Eric
Muhler (EM): Where were you born?
Bill Bell (BB): I was born in East Moline, Illinois.
EM: Where's that near?
BB: It's one of the quad cities, straight West of Chicago, right
on the Mississippi river.
EM: Is that where you grew up also?
BB: Grew up, yes. It's the home of John Deere. Ever heard of
John Deere?
EM: John Deere Tractor?
BB: That's right. My dad worked there…my uncles…a
lot of my family worked there all their lives.
EM: Really?
BB: I got out of there. I can't do factory work with these hands.
(Laughter)
EM: Did you go through High School there?
BB: Went through high school and I had a really wonderful musical
beginning with my cousin who was my High School Band leader
and he's really the guy who's responsible for me becoming a
musician. His name's Mallie Williams and he's eleven years older
than me. When I was about four years old I would go to the piano
because I'd heard my Mother playing and I'd pick out the piece
and she'd say "Oh! You can do that? You're going to have
lessons." He heard that I could do that as well and he
said "You're going to learn what the lines and spaces are
and I'd go over to his house and we'd be cutting the grass and
he'd say "OK it's time for a little break and we're going
to have some lemonade and then he'd show me Every Good Boy Does
Fine for the lines and FACE for the spaces. In those days kids
didn't rebel and so I just said, "OK."
EM: And you were four years old?
BB: Yeah… and then I started taking lessons at about five
from this lady who was in the area…and it was really funny.
Most of the people in my neighborhood, which was an all-black
community; it was kind of a project which was built by John
Deere; everybody worked for them, but most of the families had
pianos. That was before TV, you know.
EM: There must have been a successful piano salesman in the
neighborhood.
BB: Well, they were old, crappy, pianos, as I remember. Only
one person had a really nice piano and even the Baptist church
didn't have a really good piano. So I started taking lessons
with this lady around five years old and it started from that.
EM: What kind of music was she teaching you?
BB: Oh, classical. In fact, the same book that I use for starting
my kids. The John Thomson Elementary Piano Method. I've not
seen a better beginner's book. And I've seen them all, most
of them.
EM: So when did you start playing jazz? Or was there some
other music you played before jazz?
BB: Actually I started playing church music and hymns and I
didn't start playing jazz until I was twelve or thirteen.
EM: Oh, all the way until then, huh? (Laughter)
BB: Well this lady left town after two or three years and there
was a hiatus period where I wasn't studying, but I kept playing
for Sunday School and stuff like that and then somehow I got
wind of this studio that taught popular piano. It wasn't jazz.
They gave you pieces like Margie and Five Foot Two
and Basin Street Blues and boogie-woogie. I learned to
play Bumble Boogie and tunes like that. I did that from
when I was twelve to around fourteen. Then when I was fourteen
I heard this record that knocked my socks off. Stan Getz and
Bob Brookmeyer were playing Have You Met Miss Jones and I said
"Wow! What kind of music is that!?"
EM: That was your first exposure?
BB: Well I'd heard Basie on records because April in Paris was
very popular but I hadn't heard Duke Ellington or anything like
that yet, but I heard this 78 recording…I don't even know
how I got it…and I was just blown away by that music. And
that was bebop
EM: Stan Getz playing bebop?
BB: Well, yeah, he and Bob Brookmeyer playing modern jazz and
I said "Well yeah, I got to play this stuff!" Then,
fourteen, fifteen, I started playing with a Latin American group.
We played mambos and cha-chas.
EM: This was all in East Moline?
BB: Um hmm.
EM: So there was a Latin community there as well?
BB: Um hmm. Yeah.
EM: And they had clubs you worked in at that age?
BB: Well, it was dances. Mambos, boleros, cha cha chas, and
all the Latin music
EM: How'd you learn to play all that?
BB: Reading it.
EM: Oh they had charts? Like lead sheets?
