Tim Price
08-10-2003, 02:01 PM
Bill Perkins passed away this morning, August 9, 2003.
My friend Kim Richmond just let me know via an E mail. How sad.
One of the "coolest" of cool of the West Coast tenor players of the 1950s,
Bill Perkins in later years became a bit influenced by Coltrane and modernized
his style in a personal modern, studied way.
Many times I'd speak to him on the telephone,,and the conversation went
on,,for hours,,about music,,and saxophone related things of interest.He was a real inspiration to me..and a pleasure to know.I learned a lot just by knowing him.He was a cool guy.
Perk made me RARE tapes of PREZ,,and laid a Japenese/copy of one of
his Prez Tributes in me,,that to this day,,I cherish as a link into an era.
He also was digging' the young guys on the scene. He recorded a Mike Stern tune on one of his records,,and was raving to me about one of my NyC buds that was heavy into the "knitting factory" bag.Perk loved music and had no boundarys to his art.
His one comment to me about a mutual idol of BOTH of ours...CHARLIE
MARIANO...was that when PERK grew up he wanted to be like Charlie Mariano.
That was some serious respect from Perk,,cuz' Charl;ie and Perk were from the
same era.( Beautiful!! ) Perk also who also played baritone, alto, soprano, and flute, and every
clarinet and flute available.
He also invented a unit that he designed and Ernie Watts among others recorded
on...that was a saxophone-synth...with an amazing interface.Perk recorded on it as well-and it was one of the FEW interface units that was
actually woodwind based.
I personally lament on this device myself as PERK told me many times he could of done some cool things via an actual interface into my bassoon,, .IMHO the guy WAS a genius.
A genius,,who learned -ON THE BANDSTAND-in a nightly fashion.
A school unto itself,,and a school,,long gone.
Born in San Francisco, he grew up in Chile, moved to Santa Barbara, and served in the military in World War II. After studying music and engineering, he played in the big bands of Jerry Wald, Woody Herman (1951-1953 and 1954), and Stan Kenton (1953-1954 and 1955-1958). "Perk" started recording as a leader in
1956 ((most notably Grand Encounter with John Lewis which is a record as
imporatant as anything ANYBODY ever did,,just listen to it,,and you'll hear
WHY!! )), including sets with Art Pepper and Richie Kamuca. During the 1960s he had a dual career as a studio musician and a recording engineer, and during 1970-1992 he was a member of the Tonight Show Band.
EVERYTHING I ever heard this man play has been stellar.
L.A sax player Kim Richmond said it like this-
"He was, as many of you are aware, a jazz great, but never came close to thinking of himself that way. He was the humblest of artists. One shame is that he was continually unaware of how many lives he touched and made better for his musical creativity, spirit, and ability, much of intuitive. The world was made better by him."
Those are some vivid words from Kim-and very sincere.
I echo them.
The world lost a master musician and human being of the highest level.
My friend Kim Richmond just let me know via an E mail. How sad.
One of the "coolest" of cool of the West Coast tenor players of the 1950s,
Bill Perkins in later years became a bit influenced by Coltrane and modernized
his style in a personal modern, studied way.
Many times I'd speak to him on the telephone,,and the conversation went
on,,for hours,,about music,,and saxophone related things of interest.He was a real inspiration to me..and a pleasure to know.I learned a lot just by knowing him.He was a cool guy.
Perk made me RARE tapes of PREZ,,and laid a Japenese/copy of one of
his Prez Tributes in me,,that to this day,,I cherish as a link into an era.
He also was digging' the young guys on the scene. He recorded a Mike Stern tune on one of his records,,and was raving to me about one of my NyC buds that was heavy into the "knitting factory" bag.Perk loved music and had no boundarys to his art.
His one comment to me about a mutual idol of BOTH of ours...CHARLIE
MARIANO...was that when PERK grew up he wanted to be like Charlie Mariano.
That was some serious respect from Perk,,cuz' Charl;ie and Perk were from the
same era.( Beautiful!! ) Perk also who also played baritone, alto, soprano, and flute, and every
clarinet and flute available.
He also invented a unit that he designed and Ernie Watts among others recorded
on...that was a saxophone-synth...with an amazing interface.Perk recorded on it as well-and it was one of the FEW interface units that was
actually woodwind based.
I personally lament on this device myself as PERK told me many times he could of done some cool things via an actual interface into my bassoon,, .IMHO the guy WAS a genius.
A genius,,who learned -ON THE BANDSTAND-in a nightly fashion.
A school unto itself,,and a school,,long gone.
Born in San Francisco, he grew up in Chile, moved to Santa Barbara, and served in the military in World War II. After studying music and engineering, he played in the big bands of Jerry Wald, Woody Herman (1951-1953 and 1954), and Stan Kenton (1953-1954 and 1955-1958). "Perk" started recording as a leader in
1956 ((most notably Grand Encounter with John Lewis which is a record as
imporatant as anything ANYBODY ever did,,just listen to it,,and you'll hear
WHY!! )), including sets with Art Pepper and Richie Kamuca. During the 1960s he had a dual career as a studio musician and a recording engineer, and during 1970-1992 he was a member of the Tonight Show Band.
EVERYTHING I ever heard this man play has been stellar.
L.A sax player Kim Richmond said it like this-
"He was, as many of you are aware, a jazz great, but never came close to thinking of himself that way. He was the humblest of artists. One shame is that he was continually unaware of how many lives he touched and made better for his musical creativity, spirit, and ability, much of intuitive. The world was made better by him."
Those are some vivid words from Kim-and very sincere.
I echo them.
The world lost a master musician and human being of the highest level.