BILL GREEN
Bill Green (February 28, 1925, Kansas City, Kansas – July 29, 1996, Los Angeles) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. He played early in his career with Gerald Wilson, and began working with Benny Carter in the latter half of the 1950s. From 1959 to 1962, he played in Louie Bellson’s big band, and worked extensively as a section player in the bands of musicians such as Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, and Buddy Rich; he also accompanied vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, and Dionne Warwick. (More from Wikipedia)
Crystal Mansion had one more shot with a third self-titled album in 1979, Crystal Mansion (also called Tickets) that was released on 20th Century Fox Records, the same label that released Milan’s only LP in 1964, I Am What I Am. A notice in Billboard magazine calls the band “a new record act” and notes that some of the “top veteran local jazzmen” have been recruited to accompany them, among them “saxophonists Jim Horn, Bill Green, Bud Shank, Buddy Collette, Marshal Royal, and Tom Scott, bassist Richard Davis, trumpeter Jerry Hey, trombonist Bill Watrous, keyboard man Steve Porcaro, and percussionist Alan Estes”. Three-time Grammy winner and album producer Brooks Arthur (who was the engineer on the band’s other two albums) is quoted as saying of the band: “I feel so strongly about Crystal Mansion’s musicianship and ability, I felt only guest artists of that caliber could perform well enough with this band.”
(August 2015)
