On Thursday night, just past 10, a knock came at the door of a brownstone on Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.

It was the police. Again.

The neighbor had complained about the noise. Again.

But band practice had just ended, and so the police went on their way. Again.

The man in the brownstone is not your average rocker. He is Bill Lee, the 84-year-old father of Spike Lee and a veteran jazz and session bassist and pianist who has played on records with people like Bob Dylan, Johnny Griffin and Aretha Franklin, and has written soundtracks for his son’s early movies, including “Do the Right Thing.”

Since 1969, whenever inspiration struck, Mr. Lee was liable to be at home, composing, practicing, rehearsing or playing with other musicians. For 40 years or so, Mr. Lee said, as he sat on his porch in the heat on Friday morning, “It was never an issue.”