1993) ISBN 978-0874172140