BB: Full written sheet music with all the parts. And it was
a big band actually. Four saxes, two or three trumpets, rhythm
section, congas, percussion, maracas, and all like that.
EM: Did you play any other instruments besides piano?
BB: When I got into high school, sophomore year, I wanted to
play a wind instrument and I asked for clarinet or saxophone
because they had a huge marching band, but they said "No"
because they had too many of those and so they said "Here
take the trombone" so I took the trombone. Actually, they
gave me a choice. I could take the trombone or the French horn,
but I knew about JJ Johnson by that time so I said, "OK,
I'll take the trombone." So I played the trombone through
high school and college and I trained to be a band director.
EM: What kind of bands are we talking about? Marching bands?
BB: Marching band. Concert band, and then when I was junior
my cousin started what we called a stage band at that time and
we played stock arrangements at proms for High Schools and so
forth, and that was my introduction to playing in a "jazz"
setting.
EM: When you were a junior in High School?
BB: Yeah. Then at the same time when I was a junior I started
playing with another group that my cousin played in. He and
this trumpet player were be-boppers and their drummer was named
Moe Payton.
EM: What year was that?
BB: Junior in High School…must have been '53.
EM: So Bop was exploding.
BB: Oh yeah! So we had a quintet. We played dances all over
the place and I got introduced to How High the Moon, I'll Remember
April, I Got Rhythm, all kinds of Bebop things. I just loved
it! I was just playing the changes. I wasn't really soloing.
Then I discovered George Shearing, Oscar Peterson, and whom
else…Errol Garner. Those were my three BIG influences.
EM: And that was through records, radio?
BB: Yeah, records.
EM: Did you make really good money playing in all these high
school bands?
BB: Actually not bad. You know, $15 a gig, that was really big
stuff.
EM: That was a lot of money in 1953…
BB: Yeah, buy all your shoes and you got all your spending money.
EM: How'd your parents feel about your burgeoning career
in music?
BB: They were very supportive; in fact that's a big key in my
life. They were always very, very supportive. Both my Dad and
my Mom. They knew my cousin was always around to be my chaperone
and they told the other guys "This is our son; we don't
want him drinking, or doing any other things that he shouldn't
be doing."
EM: OK…
BB: I grew up in a very religious background.
EM: The family was strong in the Baptist Religion?
BB: Yeah…Baptist.
EM: And you still are?
BB: I'm Methodist now. A little bit to the left…(Laughter)
EM: What year were you born? I skipped that at the beginning.
BB:
1936.
EM: Wow!
BB: Why do you say "Wow" like that? (Laughter)
EM: Because that was a great era of jazz music to grow up
in.
BB: Yeah, if you were in the right place. If you were in the
wrong place it doesn't get you. If I had grown up in New York
or Chicago I'd have been way ahead of all the different things
that I've learned. I'd have learned them much sooner.
EM: You'd have learned them sooner…
BB: Um hmm.
EM: That's interesting…but still you're a young teenager
when Bop comes in and you already had enough background to be
able to take advantage of it with lessons and stuff and you
knew how to read…
BB: I don't think I had discovered Bird just yet though. I didn't
discover Bird until I got into college.
EM: Where'd you go to college?
BB: Augustana College; a Lutheran college.
EM: Where's that?
BB: That's in Rock Island, nine miles away from East Moline.
Rock Island is one of the quad cities. There's East Moline,
Moline, Rock Island, and Davenport, right there on the Mississippi
River. I'm surprised you never heard of that.
EM: There's a long, long, list of things I've never heard
of! (Laughter!) Start getting used to that right now, I'm sorry!
So you've been playing piano since 1940?
BB: Yeah.
EM: Remarkable…So you're married…still married,
and you have three kids…
BB: Three kids; one is deceased.
EM: I know… Are your kids musical?
BB: Yeah, very.
EM: Do they play?
