Bill Traut

William R. "Bill" Traut (March 20, 1929 – June 5, 2014) was an American jazz musician, rock music producer, manager and record label executive. He co-founded the Dunwich and Wooden Nickel record labels, and produced The Shadows of Knight, The American Breed, the Siegel-Schwall Band, and Styx, among others.

Traut began his career in music as a jazz saxophonist, playing with local bands in and around Chicago in the late 1940s and 1950s. He graduated in law from the University of Wisconsin, and played regularly with pianist Eddie Higgins. In the early 1960s, both began working for the Seeburg Corporation, producing background music. After teaming up with George Badonsky, who worked for Atlantic Records, they left Seeburg and established their own record label, initially called Amboy (after Badonsky's home town), and then formed Dunwich Productions, named for the setting of the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Dunwich Horror". They approached Nesuhi Ertegun at Atlantic, who allowed Traut and Badonsky to produce Higgins' 1965 album Soulero. Traut also wrote the tune "Shelley's World", recorded by Oscar Peterson.

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