Bill Moody (author)

Bill Moody
Born(1941-09-27)September 27, 1941
Webb City, Missouri
DiedJanuary 14, 2018(2018-01-14) (aged 76)
Vallejo, California
OccupationNovelist; jazz musician
NationalityAmerican
GenreMystery
ChildrenSarah May

Bill Moody (September 27, 1941 – January 14, 2018[1]) was an American writer of detective fiction and a professional jazz drummer.

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.

  • Solo Hand (1994) ISBN 1871033497
  • Death of a Tenor Man (1995) ISBN 0802732690
  • The Sound of the Trumpet (1997) ISBN 0802732917
  • Bird Lives! (1998) ISBN 0373263503
  • Looking for Chet Baker (2002) ISBN 1590585739
  • Shades of Blue (2008) ISBN 1590584856
  • Fade to Blue (2011) ISBN 1590588940

Other novels

Collections

Mood Swings (2014) ISBN 9781943402090

Nonfiction

The Jazz Exiles (1993) ISBN 978-0874172140

References

  1. ^ "Bill Moody – author of mysteries and Cold War thrillers – jazz drummer". billmoodyjazz.com. Archived from the original on June 22, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d Hamlin, Jesse (March 16, 2002). "Moody's clues / Jazz drummer delves into the mysteries of the music world in his novels". San Francisco Gate. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Hallaman, Paul (April 10, 2002). "Bill Moody, author of Looking for Chet Baker". Jerry Jazz Musician. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Dunton, John (July 10, 2008). "Bill Moody's "Swinging Detective"". Jazz Profiles. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  5. ^ uncredited (February 1, 1994). "Review: Solo Hand". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  6. ^ uncredited (October 1, 1995). "Review: Death of a Tenor Man". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  7. ^ Breton, Marcela (November 1, 1997). "The Sound of the Trumpet by Bill Moody". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  8. ^ Stasio, Marilyn (June 27, 1999). "Review: Bird Lives". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  9. ^ Santoro, Gene (April 7, 2002). "Die Cool". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  10. ^ uncredited (February 1, 2008). "Review: Shades of Blue". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  11. ^ uncredited (April 1, 2011). "Review: Fade to Blue". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  12. ^ Moody, Bill (March 19, 2013). "Behind the Book: The Man in Red Square". Crimespree Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2017.