BB: I have a daughter who's a wonderful singer. I made them
all play piano. They started when they were five or six and
by the time they were eight or nine they would rebel and start
crying so I let them all quit but then I would transition them
into wind instruments by Junior High and all of them played.
My daughter played flute, my young son, whose a lawyer, played
clarinet and piano and recently got back into piano and he told
me "Why didn't you force me to play piano?" (Joint
parent laughter throughout the following section)
EM: Did you restrain yourself from "forcing" him
to eat dog food or your knuckles or something?
BB: I said "I don't believe you're saying this!" He's
really serious about the piano now!
EM: So kids abusing their parents doesn't end even when they're
older, huh?
BB: No!
EM: They come back and say "Why were you such a lax
and undisciplined parent?!"
BB: It's a guilt trip they pull on you.
EM: Amazing! So music played a role throughout your family
life when the kids were growing up?
BB: Oh yeah…
EM: Did you major in music at college?
BB: I was a music major at Augustana and I was a music education
major because I was training to be a band director. I took choral
conducting also from a very eminent choral master named Henry
Veld. He was the founder of the Augustana Chorus. Before that
time men and women's choruses didn't sing together. He put them
together and formed this mixed chorus. My whole thing was music
education and instrumental music education and, of course, piano
minor. I had to major in trombone because I was a band director.
EM: So you also sing?
BB: Yes. Not extremely well, but I know how to sing, and I know
how to teach singing.
EM: I ask, because I've never heard you sing.
BB: What would you like to hear? (Laughter)
EM: I'm not asking for a show on the spot or anything!
BB: I used to sing on my gigs a lot.
EM: When you were playing solo piano?
BB: I don't want to play solo piano anymore. You get a lot of
abuse…you talk about abuse! That's abuse! You're playing
along, nobody's listening, you know, you're trying to sing…but
I think it's a lot of fun to break it up. Every once in awhile
now I'll sing a little blues or something like that.
EM: So besides Henry Veld in college, who would you say were
your important teachers. Obviously your cousin was one.
BB: There was a man in High School; he was the band director.
He was a Swedish guy named A.T. Burghalt. He was really a savior
for me. He recognized that I had some talent and he said "You
know what? You ought to study at the college before you get
there. I think I can set that up for you so that when you get
to the college you'll have a little head start." It was
an extremely wonderful thing because lots of the kids that were
music majors had done the material in piano from seventh, eighth,
ninth, tenth grades and through high school. If I had not gotten
that boost during that time…I think I started when I was
a junior…so I took two years of piano from my teacher,
Professor Pfeiffer, before I even got to college, so when I
got to college I continued to study with him and I got a lot
more ground coverage for which I'm eternally thankful to Mr.
Burghalt
EM: When it came to jazz piano, did you actually study that
with any jazz players?
BB: No, I never studied jazz piano…
EM: You were self-taught?
BB: Self taught jazz pianist, yeah, but if you can call it that…because
I learned early to copy things from records.
EM: By ear…
BB: Yeah. I used to drive my parents crazy by putting the needle
down getting things from Errol Garner, getting this lick from
George Shearing, you know, Oscar Peterson. That's the way I
learned to play jazz.
EM: That's the way most people learn how to play it, isn't
it?
BB: Well, back then. Now there are jazz teachers…
EM: …schools, colleges, universities…
BB: Umm hmm.
EM:
So those were your main influences on piano? Or did that tend
to change later?
BB: The only thing that changed later, those were the initial
influences, now, I like Herbie Hancock, I like Bill Evans, I
like Phinneas Newborn…
EM: You're leaving out the main one…
BB: Art Tatum?
EM: Yeah, of course, but YOUR main one…
BB: Well these are my main influences. Who's that?
EM: Ahmad Jamal. (Laughter)
BB: Oh yeah! Ahmad Jamal is definitely one of my… uhh…I
heard him play in '57, '58, and I thought "Whoa! That is
really gorgeous!"
EM: Was that in Chicago or something?
