Bill Watrous, Carl Fontana, Frank Rosolino Video

Here is a post that professional jazz trombone players will love.  This is rare video of Bill Watrous, Carl Fontana, and Frank Rosolino. I am not sure exactly what year this is but I'm guessing it is probably very late 60s may be early 70s.  Whatever the year, as you will hear all three are at the top of their game.  It is really too bad that we don't have more video like this.  You can imagine how many jam sessions of such great players went unrecorded and certainly not videotaped.

As a jazz trombone player, I grew up listening to all three of these jazz trombone giants, but especially Bill Watrous.  Bill was more in the mainstream simply because he had a couple of albums out on Columbia records during the mid-70s.  I believe those records did quite well and one might have won a Grammy award.   I really didn't get a chance to hear much of Frank Rosolino until after he committed suicide in 1979.  What a waste to the jazz world that was!

Yeah, Bill got a lot of criticism for using his ridiculous technique too much, but I still think he can be as melodic as any way wants to be.    And no one can knock the amazing things he can do on the trombone.    I remember trying to transcribe some of Bill's solos.  At the time I didn't have a tape recorder, so I simply dropped the needle on the record 15,000 times.  I still think there is no substitute for transcribing lots of solos.  It really helps not only develop your year, but it in grains a lot of common jazz vocabulary into your subconscious.   At any rate, this video must've been done on a pretty cheap camera.  If anyone knows of more video like this one, please make a comment.