Biography

billcrowbass.com

Biography, page 2:

In 1954 I joined the Marian McPartland Trio (with Joe Morello on drums) at the Hickory House in New York City, and stayed there through 1955.

Count Basie Jimmy McPartland Marian Crow

Jimmy's daughter Dorothy

Joe Morello and Bill Crow, Hickory House

The bandstand at the Hickory House was in the center of a large oval bar, with a pyramid of liquor bottles at each end.

Marian taught me to play in every key.

While I was at the Hickory House, Irv Manning sold me the lovely old French bass that I have carried all over the world, and still play today.

Gerry Mulligan asked me to join his sextet for a tour of Europe in late 1955, and I continued to be associated with Mulligan in quartets, sextets and his Concert Jazz Band through 1965, with a brief return to the Marian McPartland Trio during1957.

Gerry Mulligan

Between jobs with Mulligan, I often worked with the Gene DiNovi Trio, the Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Quintet and the Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer Quintet. And I played one concert at Lewisohn Stadium with Duke Ellington's orchestra, one of the biggest thrills of my life. (July 24, 1958)
Ellington	Bill Crow, Gene DiNovi, Johnny Cresci 1960

Al Cohn and Zoot Sims	Zoot at Harry's English Bar, Brussels Harry

Mulligan at the piano Bill	Bob Brookmeyer and Clark Terry

A partial list of other employers through the years: Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson, Jimmy McPartland, Bobby Scott, Max Kaminsky, Sol Yaged, Eddie Condon, Peanuts Hucko, Ralph Flanagan, Gary McFarland, Bud Freeman, Mose Allison, Ruby Braff, Pee Wee Russell, Billy Bauer, George Wein, Jim Hall, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Thad Jones, Duke Jordan, Tommy Flanagan, Roger Kellaway, Jimmy Rowles, Bob Rosengarden, Ed Polcer, Kenny Davern, Sam Donahue, Walter Norris, Walt Levinsky, Phil Bodner, Joe Puma, Chuck Wayne, George Barnes, Scott Hamilton, Chris Griffin, Marty Napoleon, Red Rodney, Joe Beck, John Cutrone, Tommy Goodman, Ray Alexander, Houston Person, Herk Ferranda, Fred Smith, Drake Smith, Eddie Bert, Wil Greenstreet, Jimmy Hill, Peter Prisco, Chris Garone, Vinnie Ruggieri, Jay McShann, Al Grey, Winston Byrd, Turk Mauro, Tom Malone, Johnny Morris, Jimmy Dean, Harry Glogower, Nick DiVito, Doug Proper, Howard Williams, Sonny Carroll, Vince Giordano, Bobby Day, Joel Martin, Joe Hanlon's Bearcats, The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, Tom Kohl, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Tomoko Ohno, Lou Caputo, Chris "Calloway" Brooks, and Joe Morello.

Photo by Dennis Stock, Times Square NYC, 1958


John Wilson Jimmy Raney Phil Woods Bill Crow	Buzzy Drootin

Bill Eddie Bert J. R. Monterose 1991	Bill and Red Rodney at the Epicurean Jazz Festival, Columbia SC, 1989

Bill Marian McPartland	Willie "The Lion" Smith, Newport 1957

Kenny Davern Bill Chris Griffin	Bud Freeman Shorty Baker

Bernie Glow and Dick Perry "42ND STREET"

Jo Jones greeting Art Mardigan at Birdland, 1954

Gus Johnson and Basie band in background


Frank Wess, Ernie Wilkins, Marshall Royal, Frank Foster, Charlie Fowlkes	Joe Newman, Dick Katz, Teddy Reig, Basie

I also have played for singers Jackie Cain and Roy Kral, Mel Torme, Nina Simone, Morgana King, Chris Connor, Lainie Kazan, Lana Cantrell, Linda Hopkins, Al Jarreau, Tony Sotos, Jimmy Morrielli, Barbara Lea, Danny Tarrantino, Giacomo Gates, Marilyn Zavidow, Judy Marie Canterino, Aliza Cotton, Michelle LeBlanc, Tony Aiardo, Glenda Davenport and Carol Sloane.

I traveled with Glen Moore on the S.S. Uruguay to South America in 1952, and made three concert tours in Europe and one in Japan with Gerry Mulligan between 1957 and 1964.

During the summer of 1962 I played the Seattle World's Fair and toured Russia with Benny Goodman’s band.


