With the help of his mother, Bill Amey was educated at the University of North Carolina School of Music in Greensboro, N...

With the help of his mother, Bill Amey was educated at the University of North Carolina School of Music in Greensboro, North Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Music Education Degree. He began to work weekends with entertainers like Barbara Eden (“I Dream of Jeanie”), Aaron Purdie (drummer for James Brown), The Modulations (Buddah Records). Bill appeared with Eden, Millie Jackson, and other major acts traveling through North Carolina. Upon graduation Bill relocated to New York where he gave most of his attention to the jazz idiom. He was fortunate enough to continue his study of music with trombonists of historic stature: J. J. Johnson, Curtis Fuller, and Slide Hampton as well as becoming a student at Jazzmobile, a Manhattan-based summer study program for young musicians operated by Dr. Billy Taylor, The Heath Brothers, Curtis Fuller, Frank Foster and others. Bill’s first international tour came when Hugh Maskela auditioned him for the band. Here, Amey performs at Historic Stagville, which preserves the remnants of one of the largest plantations in North Carolina. By 1860, the Bennehan-Cameron family owned over 30,000 acres of land and enslaved over 900 people. Stagville is dedicated to interpreting the lives, families, culture, and work of these enslaved people and their descendants. #BlackMusicMonth