* En anglais uniquement
Jazz drummer
Bill Douglass should not be mistaken for the bassist and bamboo flute player of the same name who came along in a somewhat later era.
The drummer
Douglass was a solid swinger, not a hint of new age, who was a first choice of many top swing stars when a Los Angeles show was in the offing.
Douglass worked with the touchy
Benny Goodman, the comfy
Ben Webster, the clever
Benny Carter, and the busy
Art Tatum; he was also considered a superb drummer for singers, again working with some of the very best:
Kay Starr,
June Christy, and
Lena Horne, for example.
The drummer graduated from the Westlake College of Music and eventually became a teacher himself at the school of percussion known simply as Drum City, all the while pursuing freelance recording jobs in and around Hollywood. While some of the performers previously mentioned did not record with this drummer, the recordings that do exist reveal that
Douglass was comfortable making a variety of the hometown musical styles happen. Sides with
Tatum and
Webster present the hardcore evidence of syncopated chops, but the less well-known music of
Harry Babasin in 1957 reveals a much more inventive, not to mention fleet, side of
Douglass. The drummer also bares his backbeat on some of the West Coast blues recordings of
Amos Milburn. ~ Eugene Chadbourne