Billy Bauer

American jazz guitarist, 1915–2005

William Henry Bauer (November 14, 1915 – June 17, 2005) was an American jazz guitarist.

William Henry Bauer was born in New York City. He played ukulele and banjo as a child before switching to guitar. He played with the Jerry Wald band and recorded with Carl Hoff and His Orchestra in 1941, led to the 1949 session (collected on Crosscurrents) which included "Intuition", and "Digression". He was a member of the NBC Tonight Show band in New York City and played in the Today Show band at the start of early television. Bauer continued his pioneering guitar work in a partnership with Lee Konitz, whose avant garde saxophone work was a perfect match for Bauer's guitar. The two musicians' dialogue crossed styles from bop and cool to the avant garde. Their recordings have been described as "some of the most beautiful duet recordings in jazz". "Duet For Saxophone and Guitar" was an unusual instrument pairing which has been described as redefining the role of jazz guitar. Later, he arranged the song "No One" that appeared on the CD Henry Golis Presents Good Music with Friends, which was released on Park Lane Drive Records in 2007. He died of pneumonia in New York, aged 89.

In later life Bauer taught at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music and his own Billy Bauer Guitar School, first in Albertson, New York, then in Roslyn Heights, New York. He also published instructional books on studying music and playing the guitar. Near the end of his career, Bauer appeared at the 1997 JVC Tributes for Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow. Bauer led the way for guitarists like Jimmy Raney and student Joe Satriani. In 1997 he published his autobiography Sideman (with Thea Luba; ).