Bill Chase – Jazz Rocks!

Jazz Rocks!!

This has always been one of my favorite jazz genres. I mean it was the first sort of rock I heard. Although my mother was a very capable singer with a beautiful voice, the music available in the household was fairly limited, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole. Soft stuff, you know. No Elvis or Beatles or anything close. When I started playing the trumpet, I gravitated to the trumpet records by Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt, and of course the old ‘Echoes of an Era’ Maynard Ferguson Orchestra stuff. So, when my friends showed up one day with the Bill Chase ‘Pure Music’ album, I was completely blown away. Mind you, I was all of 12 years old at the time. To this day, that is still one of my favorites. Although, I now find myself listening to Bill Chase’s ‘Ennea’ album more than the others. Strange what age will do to you! I mean if you want a practice work out, start transcribing and playing some of that stuff. Four highly skilled trumpet players playing just absolutely amazing. Songs like Poseidon and Zeus. Oh yeah!

Bill was the godfather of Jazz Rock or Fusion as its now called. Nothing else has ever come close to the awesome sound he created with his group, ‘Chase.’ Speaking of the ‘godfather,’ Bill Chase’s original family name is a true Italian one, Chiaiese (key-ah-tze). His father, however, decided to simplify it to Chase. Prior to forming ‘Chase,’ Bill paid his dues playing lead with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson and Woody Herman. Trumpet was not Bill’s first instrument. Rather, he started as a drummer. Sometime in the middle of High School, Bill decided he had had enough of carrying a heavy bass drum in parades. His father had played trumpet and so he started playing his father’s horn and took to it quickly.

Bill was truly an innovator both as a lead player and of course with his own group. His creations were legendary. Unfortunately he was taken from us too soon. He died in a plane crash between gigs in August of 1974.

So, when I discovered recently that all three of his albums are available in a cd set through Amazon I was euphoric, to say the least. Check this out, this is an absolute must have for trumpet fans.