These are the remembrances as they ran in the print publication of the paper, many other obituaries, and longer obituaries for those listed below, are posted here as soon as the news comes in.
Bill Watrous, 79, on July 2nd, after a short illness in California.
William Russell Watrous III grew up in Connecticut idolizing his trombonist father who had played with Paul Whiteman. He tried his hand at the instrument himself and was playing in Dixieland bands while he was still in high school. He would go on to become one of the greatest trombonists in the history of jazz known for his rich, smooth, and technically proficient playing.
In 1957 he joined the Navy Band, which he said gave him more discipline in his approach to learning music. While with the Navy Band in San Diego he studied with Herbie Nichols. In New York in the early ’60s he got attention when he joined Kai Winding’s bands. He also recorded with Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, and Johnny Richards. He performed with the Billy Butterfield Band and then in the late ’60s was a member of the house band on the Merv Griffin show. In the early seventies, he played with jazz fusion group, Ten Wheel Drive.
In 1993 he released his best-known album, A Time For Love, which featured songs written by Johnny Mandel with charts arranged by Sammy Nestico.
He had been recently planning a vocal album. He w
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