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Talking Jazz
A Jersey Jazz Interview with Bill Crow
By Schaen Fox
Bill Crow has long been a regular to
these pages. His “From the Crow’s
Nest” is always a joy, as are his books.
My favorites, Jazz Anecdotes and Jazz
Anecdotes, Second Time Around,are
the perfect works to open when you
want to brighten your day. While he is
known for his writings, it is his artistry
as a bassist that is the foundation of his
reputation. He has been a rock-steady
sideman for many legendary jazz stars,
including Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan
and Marian McPartland. Happily, he
was very willing to take the time to
reflect on his long career in several
extended phone interviews in early
August.
JJ: Is there anything you would especially like
to talk about?
BC: Myself. [Laughs] I’m the world’s foremost authority
on myself.
JJ: Well, I can’t dispute that. Your Web page
biography is very enjoyable. I especially enjoyed
all the photographs. It shows that you had an early
exposure to music right at home, but when did you
decide to make it your career?
BC: I didn’t until I got out of the Army and realized that there were
professional musicians out there. I lived in a small town across Lake
Washington from Seattle. My mother taught elementary piano and adult voice.
She was a good musician. She started me on piano when I was about four,
but I hit a wall by the time I had gotten into grade school and couldn’t progress
any further. In the fourth grade, my school system hired a wonderful man,
Al Bennest, who realized that his whole band was graduating that year and
nothing was coming up. So he started with the fourth grade, sending
questionnaires around saying this is a list of musical instruments. If you think
you’d be interested in playing one we’ll talk to your parents and see if we can
get you started. I thought I’d like to play trumpet so my folks sent to Sears
Roebuck and got me one for $9.95 — with case. I got my horn a week later
than the other kids so I spent the first week watching everybody else, but I had
good ears. My mother had taught me to sing when I was little and I would sing
everything I heard. I used to sing all of her students’ exercises along with them
when I was in the other room. So I picked up hearing what I was supposed to
play a lot quicker than I picked up reading the notes. I could read a little bit
from the piano experience but I really just heard the notes and found the
fingering. That was the way I played for quite a while.
JJ: Mr. Bennest was instrumental in orienting you towards jazz.
BC: Oh yeah. That was in sixth grade. I was walking by his house and he
waved me in and said, “I want you to hear something.” He played “West End
Blues” and it just blew me away. I got real interested in Louis Armstrong and
started buying all his stuff. There was a little electric store in Kirkland that had
some 78 records. They not only had the major labels, they had Musicraft,
Signature and lots of stuff like that. So I educated myself through haunting that
place and buying what records I could afford.
By the time I got into the sixth grade I complained to the teacher that I couldn’t
get enough lip control to play the first parts. He looked at my teeth and said,
“Ah, it doesn’t look like you’ll have the embouchure with those protruding front
teeth. The school owns a baritone horn and nobody’s playing it. It’s a wonderful
instrument.” So I was willing to try it and I fell in love with it. So my folks took
the trumpet back and let me work with the school horn. That was a saving
during the Depression. I got better on the instrument and by the time I got into
continued on page 14
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__________________________________ May 2010