Bill Chase
Bill Chase (born October 20, 1934 in Boston as William Edward Chiaiese , † August 9, 1974 in Jackson (Minnesota) ) was an American trumpeter who directed the jazz rock band of the same name Chase .
Chase comes from an Italian-American family who changed their name to Chase because Chiaiese was considered difficult to pronounce in their environment. His father was a trumpeter in the Gillette Marching Band and encouraged his son in his musical interests, who first learned the violin and drums, and then decided to play the trumpet as a teenager. After high school he studied classical trumpet, first at the New England Conservatory , but then at the Berklee School of Music . In Berklee in 1952 Chase heard a concert by Stan Kenton with high-note solos by Maynard Ferguson , which finally got him enthusiastic about jazz.
Chase first played with Herb Pomeroy in a junior band and in other local groups, then after completing his military service he worked as a member of the bands of Ferguson (1958) and Kenton (1959/1960). He then worked as lead trumpeter in Woody Herman's Thundering Herd during the 1960s and on recordings such as Woody's Winners , Live in Antibes , Woody Herman & the Fourth Herd , Jazz Hoot , 1963 , My Kind of Broadway , Blue Flame , Live in Seattle , Somewhere , Live at Newport 1966 or Heavy Exposure .
The band "Chase"
In 1970 Chase started his own band, simply called Chase . He gathered three other experienced jazz trumpeters who could all sing and arrange: Ted Piercefield, Alan Ware and Jerry Van Blair. The rhythm section consisted of Phil Porter, keyboard instruments, Angel South, guitar, Dennis Johnson, bass, and Jay Burrid, drums. Terry Richards was the lead singer on the group's first album, which was released in 1971. The song Get It On was released as a single and was in the charts for 13 weeks from May 1971. The band was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist .
The band released their second album Ennea in 1972, which, unlike the debut album, which sold almost 400,000 times, was not an economic success. For the third record Pure Music , which was released in 1974 with a different line-up but still a strong trumpet section, Chase oriented himself more towards the jazz idiom than the rock idiom. Work on the fourth record, which had begun in mid-1974, came to a halt on August 9, 1974 because Chase died in an airplane accident on the way to a concert. Keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark and guitarist John Emma were killed in the same accident.
In 1977 the album Watch Closely Now was recorded in memory of the band , in which many musicians from the original line-up (plus Walt Johnson as fourth trumpeter) were involved.
literature
- Jim Szantor: Down Beat . February 4, 1971; 3rd February 1972.
- Obituaries . In: Billboard , Aug. 31, 1974.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chase, Bill |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chiaiese, William Edward (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American trumpeter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Boston |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 9, 1974 |
| Place of death | Jackson (Minnesota) |