Marco Aquino
In this interview band leader Bill King discusses the history of his 12- piece King William Jazz Collective. Founded in 2009, the ensemble comprises former members from Gerry Gibbs’ popular Thrasher Big Band as well as new additions who have become mainstays in the local jazz scene. In 2014, the band released its self-titled debut album reaching #20 on the Jazz Week charts and #5 on the Roots Music Report.
How did the band first come together?
Originally, a core of the guys had been in Gerry Gibbs’ Thrasher Big Band. When Gerry left and went to LA with a few other guys, the rest of us that stayed in San Antonio were kind of in limbo. At the time, I was a member of the United States Airforce band here in SA and I had just retired. A little bit after that, I got wind that Gerry had some health issues. It stemmed from when he got mugged in the 90s. He got hit by a pipe really hard. If you ever get hit really hard, stuff can happen to you—a dental situation fifteen years later. Basically, he was gonna have to get implants for all of his teeth—he was too young to get dentures. So I put a show together to raise money for Gerry. We actually did the show at the Blue Star. It was 2 shows and we raised about 3,000 bucks. Around the same time, I went to Paula and said, “How about we try to do Thursday nights here?” We played for about 15 people. It was the core of the group: myself, Morgan King, Cody Brown, Gill Garza, Jason Jones … I think all of us played in the Gerry’s Thrasher Big Band but we later had to add a rhythm section because Gerry’s rhythm section went to LA. After that, everyone kept saying we had to keep doing it. The next month when we played, it was full — standing room only. It wasn’t a very big place and we were a pretty big band but we fit in the corner. For all of us, it was wonderful playing there. We played for about 5 years, once a month until she closed-up shop there (At Carmen’s original location on Mistletoe). We had some pretty cool guests come to play.
A year after that started, I had a heart attack and almost died. I came back to perform a month later on December 15 for our Christmas show. It was a pretty monumental thing for me. I didn’t actually play— I just led the band—I started playing the next month. That whole time at Carmen’s was pretty magical.
How instrumental was Gerry in revitalizing the scene here?
I moved here in 2005 but I actually knew about Gerry before I got here and I was living in Europe. It was less than a year after I moved here that I became a member of his big band. I don’t know what the jazz scene was like before … I mean San Antonio had been known for the Jim Cullum jazz band. In my opinion, Gerry ended up giving a home for all the guys that played the straight-ahead jazz and more modern stuff. And Carmens was the oven where we all cooked.
You would bring out a lot of students when you performed at Carmens. What can students take away from a live performance?
Here is the interesting thing for me: I’m on faculty at St. Mary’s University and now I encourage all of my students to go out and see live music. When you see real pros play live music, it lets you know what you have to do. I think one of the things of being insulated in an academic situation is you compare yourself to all the other kids. If you get better than the other kids, you’re still not gonna get a gig. I had a former teacher tell me, “Don’t compare yourself to anyone at school. Compare yourself to everyone else in the world.” He encouraged me to go to New York and I didn’t. I joined the United States Air Force band and did 20 years there. I was around a lot of great players but it’s not New York. But I’m actually really glad I did that and lived a normal life here.
There are not too many jazz groups like the King William Jazz Collective around the country.
There are a lot of what I call “pick up” big bands. Basically, just a bunch of guys showing up and reading charts. But the King William Jazz Collective actually rehearses. We actually commission a lot of work. A lot of what we play has been written just for our group. We did an album that reached number 19 on the national jazz charts. There are just some really great jazz musicians in town. I think what we were doing at Carmen’s, at Luna, and now at Jazz, TX—that’s a testament to the music that has been able to be played here.
Do you feel that the venues and organizations here in town have allowed you to experiment and create music in the manner that you want?
About 10 years ago, KRTU did a concert called The Year of Jazz at the Sunken Gardens Theatre. The Symphony played and then the King William Jazz Collective performed Aaron Prado’s San Antonio Jazz Suite. That year there was an article written in Jazz Times or maybe Downbeat about the Jazz scene in San Antonio that said most of the musicians here in town play for their dinner. Basically, we are like background music in restaurants. I’ve played at places like Ruth’s Chris Steak House—gigs where you play in the background and people are all eating and that is a lot of what happens here in town. But Carmens, Luna and Jazz, TX are actually listening rooms—people come to hear us play jazz. There are not many cities in the US that have that. Those 3 venues have been fantastic for us to be able to play music. No one is telling us what to play—we are deciding what to play.
When did you first connect with vocalist Joan Carroll?
That was with Gerry’s Thrasher Band. Have you heard the record we put out? There is a cut on there called A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. If you listen to that cut and walk away, you’ll think you listened to an angel sing. I go back and listen to that cut and oh my god … She’s got one of the most beautiful voices and that’s just one tune. I mean, she sounds awesome all the time.