Bill Crow
William Orval Crow (born December 27, 1927) is an American jazz bassist. Among other work, Crow was the long-term bassist in saxophonist Gerry Mulligan‘s bands in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1950, Crow moved to New York City, playing the valve trombone and drums. On a summer job at the Altamont Hotel in Tupper Lake, New York, he taught himself to play the string bass. Within two years of starting to play bass, he played with Teddy Charles and was with Stan Getz from October 1952 to April of the following year. He joined the Claude Thornhill band for the summer of 1953, moved to the Terry GibbsQuartet that fall, and in 1954 moved to the Marian McPartland Trio at the Hickory House in New York City, with Joe Morello at the drums. He was the bassist with Gerry Mulligan‘s sextet and quartet and the Mulligan Concert Jazz Band during the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s. While with Mulligan, he studied the bass with Fred Zimmerman, of the New York Philharmonic. In 1956, he was with Jay and Kai (J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding) for several engagements, including the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1962, he joined the Benny Goodman band for a summer tour of the Soviet Union.