BB: Actually, no. By that time I was hip to LP's and he put
out this Ahmad Jamal at the Persian with But Not For Me…
Poinciana…man I just loved that album. This was
just incredible. Definitely, you can hear that in my playing.
His influence. A lot of people have said "Oh! Been listening
to Ahmad, he has." I stole a great deal from Ahmad. (Laughter)
EM: Who do you listen to now?
BB: I listen to a lot of people. Oh man there's this young Cuban,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, oh man! Jesus! I've seen him in person twice
and he's just amazing what he gets out of the piano! Chick Corea,
of course…and I mentioned Herbie Hancock…
EM: You told me back in '76 that Herbie was one of your favorite
players.
BB: Oh yeah, he's a brilliant player. Brilliant composer. Unbelievable…
EM: So, shifting gears here… Are you doing more gigs
now than you used to when you were teaching full time, and raising
a family?
BB: Well, you know what? When I was raising a family in the
sixties and the seventies, I think I worked probably more. Back
then I can remember working several places. Now I'll work maybe
once or twice a week.
EM: Did your wife work or did she stay home and work with
the kids?
BB: She was a nurse at that time and she worked during the day
and the kids were in school or something like that and had babysitters
and I was teaching as well.
EM: Where did you teach besides Alameda College?
BB: I started when I came out here in '63; I had previously
been teaching in Iowa for three years starting in 1960…I
started teaching in Oakland…
EM: Oakland Public Schools?
BB: Yeah…Elmhurst Junior High. I was the band and orchestra
teacher.
EM: Did you know Richard Adams?
BB: Very well.
EM: He was my clarinet teacher when I was at Joaquin Miller
when I was in fourth grade in 1957.
BB: Oh yeah?
EM: He was my niece's clarinet teacher when she went through
Joaquin Miller, Montera, and Skyline and he was the music supervisor
for the entire district AND the Principal of Montera when my
nephew graduated 32 years after I did! So getting back to the
subject, somewhere along the line you got a Master's Degree,
right?
BB: Yes. After college from '54 to '58 I went right into the
University of Iowa to study for my MA.
EM: So you're a Hawkeye?
BB: Yeah!
EM: So you went to Iowa right out of Augustana?
BB: Yes. But after one year the draft started getting after
me so I enlisted in the National Guard and got married and went
in summers. Then from '60 to '63 I taught in Iowa. Then in '63
I got out of there. It was because I was in the Iowa Marching
Band. Iowa came to the Rose Bowl in '59 and in Los Angeles it
was 80 degrees, right? We get on the train and go back to Iowa
and it's ten degrees below zero and I thought, "I'm smarter
than this. This is the same country and there's ten inches of
snow here and palm trees out there." It took me three years
to get out here.
EM: They don't have a band in the National Guard do they?
BB: No! (Laughing) I was a medical corpsman.
EM: So you're gigging twice a week now?
BB: That's enough because I've got other things I do. I'm a
choral director of the Oakland Bay Area Community Chorus of
about 45-50 voices and we specialize in the African-American
spiritual. That's done acapella. Lot's of people confuse that
with Gospel Music, which is much, more contemporary which didn't
come directly out of the slave experience. It's more recent;
in fact, around 1920 is when it began.
EM: Where do you get your arrangements?
BB: The arrangements are published, and to the surprise of a
great many people the composers and arrangers of the spirituals
are very talented African-Americans who've been left to dwell
in obscurity. People don't know guys like Nathaniel Dett, Hall
Johnson, William Dawson, John Work…most people don't know
those names.
EM: Was there a period when most of this work was done?
BB: Yes…most of those guys are gone now and… we're
talking about choral singing and most of that was done by the
black colleges after slavery. First of all the Fisk Jubilee
Singers. They started and took the spiritual and refined it.
And there came these composers and arrangers like William Dawson
at the turn of the century and Hall Johnson who made movies.
