Whygold’s Weekend

… under this motto I present you my music tip for the weekend.

Maybe one or the other discovers something new.

Consciously listening to music is, in my opinion, as important as reading a good book.

Today: Chase – Ennea

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nXgkan88A-_nPGiCd_TIxvWmoqHMH8X4U

Bill Chase (born October 20, 1934 in Boston as William Edward Chiaiese; † August 9, 1974 in Jackson, Minnesota) was an American trumpeter who led the eponymous jazz rock band Chase.

Chase comes from an Italian-American family who changed their name to Chase because Chiaiese was considered difficult to pronounce in their environment. His father was a trumpet player in the Gillette
Marching Band
and encouraged his son in his musical interests, who first learned the violin and drums, then decided to take up the trumpet as a teenager. After high school, he studied classical trumpet, first at the New England Conservatory, but then at the Berklee School of Music. At Berklee in 1952, Chase heard a concert by Stan Kenton featuring high note solos by Maynard Ferguson, which finally got him hooked on jazz.

Chase first played with Herb Pomeroy in a junior band and in other local groups, then, after completing his military service, joined Ferguson’s bands (1958) and Kenton’s (1959/1960). He was subsequently employed as lead trumpet player in Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd during the 1960s and participated in such recordings as.
Woody’s Winners
, Live in Antibes, Woody Herman & the Fourth Herd, Jazz Hoot, 1963, My Kind of Broadway, Blue Flame, Live in Seattle, Somewhere, Live at Newport 1966 or Heavy Exposure.

In 1970 Chase started his own band, simply called Chase. He gathered for this purpose three other experienced jazz trumpeters, all of whom could also sing and arrange: Ted Piercefield, Alan Ware and Jerry Van Blair. The rhythm section consisted of Phil Porter, keyboards, Angel South, guitar, Dennis Johnson, bass, and Jay Burrid, drums. The group’s first album, released in 1971, featured Terry Richards as lead singer. The song Get It On was released as a single and was on the charts for 13 weeks from May 1971. The band was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

The band released the second album Ennea in 1972, which, unlike the first album that sold almost 400,000 copies, was not an economic success. For the third record, Pure Music, released in 1974 with a changed lineup but still a strong trumpet section, Chase leaned more toward the jazz idiom than the rock idiom. Work on the fourth record, which had begun in mid-1974, came to a halt on August 9, 1974, when Chase died in a plane crash on his way to a concert. In the same accident, keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark and guitarist John Emma were killed.

In 1977, the album Watch Closely Now was recorded in memory of the band, featuring many musicians from the original lineup (plus Walt Johnson as the fourth trumpet player).

(Source: Wikipedia)

An exceptional musician, unfortunately deceased much too early.

Cool 70s groove !

Have fun listening to this album !

Your Chris Weigold

P.S.: Maybe you enjoy the listening pleasure together with a Glass of wine from our “Orchestra of Cultures Edition”.