Bill Watrous

Bill Watrous (June 8, 1939 — July 2, 2018) was an American jazz trombonist from Middletown, Conn. In Sixties New York, he played with Billy Butterfield and Kai Winding and became a studio and television musician with credits for Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, and Wes Montgomery.

After a 1971 stint with Ten Wheel Drive, Watrous formed Manhattan Wildlife Refuge, the big band behind the 1974–75 Columbia albums Manhattan Wildlife Refuge and Tiger of San Pedro. Watrous moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and continued through four decades of studio work, small-group recordings, big-band projects, and jazz-education clinics.

Background

Bill Watrous was born William Russell Watrous III on June 8, 1939, in Middletown, Connecticut, and grew up in Niantic. His father, Ralph Watrous, played trombone in vaudeville and regional orchestras, including brief engagements with Paul Whiteman.

Watrous began trombone at six under his father’s guidance and learned much of the instrument by copying records and radio broadcasts. He attended New London High School, where he played in the school swing band. Watrous worked Connecticut jobs in society bands and Dixieland groups as a teenager. At about eleven, Watrous began weekend trips to New York, where he heard Charlie Parker with Thelonious Monk at Birdland and Charles Mingus on a separate visit. 

Watrous enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1957 and entered the Navy School of Music in Virginia Beach. The Navy assigned him to a band unit in San Diego, which took him through the Pacific and Asia. The service transferred him to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1959, where he began Greenwich Village Dixieland jobs at the Riviera. Watrous studied with pianists Ed Wilcox and Herbie Nichols and learned to read music. He remained in New York after his discharge and worked with trumpeter Billy Butterfield.

Watrous joined Kai Winding’s multiple-trombone group by 1963 and recorded in New York with trombonists Tony Studd, Pete Vivona, and Billy Byers. The Winding job took Watrous onto the road and into New York studio work. Watrous recorded on 1964 albums by Quincy Jones (Golden Boy) and Winding (Modern Country). He added 1965 albums by Sarah Vaughan (¡Viva! Vaughan), Maynard Ferguson (The Blues Roar), Jimmy Witherspoon (Blues for Easy Livers), and Winding (Rainy Day, The In Instrumentals).

Watrous added 1966–67 sessions for Wes Montgomery (California Dreaming), Winding (More Brass, Penny Lane & Time), Johnny Richards (Aqui Se Habla Español), and Woody Herman (Woody Live: East and West). He joined Mort Lindsey’s orchestra for The Merv Griffin Show in 1965 and concentrated increasingly on New York studio work. Watrous took a staff-musician post at CBS in 1967 alongside freelance recording work. He entered a New York studio in 1967 under his full name with arranger Richard Behrke and a string section for In Love Again, his first album as a leader.

Discography:

• In Love Again (1968)
• Bone Straight Ahead (1973)
• Manhattan Wildlife Refuge (1974)
• Tiger of San Pedro (1975)
• One More Time (1976 • The Danny Stiles – Bill Watrous Five)
• Watrous in Hollywood (1979)
• I’ll Play for You (1980)
• Coronary Trombossa (1981 • The Solo Trombone of Bill Watrous With The New Bill Watrous Quartet)
• Trombone Summit (1981 • Winding Mangelsdorff Watrous Whigham)
• La Zorra (1982)
• Bill Watrous in London (1982)
• Roaring Back Into New York, New York (1983 • The Bill Watrous Quartet)
• Bill Watrous & Carl Fontana (1984 • Bill Watrous & Carl Fontana)
• Just Friends (1984 • Bill Watrous and the Fort Vancouver High School Jazz Ensemble)
• Someplace Else (1986 • Bill Watrous With Patrick Williams and His Orchestra)
• Reflections (1987)