He was in quite a few movies; one was St. Louis Blues
with Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith and the choral singing
that you hear was from Hall Johnson. And those other people
that I mentioned were choral masters at these colleges like
Fisk. So choral music is a big part of my life as well.
EM: I was going to ask. Are you as involved with your choral
music as you are with jazz piano? Are they like two sides of
the music coin for you?
BB: I think so. But the two are very related types of music.
Without the spiritual there could be no jazz because that's
really the core for black music in this country. Spiritual,
then came blues AND this refinement of the spiritual and later
this mixture of rhythm and blues with the hymns and so forth
that makes Gospel music. There's a continuum of things that
goes one to another.
EM: So Spiritual music preceded the blues?
BB: Oh yeah. (Doorbell rings and we take a break)
EM:
So do you like live gigs?
BB: Oh yeah, I think I'm a born performer. I really enjoy performing.
There's just something about it…it's better than recording…Recording
makes me nervous. Live, there's a spark in there. I feed off
of the audience. Recording is really dead, you know? It's hard
to be inspired by it.
EM: Yup. I don't like it either.
BB: So whenever I do a CD I have to really work hard and do
solos over and this and that I'll hear something that I do live
and I'll think "Wow! Why can't I do that in the studio?"
EM: So how many CD's do you have?
BB: I have two.
EM: I have them both. Considering what you said about studio
recording, would you ever consider doing a live CD?
BB: In fact, I'm thinking of doing that.
EM: What format is your band? I've heard the trio, are you
doing any other formats?
BB: Yeah. July 5th is the next time we do Yoshi's, by the way.
EM: And WE is…?
BB: Piano, Bass, drums, and guitar, …which is on the CD…
EM: Brad Buethe?
BB: …and saxophone. That will be Charles McNeil.
EM: I've heard Charles! Charles was hot!
BB: When he gets with Jeff and Eddie and me, it's…wow…whoo…scary!
EM: Do you have a preference for the ideal group to perform
with for playing jazz?
BB: Yeah. Jeff and Eddie. (Chuckle)
EM: Just trio? So you prefer that to the larger setting?
BB: Well I really prefer the guitar, the quartet.
EM: That's interesting. Two rhythm instruments…
BB: With guitar and piano the sound is reinforced. It's a beautiful
sound. I still love that…I guess it goes back to the Shearing
sound; only his sound was with vibes. Ahmad Jamal is one that
has that sound as well.
EM: So trio is best but you like playing with guitar a little
bit more…
BB: Because of the sound. I like the sound.
EM: And you don't have conflicts between the piano and the
guitar being rhythm instruments?
BB: No. Because I tell the guitar player what to do. (Laughter)
EM: So you found one who will listen, huh?
BB: I don't hire 'em if they don't listen and if they can't
play lines. You can't have them just doing what they want to
do. Because…you've heard my group…it's kind of a disciplined
situation…
EM: It's very, very tight.
BB: Yeah, so we can't have somebody just clangin' away.
EM: So are you doing any gigs out of town?
BB: Yeah. We're playing Yoshi's and then I'm traveling to the
Quad Cities to do a series of workshops near my hometown. The
Blues Society has hired me to do that. Cedar Walton has written
a piece for choir and rhythm section and I've conducted that
at Monterey and Los Angeles. Here's a picture at Calvin Simmons
(showing me a book?) of where I was asked to conduct a tribute
to Bird with strings. Did you ever hear the album Bird with
Strings? It was arranged by Skitch Henderson. So we re-created
that for KJAZ and several others who asked me to conduct, so
I'm a conductor as well.
EM: So besides traveling recently to New York, are you doing
other traveling for gigs?
BB: Last year I went to Germany.
EM: That's my next question. Have you ever played in Europe
and what's that like?
