Bill was born in Memphis in 1954 and grew up there immersed in its blues, jazz and soul music. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana where he honed his jazz skills and continued to play professionally. He moved to New York City in 1981, where he performed with such artists as Mel Lewis, Doc Cheatham, Mickey Roker, Major Holley, Vic Dickinson, Rosemary Clooney, Howard Alden, Bo Diddley, the Temptations, the Spinners, the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra and many others while teaching at the Brooklyn Conservatory, William Patterson College, and the Aebersold Jazz Clinics, as well as in the public schools. He has conducted clinics, master classes and adjudications throughout the country and abroad.

Bill and his family moved to Libertyville, Illinois, in 1998 and he now teaches band, guitar and digital recording at Oak Grove School in Green Oaks, IL, and continues to perform with the Ellington Dynasty, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Symphony II, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra (performing for the Kennedy Center Honors each December) and many others. Last January, Bill performed with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra in a program of world premiers of newly discovered Billy Strayhorn compositions.

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