Bill Watrous

Jazz Improvisation, Part 2

by Monk Rowe
December 27, 2022

The task of defining the undefinable falls to a second group of improvisors. Bill Watrous, Jane Ira Bloom, Denny Zeitlin, and Michael Weiss add their personal perspectives. ...

Bill Watrous/Temple Jazz Orchestra: Live

by Jack Bowers
March 6, 2005

This is the second recording by the Temple (Texas) Jazz Orchestra (following '01's Soft Lights, Sweet Music ) and this time Tom Fairlie's forceful ensemble has some help--we're talking big-time help in the person of superstar trombonist Bill Watrous, whose upper-register pyrotechnics enhance all but the opening number of this high-kicking concert recorded in March '03. Even though the cavernous acoustics of the Mary Alice Marshall auditorium at Temple College leave no doubt that this is a ...

The Bill Watrous Quartet: Live in Living Comfort

by Jack Bowers
March 23, 2004

While an organ trio plus trombone isn’t unheard-of, it is uncommon, so much so, says Bill Watrous, that when friend and fellow trombonist Rob Stoneback approached him with the idea, he was skeptical. In the wake of Live in Living Comfort, recorded for what appears to be a small but responsive audience at the Comfort Suites in Bethlehem, PA, one can appreciate that he needn’t have been.

It helps immeasurably, of course, if the group in question knows how to ...

Backgrounder: Bill Watrous - In Love Again, 1967

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 10, 2024

There are trombone albums—and then there are trombone albums. This is the latter, a positively beautiful recording by Bill Watrous, who had a beautiful ballad tone, rivaled only by Urbie Green and a few others. Recorded in New York in 1968 and backed by the Richard Behrke Strings, Bill Watrous's In Love Again: William Russell Watrous was a date album of the highest order. His playing on the ballads was mellifluous, and he had a gorgeous tone and technique. Born ...
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Watrous Plays

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
July 7, 2018

Rifftides readers sent so many interesting comments about the passing of Bill Watrous, and about Alexandra Leh’s remembrance the following day, that the staff has voted to reward you all with video of the trombonist in a remarkable ballad performance. It’s from a 1976 television appearance. I have no information about the name of the program. Watrous is accompanied by Chick Corea, piano; Ron Carter, bass; and Billy Cobham, drums. Maybe that was the best he could do for a ...
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Bill Watrous (1939-2018)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 4, 2018

Bill Watrous, a jazz trombonist who came up in the 1960s just as jazz was fading and the trombone was transitioning into studio orchestras and funk-soul groups such as the Jazz Crusaders and Kool and the Gang, died on July 2, 2018. He was 79. Watrous's finest work was on ballads. His singing trombone style on slow tunes was achingly melodic and glossy smooth, a pristine sound matched only by a handful of other players in the '60s and beyond, ...
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Bill Watrous Has Died

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
July 4, 2018

Trombonist Bill Watrous died yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 79. Celebrated for his skill, range and speed, Watrous employed those attributes in a career that began with Billy Butterfield and included work with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson and Johnny Richards. In the early 1970s he recorded with his own big band, Manhattan Wildlife Refuge. Fellow trombonists admired Watrous for his technical achievement, but they may have envied him equally for his ...
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Bill Watrous: In Love Again

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 10, 2016

After spending the early 1960s as a top New York studio trombonist, Bill Watrous caught a break in 1967 and recorded his first leadership album—In Love Again, for MTA Records. Given Watrous's beautiful tone, which was akin to Urbie Green's, I'm not quite sure why he couldn't land a much larger label like Verve, Roulette or Prestige. He recorded for all of them with Kai Winding, Johnny Richards, Quincy Jones and Maynard Ferguson from 1963 on. As best I can ...
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Music Education Monday: A master class with trombonist Bill Watrous

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
September 15, 2015

This week for Music Education Monday, it's a master class from trombonist Bill Watrous. Beginning his career in the early 1960s, Watrous has played and recorded with musicians such as Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Kai Winding, and Quincy Jones, as well as leading his own big band, originally known as the Manhattan Wildlife Refuge, and later renamed Refuge West when Watrous relocated to Los Angeles. Acclaimed among fellow trombonists for his range, tone, and fluid technique, Watrous also is a ...
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Jazz This Week: Bill Watrous, Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, William Cepeda, "Jazz Heaven," and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 18, 2013

This week's menu of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features visits from two very different touring trombonists, plus a traveling extravaganza featuring Wynton Marsalis fronting a cast of 85 musicians and singers, and as usual, plenty of homegrown talent, too. Let's go the highlights... Tonight, trombonist Bill Watrous will be at Mineral Area College in Park Hills for a concert at the college's Fine Arts Theater, backed by the MAC Kicks Band. Watrous performed early in his career ...
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Jazz This Week: Chris Botti, Byron Stripling, Bill Watrous, Unt One O'Clock Lab Band, St. Louis Rivermen, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
February 23, 2012

If there's a keyword for this weekend's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis, it's “brass." The next few days will see three stellar touring brass players—two trumpeters and a trombonist—playing here as soloists or bandleaders, plus a somewhat larger-than-usual number of big band performances, and some other noteworthy shows, too. Let's go the highlights: On Thursday evening, the University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band will be in town for a concert at Webster Groves High ...
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Bill Watrous to Perform Friday, February 24 at Scottish Rite Cathedral

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
February 8, 2012

Trombonist Bill Watrous (pictured) is coming to St. Louis later this month to perform in a concert to be held at 7:00 p.m., Friday, February 24, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral Auditorium, 3633 Lindell Blvd. Watrous is a veteran of the big bands of Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, Johnny Richards, and Woody Herman, as well as the live band for TV host Merv Griffin's talk show; the jazz-rock group Ten Wheel Drive; and his own big band, the Manhattan Wildlife ...
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Trombonist Bill Watrous CDs Available Online

Source: All About Jazz
August 12, 2006

One of the finest bop-oriented trombonists of the past 30 years, Bill Watrous has had a low profile since moving to Los Angeles in the 1980s despite remaining quite active. Possessor of a beautiful tone and remarkable technique, Watrous has been constantly overlooked in jazz popularity polls of the past two decades. His father was a trombonist and introduced Bill to music. He played in traditional jazz bands as a teenager and studied with Herbie Nichols while in the military. ...
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