BB: Yes, but that was with the choral group. Besides that, I
haven't played in Europe, but I've done some jazz things in
Japan and I loved that. It was beautiful. The people were so
appreciative and they read everything; your resume; they'll
ask you things you've forgotten about yourself! It's just amazing
to be appreciated that way.
EM: So how do you feel about your playing these days? Is
it better…?
BB: I think my playing is a lot better because I can concentrate
on it and…
EM): Why can you concentrate on it?
BB: Because I don't have to teach.
EM:
Ah! So you just have more time…
BB: Right. More time to practice, more time to focus on what
I really want to accomplish, and my training as a composer really
has helped my playing.
EM: And your training as a composer was part of your Master's
degree?
BB: I did training in composition as part of my Bachelor's and
my Master's.
EM: So you've always written?
BB: I actually started writing in high school. I learned how
to transpose for the other instruments. My cousin, once again,
helped me to do that.
EM: So you've always written. Are you writing more now that
you have more free time?
BB: I'm writing more now because I have to. I'm writing for
my trio, next week I have to transcribe stuff for a singer to
do for a CD. Thursday I'll be in the studio. I've got to write
for the bass player and the drummer.
EM: What are you doing in the studio?
BB: We're laying tracks for the choral group. We're doing two
gospel tracks.
EM: Who sponsors that chorus, by the way?
BB: I do. (Laughter)
EM: So it's a totally self-created entity?
BB: We're working on our 501(c)3 right now…
EM: So that people can contribute?
BB: …so that BIG guys can start to contribute. We're pretty
self-sustaining now. We can pay our bills. Nobody really gets
paid and everything goes to production costs.
EM: Where do you find your singers?
BB: All over the place. We started at Down's Memorial Methodist
church in '67 when Duke Ellington asked me to form a choir and
perform his Sacred Concert. I formed a chorus then and actually
stayed together and we did two major concerts a year, a Christmas
concert and a Black History concert.
EM: That's the one that's coming up?
BB: Yes.
EM: So you feel your jazz piano playing is better now than
ever…
BB: Oh yeah, lots more control…you know it takes such a
long time to learn what to play.
EM: It's taken me a lifetime!
BB: Yeah. You just have to figure out what is necessary and
what is not necessary because a lot of people play past what
they should be playing and if they could play…just get
to the essence of what they should play…that's what I'm
anxious to do now…just get to the essence of what I should
play.
EM: Is one of your CD's your favorite?
BB: I thought the second one was until I went back and listened
to the first one again and there's things in both that make
it really difficult to choose. I think my playing is better
in the second one but the first CD has all of my tunes and they're
all very personal.
EM: Right, they have a lot of meaning for you?
BB: Yeah.
EM: The thing I like about your trio the most is there's
something extremely quintessential about it. Between finding
the things NOT to play and not doing anything unnecessary, being,
as you said, you're more mature and your playing is better than
it's ever been, and it's really been quite excellent for a long,
long time, you've gotten to a place where you're capturing something
very pure. It has a lot to do with Eddie (Marshall- Drums) and
Jeff's (Chambers - Bass) playing, too. They are really great
and don't play anything that doesn't belong there. So the trio
cuts on "Just Swing Baby" are my favorites from a
strictly musical standpoint. Get rid of all the frosting and
window dressing…
BB: …and get right to the core.
EM: Right. And it's there, man. I love that.
BB: As far as the swing is concerned and the precision the second
CD is better, but for variety and emotional attachment it's
the first one. There are some things on there that are very
dear to me.
EM: Those were both recorded in professional studios?
BB: Yes.
EM: Is there a place to buy these besides your website (wwwJazzProfRecords.com)
or from you personally?
BB: Yes, there's a store here in Berkeley called Hear Music
down on Fourth Street.
EM: Do you have any other projects in the works?
BB: After I get back from Moline and the choir season is over
I have to finish up a book I've been working on Jazz Improvisation
Education. It's a method book for teaching jazz improvisation.
