General
- Al Hirt
- Ashley Alexander
- Bill Chase
- Boss Brass
- Bucket List Jazz Band
- Bucket List Jazz Band
- Buddy Rich
- Buddy Tate
- Classical or symphony pops
- Dance bands
- Dave Grusin
- DFW Jingles and Show Music
- Doc Severinsen
- Don Jacoby
- Gene Hall
- General
- Gregory Waits Quartet
- Harvey Anderson
- Leon Breeden
- Lew Gillis
- Mario Cruz
- Maynard Ferguson
- Museum
- My favorites
- My videos on Youtube
- N'Awlin Gumbo Kings
- Natalie Cole
- North Texas One O'Clock
- Old Recordings
- Old records
- Pete Petersen & The Collection Jazz Orchestra
- Randy Lee
- Rare recording
- Rehearsal bands
- Rich Matteson
- Rodney Booth
- Roy Eldridge
- Sherman Jazz Clasic 2023
- Sherman Jazz Classic
- Sherman Jazz Museum
- Singers
- The artists
- Them Bones
- Tommy Loy
- UTA
- Woody Herman
- WWC Jr.
The Bill Berry L A Band 1974
Bill General, Rehearsal bands 0
WWC Jr. addressing the Sherman High School Band–May 1987
Bill Collins III at the PHS band reunion 2013
Our high school band reunion in Fort Worth at Paschal High School in 2013.
John Thomas
John is a great lead trumpet player who teaches now at USC. He was a year ahead of me in high school, and taught me how to read and phrase jazz compositions. This was at our high school band reunion in Fort Worth at Paschal in 2013.
Dave Koz and the Summer Horns Tour 2018
We heard this group in Austin at the One World Theatre on August 3, 2018. They did two, hour and a half high energy shows that night. These are excerpts from the second show.
Cat Anderson
William Alonzo Anderson, known as Cat Anderson (September 12, 1916-April 29, 1981), had a birthday two days ago. Cat became famous in the Duke Ellington Orchestra and was probably the best high note trumpet player in history.
I’ll never forget hearing the Ellington band in Ft. Worth in 1971, probably near the end of Cat’s tenure with the band. He was amazing with the upper register, but what stayed with me just as much was that he slept on the band stand sitting in his chair when not playing. I had never seen anyone do that before, or since. I wondered how he knew when to wake up and play, and I also wondered how he didn’t get fired. I leaned later in life that Duke was willing to put up with just about anything from his musicians–he was very loyal.
I don’t really remember much else about the concert that day. Cat’s playing was so impressive that I still can see and hear him playing “Satin Doll”. It was so effortless for him to do what very few could even come close to doing. I did read later in life, also, that Cat practiced four hours a day, both on off days and on performance days. I also heard from friends that he was very secretive about what size mouthpiece he played. I was told he would always take his mouthpiece with him on breaks. He was only 64 when he died. Now that I am 64 I can say that he died very young!
Rodney Booth
There’s a great trumpet player in the Dallas area named Rodney Booth. He played in the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band a year, or two after me, and had led a band around town for many years. We have worked together on many shows and recording sessions, and is a very good friend. Rodney also teaches at UNT where he teaches improvisation and conducts the Two O’Clock Lab Band.
He put out a great CD back in 1998 called “Look Over There”, and one around 2010 called “Ten & One”. He reminds me a little bit of Chet Baker in that he sings and plays trumpet. He also performs some of Chet’s tunes, too. If you like this example, I suggest you buy one or both cd’s. They are both great. This tune is from “Look Over There”. The personnel is: piano, Whitey Thomas, Fred Hamilton, bass, and Bobby Breaux, drums.