Bassist and author Bill Crow was born in Othello, Washington on December 27, 1927 and grew up in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. He learned piano from his mother and began playing trumpet in the fourth grade. In the sixth grade he switched to baritone horn which he played all the way through high school, garnering soloist honors at Seattle high school band conferences.

Crow’s interest in jazz was fueled by his high school band director. Crow has written that “My school music teacher, Al Bennest, introduced me to jazz by playing Louis Armstrong's record of West End Blues for me.  I found more jazz on the radio, and began looking for records.  My paper route money, and later, money I earned working after school in a print shop and a butcher shop went toward buying jazz records.  I taught myself the alto saxophone and the drums in order to play in my high school dance band.”

After high school Bill Crow attended the University of Washington and then joined the U.S. Army in 1946 and played in the 51st Army Band at Fort Lewis and later the 2nd Army Band in Maryland. After being discharged, Crow returned to his studies at the UW and gigged around the Seattle area. In 1950 he moved to New York City and studied with Lennie Tristano and hung out at Birdland with friends like Dave Lambert. He worked in the Adirondacks in the summer of 1950 which is where he started to play the bass. By the end of the summer, he returned to New York City with sufficient skill to begin playing gigs on bass.

Soon Crow was playing gigs with Glen Moore, the Dave Lambert Singers, and Stan Getz before taking a job with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Following that he played with Marian McPartland, Terry Gibbs and Gerry Mulligan. Crow writes that “Between jobs with Mulligan, I often worked with the Gene DiNovi Trio, the Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Quintet and the Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer Quintet. And I played one concert at Lewisohn Stadium with Duke Ellington's orchestra, one of the biggest thrills of my life.“ Bill Crow has also played at the Seattle World’s Fair and with Benny Goodman, Phil Woods, Quincy Jones, Mel Torme, J.J. Johnson, Bud Freeman, Scott Hamilton, Jim Hall and Lee Konitz, among countless others.

In addition to his prolific playing career, Bill Crow has authored two insightful and entertaining books about jazz and the people who play it. The first was titles “Jazz Anecdotes” (1990), and the second was “From Birdland to Broadway” (1992).

Here is a link to excerpts of an interview with Bill Crow that took place at The Jazz Buffet in January 2025.

"BILL CROW AT THE JAZZ BUFFET"