The unfortunate thing about jazz is that every school seems
to have a jazz band or ensemble but none of them seems to know
how to teach it, because none of them are really jazz musicians
and they need some help in that regard. I've seen what's out
there and nobody has really looked at it like I've looked at
it as a real player who can take people from not being able
to play jazz at all to being able to teach them the tools of
improvisation. It's really important that they take an approach
that will get them from A to B rather than doing a bunch of
squealing notes.
EM: What do you think of Mark Levine's book?
BB: It's good, but it doesn't speak to the teaching process.
My book is more focused in the area of composition, which is
what jazz is. Improvisation is spontaneous composition, and
if you don't use the rules of composition then you're fooling
yourself. Your just filling. It's like the old guys used to
say, "Can you fake twelve bars?" (Laughter) They used
to use that as an expression. "Can you fake?" And
that's really what it is. You're faking. You're not composing
anything. You're just playing a bunch of notes for twelve bars
or thirty-two bars. You have to be able to build something and
relate the eight bars to the next eight bars, and there's another
section, then you have to be able to finalize it. If you don't
think like that then you are faking!
EM: That answers what project you'd like to do next. You'd
like to finish your book.
BB: I've got to.
EM: How about more records? Do you have more material for
a record?
BB: I'm thinking about that.
EM: How about more original tunes with the trio? You like
one album because it has so much original material and the other
because of the great musicians and sound, how about combining
the two?
BB: I'm going to do that, but the next album is going to be
"Bill Bell Revisits the Blues."
EM: Oh yeah?
BB: Yeah. I think I'll use that "Bill Bell Revisits the
Blues…"
EM: What would be the ideal band for that? What instrumentation?
BB: Jeff and Eddie!
EM: Trio? No guitar, no…
BB: I might have a guitar in the background.
EM: Well, we're about to wrap here…
BB: I'm glad of that! (Laughter)
EM: Do you have an overall feeling about a life of playing
and recording music?
BB: I've loved it…The only thing I would probably change…you
never know…hindsight is always clear. I think I should
have gone East instead of West.
EM: Like the old Miles Davis saying about California players…"Too
much fun in the sun…?"
BB: Yeah. I think I should have gone East instead of West because
when I was on the road with Carmen McRae for a year, did I tell
you that? I went with her for a year and then I was in LA for
another year with those crazy guys from Motown, the Supremes
and stuff. But when I was in New York I got to play with these
incredible musicians. Richard Davis, Bob Cranshaw, bass players
that were just incredible! To rub elbows with those guys and
I was young, 32, 33 years old and I had a family. That's the
thing. The children didn't ask to come. If I had really devoted
my life to jazz I'd probably be dead by now, but... (Laughter)
...because it's a tough life, and I chose teaching, and quality
of life, but I think I could have gone further if I had gone
East.
EM: Further with jazz?
BB: Further with my career as a jazz person.
EM:
I guess then the question is would you have wanted to get there?
BB: Um hmm. Yeah!
EM:
I mean, it would appear to me you've had an absolutely fabulous
life.
BB: Oh yeah, I have no complaints.
EM:
You bought a house in what year?
BB: 1965 and then this one in 1970. (Laughter)
EM:
So that alone makes you a very successful investor…,
BB:
Yeah.
EM:
…and you chose to teach,
BB:
Yeah.
EM:
…you taught,
BB:
Yeah.
EM:
…you did fabulous things and had great students, everything
a teacher can have,
BB:
Yeah.
EM:
…and you've always played, and people know who you are,
and yeah, you could have become…maybe a…
BB: I think I could have become a major player in New York.
EM:
You mean you would have gotten famous and sold a lot of records
in your name and have a recording contract or something…?
BB:
Yeah.
EM:
Well, sure, undoubtedly...
BB: I think I could have done that.
EM:
But would that have been better than what you did?
BB: Umm hmm! (Both cracking up)
EM:
That's a great way to end this! Thank you very much!
