Guilherme G. Vieira

Guilherme Vieira (1928-2005), known as Billy Dias, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and his parents moved shortly thereafter to Stratford, Connecticut where he grew up down the street from the Ramalho family. He was a respected Cape Verdean tenor saxophone player who toured with jazz greats Horace Silver and Charlie Parker as well as other musicians in the New England and New York area. In his earlier days as a musician, he was a backup player for vaudeville at the Lyric Theatre.