Bill Milkowski

Bill Milkowski (born September 26, 1954) is an American jazz critic, journalist, and biographer. Since the 1970s, he has written thousands of articles for magazines and album liner notes. He has written for DownBeat, JazzTimes, Jazziz, The Absolute Sound, Paste, Jazzthing (in Germany), and Guitar Club (in Italy). He is the author of a biography of bassist Jaco Pastorius, a biography of The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, an annotated history of jive music, a collection of interviews, He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association in 2011. He received the Bruce Lundvall Award from the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2015.

Biography Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milkowski studied journalism in college, earning a bachelor's degree in 1977 from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he also served as editor of the campus newspaper, the UWM Post. He combined his interests in music and journalism when he began working as freelance music critic at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 1977. He co-published the city's alternative bi-weekly newspaper, Cityside, from December 1977 to May 1979 and served as editor of the monthly Milwaukee magazine from 1979 to 1980. He moved to New York in September 1980 after accepting a position as managing editor for the Long Island-based weekly entertainment publication Good Times, where he worked for two years. His most recent work is Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker (Backbeat Books).

Milkowski was a consultant on the 2014 documentary film Jaco, produced by Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, and appeared on panel discussions with its premiere at film festivals in New York City, Washington D.C., Cape May, New Jersey, Montreal, and Buenos Aires.

As a record producer, Milkowski oversaw recordings for guitarist Phil deGruy (Innuendo Out the Other, NYC, 1995), guitarist Pat Martino (All Sides Now, Blue Note, 1998) and produced the compilation Come Together: A Guitar Tribute to The Beatles (NYC, 1993) as well as tracks on the compilations World Christmas (Metro Blue, 1996) and Who Loves You: A Tribute to Jaco Pastorius (JVC, 2001).

Awards and honors Helen Oakley Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Magazine Writing, Jazz Journalists Association, 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award, Jazz Journalists Association, 2011 Bruce Lundvall Award, Montreal International Jazz Festival, 2015