Bob Brookmeyer

Bill is one of those rare musicians who didn't just live through an extraordinary stretch of jazz history, he paid attention while it was happening.

As a bassist, he worked with an astonishing range of musicians, Stan Getz, Jerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Marion McPartland, Joe Morello, Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson, I'm running out of breath, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Phil Woods, Jimmy Rolls, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and many more.

And at the same time, Bill was there at Birdland in the early 1950s, listening while Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Lester Young, Miles Davis, Max Roach, and so many others were still simply working musicians around New York.

Birdland was, in a very real sense, part of his education.