"Big" Bill Bissonnette, a legendary trombonist, drummer, and advocate for New Orleans music has passed, he was 81. In his early career, he helped to promote musicians in New Orleans who were still making the music the city is known for. He founded the Jazz Crusade Record label in the 1960's and recorded over 100 sessions with local artists. He appeared on roughly half of those recordings as either a trombonist or drummer.
As well as preserving their legacy on high-quality recordings he arranged tours that gave nationwide exposure to New Orleans veteran musicians Kid Thomas Valentine, George Lewis, and Jim Robinson.
Bissonnette learned drums from Sammy Penn and was honored by the opportunities he had to associate with jazz legends, particularly Big Jim Robinson. He led The Easy Riders Jazz Band, bringing Sammy Rimmington from England to assist on reeds. All told he worked with New Orleans style artists whose careers span more than 100 years of jazz history and several continents. After reviving his label in the 1990's he released an additional 130 albums. He turned his focus to archiving the British Jazz scene on a series of Best Of The Brits albums before eventually selling the catalog to UpBeat Records on condition that the music remain availab
