Bill Watrous
Encyclopedia
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
) is a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trombonist. He is perhaps best known by casual fans of jazz music
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
for his rendition of Sammy Nestico
Sammy Nestico
Samuel "Sammy" Louis Nestico is a prolific and well known composer and arranger of big band music...
's arrangement of the Johnny Mandel
Johnny Mandel
Johnny Mandel is an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. Among the musicians he has worked with are Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, and Shirley Horn.-Life:...
ballad "A Time for Love," which he recorded on a 1993 album of the same name. A self-described "bop-oriented" player, he is well known among fellow trombonists as a master technician and for his mellifluous sound.
Biography
Watrous was introduced to the jazz trombone at an early age by his father, also a trombonist. While serving in the U.S. Navy, Watrous studied with jazz pianist and composer Herbie NicholsHerbie Nichols
Herbie Nichols , was an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote the jazz standard "Lady Sings the Blues". Obscure during his lifetime, he is now highly regarded by many musicians and critics.-Life:...
. His first professional performances were in Billy Butterfield's band.
Watrous' career blossomed in the 1960s. He played and recorded with many jazz luminaries, including Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Johnny Richards, and fellow trombonist Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
. He also played in the house band on the Merv Griffin Show from 1965 - 1968.
In 1971, he played with the jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
group Ten Wheel Drive
Ten Wheel Drive
Ten Wheel Drive were an American Jazz fusion band that existed from 1968 to 1974.-History:In 1968, after the final break-up of the all-female rock band Goldie & The Gingerbreads, Genya Ravan was looking for a new band, as were two New Jersey musicians and songwriters, Michael Zager and Aram Schefrin...
. Also in the 1970s, Watrous formed his own band, "The Manhattan Wildlife Refuge Big Band," and recorded two albums with the band on the Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
label. The band was later renamed "Refuge West" when Watrous relocated to southern California.
He has continued to work actively since the 1980s as a band leader, studio musician, and performing at various jazz clubs. In 1983, Watrous published Trombonisms, an instructional manual covering various performance techniques for the trombone. He has recorded as a solo artist, band leader and in various small ensembles on a number of different labels. These recordings include a Japanese Import album in 2001, containing material recorded in 1984, with Carl Fontana
Carl Fontana
Carl Charles Fontana was an American jazz trombonist. Because Fontana rarely recorded under his own name and toured only occasionally after 1958, he is significantly less famous among mainstream jazz fans, although well-known amongst trombonists.-Birth to 1958:Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Fontana...
, whom Watrous has cited as his favorite trombonist. He also travels to San Diego periodically to play with his good friend and former student, Dave Scott, a noted jazz musician himself and KUSI-TV broadcast host.
Watrous has resided in the Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
area since the late 1970s with his wife Mary Ann. He is on the music faculty at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Thornton School of Music
USC Thornton School of Music
The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...
.
1960s
- In Love Again (as William Russell Watrous with the Richard Behrke Strings) (MTA, 1964)
- Plays Love Themes for the Underground, the Establishment & Other Sub Cultures Not Yet Known (With the Walter Raim Concept) (MTA, 196?)
1970s
- Bone Straight Ahead (Famous Door, 1973)
- Manhattan Wildlife Refuge (Columbia, 1974)
- The Tiger of San Pedro (Columbia, 1975)
- Funk 'n Fun (Yupiteru, 1979)
- Watrous in Hollywood (Famous Door, 1979)
1980s and 1990s
- Coronary Trombossa! (Famous Door, 1980)
- I'll Play for You (Famous Door, 1980)
- La Zorra (Famous Door, 1980)
- Bill Watrous In London (Mole Jazz, 1982)
- Roaring Back to New York, New York (Famous Door, 1983)
- Bill Watrous and Carl Fontana (Atlas Records, 1984)
- The Best of Bill Watrous (Famous Door, 1985)
- Someplace Else (Soundwings, 1986)
- Reflections (Soundwings, 1987)
- Bone-Ified (GNP Crescendo, 1992)
- Time for Love (GNP Crescendo, 1993)
- Space Available (Double Time Jazz, 1997)
Since 2000
- Live at the Blue Note (Halfnote Records, 2000)
- Bone Straight Ahead (Progressive International, 2001); re-release of the 1973 original
- Living in the Moment with The Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra (Sea Breeze Records, 2003)
- Live in Living Comfort (Stonequake Recordings, 2003)
- Mad to the Bone with The Rob Stoneback Big Band (Stonequake Recordings, 2003)
- Kindred Spirits with The Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra (Summit, 2006)