Bill Chase
| Bill Chase | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | William Edward Chiaiese |
| Born |
October 20, 1934 Squantum, MA |
| Died | August 9, 1974 (aged 39) Jackson, Minnesota |
| Genres | Big band jazz and Jazz rock |
| Instruments | Trumpet |
Bill Chase (October 20, 1934 – August 9, 1974) was an American trumpet player and leader of the jazz-rock fusion band Chase.
Bill Chase was born William Edward Chiaiese on October 20, 1934 to an Italian-American family in Squantum, Massachusetts. His parents John and Emily changed their name to Chase, realizing Chiaiese was difficult for Americans to pronounce. Bill's father had played trumpet in the Gillette Marching Band and encouraged his son's musical interests, which included a flirtation with violin and drums. In his mid-teens Bill settled on the trumpet. While still in high school in 1950, Chase attended his first Stan Kenton concert, featuring Maynard Ferguson on high note solos, and Bill was hooked from then on. After graduating from high school, he studied classical trumpet at the New England Conservatory, but soon switched to the Schillinger House Of Music, now known as Berklee College of Music. Chase's primary instructors were Armando Ghitalla, John Coffey and Herb Pomeroy.
Chase played lead trumpet with Maynard Ferguson in 1958 and Stan Kenton in 1959, and most notably during the 1960s in Woody Herman's Thundering Herd. Recordings of the Herman band from that time period, including Woody's Winners, Live in Antibes, Encore, 1963, My Kind of Broadway, Blue Flame, Live in Seattle, Somewhere, Live at Newport 1966, Heavy Exposure, Woody Herman & the Fourth Herd, and Jazz Hoot are considered some of the most exciting in the Herman discography. The band also filmed several television appearances for the program Jazz Casual. One of Chase's original charts from this period, "Camel Walk," was published in the 1963 Downbeat magazine yearbook. Between '66-'70 Bill freelanced in Las Vegas working with Vic Damone, Tommy Vig and others. In '67 Bill led a six piece organization at the Dunes and Riviera Hotel(s) where he was featured in the Frederick Apcar lounge production of vive Les Girls, for which Chase arranged the music.
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