Ernest "Bass" Hill was an American 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...

 double-bassist.

Hill played from 1924 with Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

, and remained with him on a tour of Europe with Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....

 the following year. Hill and Hopkins collaborated numerous times over the next few years and again in the 1940s. In 1928 he played with Leroy Smith & His Orchestra and Bill Brown & His Brownies, and worked in the Eugene Kennedy

Eugene Kennedy

Eugene Cullen Kennedy is an American psychologist, syndicated columnist, and a professor emeritus of Loyola University Chicago. He remained a professor of psychology at the university for several years...

 Orchestra the next year. In the 1930s he played with Willie Bryant

Willie Bryant

Willie Bryant was an American jazz bandleader, vocalist, and disc jockey.Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926...

, Bobby Martin

Bobby Martin (musician)

Bobby Martin was an American jazz trumpeter.Martin played trumpet as a child with June Clark and Sonny Greer. He played with Sam Wooding from 1925, and played with him both in New York City and on his tours of Europe through 1931. From 1932 to 1936 Martin played abroad with Willie Lewis, and...

's Cotton Club Serenaders, Benny Carter

Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...

, Chick Webb

Chick Webb

William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...

, Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra....

, and Hot Lips Page.

Hill was in Europe in the late 1930s when he fled to Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 at the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. There he played with Mac Strittmacher before returning to the United States in 1940. Following this he played with Maurice Hubbard, Hopkins again, Zutty Singleton, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 (1943), Cliff Jackson

Cliff Jackson

Clifton Luther "Cliff" Jackson was an American jazz stride pianist.After playing in Atlantic City, Jackson moved to New York City in 1923, where he played with Lionel Howard's Musical Aces in 1924 and recorded with Bob Fuller and Elmer Snowden...

, Herbie Cowens, and Minto Kato. In 1949 he returned to Europe, where he played in Switzerland and Italy with Bill Coleman

Bill Coleman

William Johnson Coleman was a jazz trumpeter from the swing era.He had his musical debut in 1927. Coleman's first recordings were with the Luis Russell orchestra, but all solos on record went to the rising star Henry "Red" Allen. This led to Bill Coleman's departure from the band. By 1935 he...

 and then in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 with Big Boy Goudie

Big Boy Goudie

Frank "Big Boy" Goudie was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist.Goudie was born in Youngsville, Louisiana, but raised in New Orleans, where he played cornet in Papa Celestin's Original Tuxedo Band and other groups. As a young man, his great height earned him the nickname "Tree"...

 until 1952.

Upon his return he worked in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 with Happy Caldwell

Happy Caldwell

Albert W. "Happy" Caldwell was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist....

, Henry Morrison, and Wesley Fagan. He worked in the musicians' union in the last decade of his life.