B.T. is a composition by pianist Bobby Timmons, appearing on the 1955 Frank Morgan album recorded for the GNP Crescendo label in Los Angeles. The title likely references the composer's own initials. Timmons was a young pianist working in the West Coast jazz scene at the time of this recording, several years before he would achieve widespread recognition as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and as the composer of signature soul jazz compositions including Moanin', This Here, and Dat Dere. His compositional approach was largely intuitive rather than methodical; Timmons once described himself as a "dilettante as a composer" who never consciously sat down to write a song. The tune was recorded by Frank Morgan's group with a personnel that included James Clay on tenor saxophone, Jack Sheldon on trumpet, Timmons on piano, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Lawrence Marable on drums. Morgan, then an emerging alto saxophonist deeply influenced by Charlie Parker, led the session that captured this and several other original compositions by members of his working band. B.T. has not entered the broader jazz standard repertoire and remains a seldom-heard piece, primarily known through this single Frank Morgan recording. It stands as an early example of Timmons's writing from a period before his gospel-inflected style fully crystallized.
