William Orval Crow (born December 27, 1927) is an American jazz bassist. Among other work, Crow was the long-term bassist in saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's bands in the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life
Crow was born on December 27, 1927, in Othello, Washington, but spent his childhood in Kirkland, Washington.[1] In fourth grade, he took up the trumpet and in the sixth grade he switched to baritone horn. He played drums in his high school swing band.[2] He joined the Army in 1946, where he played the baritone horn in the 2nd Army Band and drums in a Service Club band. He remained in the army until 1949.[1] After leaving the Army, he played drums and valve trombone while a student at the University of Washington.[1]
Later life and career
In 1950, Crow moved to New York City, playing the valve trombone and drums. On a summer job in Tupper Lake NY at the Altamont Hotel he taught himself to play the string bass.[1] Within two years of starting to play the bass, he played with Teddy Charles and was with Stan Getz from October 1952 to April of the following year. He joined the Claude Thornhill band for the summer of 1953, moved to the Terry Gibbs Quartet that fall, and in 1954 he moved to the Marian McPartland Trio at the Hickory House in NYC, with Joe Morello at the drums. He was the bassist with Gerry Mulligan's sextet and quartet during the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s. While with Mulligan, he studied the bass with Fred Zimmerman, of the New York Philharmonic. In 1956 he was with Jay and Kai (J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding) for several engagements including the Newport Jazz Festival. And in 1962 he joined the Benny Goodman band for a summer tour of the Soviet Union.
"Crow joined the house band at Eddie Condon's club in 1965 and then played with Walter Norris’s small group, which was one of the house bands at the Playboy Club in New York (1965–71)."[1] "In 1972 and 1973 he played Fender bass on society club dates with Peter Duchin's band and played occasional bookings with the Bob Brookmeyer/Clark Terry Quintet. From 1975 into the late 1990s he worked in theater orchestras for Broadway shows (where he sometimes played tuba) and during that time he also played engagements with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims."
In 1983 he was elected to the Executive Board of Local 802, the musicians' union of Greater New York, where he served for twenty years.
He wrote a book called Jazz Anecdotes that was published by Oxford University Press in 1991.[1] A revised paperback edition of Jazz Anecdotes was published in 2005 with over 100 added stories. It is titled Jazz Anecdotes, Second Time Around.[3]
His autobiography, From Birdland to Broadway, was released by the same publisher two years later.[1]