The band Benny Goodman took to Russia in the summer of 1962: John Bunch, Teddy Wilson, John Frosk, Joe Newman, Joe Wilder, Jimmy Maxwell, Bill Crow, Willie Dennis, Jimmy Knepper, Wayne Andre, Victor Feldman, Turk Van Lake, Mel Lewis (hidden), Zoot Sims, Jerry Dodgion, Phil Woods, Tom Newsom, Gene Allen. Our vocalist was Joya Sherrill. Benny got mad at her, so he left her songs off the record album. But she was a big hit with the Russians.
Sightseeing in Moscow: Mel Lewis, Joe Newman, Jimmy Knepper, Willie Dennis, Bill Crow, Victor Feldman

Phil Woods Turk Van Lake Crow Jerry Dodgion Jimmy Knepper Tom Newsom Teddy Wilson

On the Black Sea beach at Sochi

Dodgion, Newman, Woods, Newsom, Feldman, Crow

Jamming with the local Russian musicians:

Konstantin Nosov and Victor Feldman

On the day we got back from Russia, Jack Lewis grabbed most of the band for a quick record date for Colpix, an album called "Jazz Mission to Moscow." Victor Feldman had flown home to California, and Teddy Wilson and John Bunch had stayed in Paris, so Jack got Eddie Costa to play piano on the date. It was Eddie's last jazz record date before he died in an auto crash. He sounded absolutely wonderful.

After a tour of Japan with Gerry Mulligan in 1964, a three week gig in Antigua with Bob Alexander and Al Klink in 1973, and a two-week industrial show in Vienna with John Lesko in 1979, I didn't leave the United States again until I appeared with Clark Terry’s quintet at the 1992 Oslo Jazz Festival, and with Eddie Higgins and Anita O’Day on the S.S. Norway's Jazz Cruise of the Carribbean during the fall of that year.

And I played a concert tour in Spain with the John Eckert Quartet in December 1994.

John Eckert, Seville, 1994

In 1965, I joined the house band at Eddie Condon's, with Yank Lawson, Peanuts Hucko, Cutty Cutshall, Dave McKenna and Morey Feld. When Dave and Morey left, we had Dick Hyman and Cliff Leeman.

In 1966, I began working at the New York Playboy Club, with leaders Kai Winding, Sam Donahue and Walter Norris, a job that lasted through 1971. I got to play at different times there with Jerome Richardson, Joe Farrell, Ray Mosca and Ronnie Bedford.

In addition to jazz work, I played society jobs with Peter Duchin between 1972 and 1974, and Broadway shows from 1975 to 1989, sometimes doubling on tuba. My Broadway shows include "Rodgers and Hart," "Boccaccio," "Music Is," "The King And I," "The Grand Tour," "Twentieth Century," "Carmelina," "Morrissey Hall," and over eight years with David Merrick's "42nd Street."

I also did some work for Joe Grimm in a dinner theater near my home in Rockland County, New York, with Stan Free on piano.

In the summer of 1995 I was a featured performer and lecturer at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

With Gene DiNovi in Ottawa, 1995

I played concerts with the Dick Sudhalter Quartet in 1996 on the Lindblad Cruise Ship Polaris, between Ushuaia, Argentina and Santiago, Chile.

And in 1998 I played the jazz festival in Cork, Ireland, with Spike Robinson

(see 2nd photos page.)

I served as a member of the Executive Board of Local 802, AFM from 1983 to 2003, and now work three days a week in the Recording Department at Local 802.

Carmen Leggio Bill Crow Eddie Bert James Chirillo

The above photo was taken on one of Eddie Bert's gigs. Carmen passed away April 17, 2009, making a big hole in my musical life. I got to play with him a lot during the last several years of his life, and count that as a great blessing.

Carmen had a steady Wednesday with his trio at the Red Hat on the River, at One Bridge Street, Irvingon, NY, for about four years. Hiroshi Yamazaki was the keyboard player, and I was on bass. We loved playing there with Carmen, and miss him a lot. Hiroshi and I are continuing that gig every Wednesday from six to ten, and twice a month vocalist Glenda Davenport joins us.

On the Wednesdays that Glenda is not with us at the Red Hat, guitarist Takeshi Ogura joins us.

My other current work is mostly around New York's Westchester and Putnam Counties and in Connecticut, with occasional appearances at the Garage in Greenwich Village, NYC, with Lou Caputo's Not So Big Band. (10 pieces)

On May 30 2009 I played a special program on station WBGO in Newark celebrating Benny Goodman's centennial. It was put together by Paquito D'Rivera, who played Benny's part, and included John Bunch on piano, Dave Samuels on vibes, James Chirillo on guitar and Ron Vincent on drums. Paquito is looking for other venues for the same group to play.

	I also often play for Michelle LeBlanc, a jazz singer who presents programs with different themes, mostly in concert halls around Westchester and Putnam counties in New York State. The band at the left is one she often puts together: Bill Crow on Bass, Ed Xiques on reeds, Michelle, Ron Vincent on drums, and Tom Kohl on piano.
photo 2007, Cold Spring NY