BILLY BAUER

Billy Bauer (November 14, 1915 – June 16, 2005) was an American cool jazz guitarist.

Life

Bauer was born in New York City. He played banjo as a child before switching to guitar. He played with the Jerry Wald band and recorded with Carl Hoff and His Orchestra in 1941 before joining Woody Herman in 1944 as a member of the First Herd and in 1946 he played with Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden.

Working in small groups led by bassist Chubby Jackson and trombonist Bill Harris, Bauer established himself as a soloist in the bebop movement.

In 1946 he began working with Lennie Tristano. Tristano and Bauer enjoyed a natural synergy in their style and approach. Their development of "intuitive music" led to the 1949 session which included the free improvisations "Intuition" and "Digression".

Bauer continued his pioneering guitar work in a partnership with Lee Konitz, whose avant-garde saxophone work was a perfect match for Bauer's guitar. The two musicians' dialogue crossed styles from bop and cool to the avant-garde. Their recordings have been described as "some of the most beautiful duet recordings in jazz". "Duet For Saxophone and Guitar", was an unusual instrument pairing which has been described as redefining the role of jazz guitar.

Bauer made one album under his own name, "The Plectrist" in 1956. The CD reissue has been described as "demand(ing) the attention of anyone even remotely interested in jazz guitar".

Teaching

In later life Bauer taught at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music and his own Billy Bauer Guitar School in Roslyn Heights, New York.  He also published instructional books on studying music and playing the guitar.

Near the end of his career, Bauer appeared at the 1997 JVC Tributes for Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow. Bauer led the way for guitarists like Jimmy Raney and student Joe Satriani.

In 1997 he published his autobiography "Sideman" (with Thea Luba ISBN 13 978-0965723701).

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Billy Bauer (1915 - 2005) was already an established professional guitarist in New York when players like Johnny Smith and Jimmy Raney arrived on the scene. He played with the Jerry Wald band before joining Woody Herman in 1944 as a member of the 1st Herd. And in 1946 he played with Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden. 

Billy Bauer established and distinguished himself as a solid rhythm player with these bands but it was in the small groups that emerged from these bands, lead by Chubby Jackson, Bill Harris and Lennie Tristano, that Billy Bauer established himself as a significant soloist in the evolving bebop movement. Billy Bauer's solo work with these groups has been sited as some of the best examples of early bebop guitar. But, more significantly, his solo work has been sited as some of the most progressive playing for any era. His work with Lennie Tristano in the mid 1940's certainly represented some of the most progressive guitar playing up to that time. 

The trio and duet recordings Bauer made with Tristano around 1945 are especially interesting. Tristano and Bauer enjoyed a natural synergy in style and approach to their music. Tristano's intricate arrangements were a perfect match for Bauer's guitar. These examples demonstrated that Bauer was not just a good guitarist, but also an outstanding musician. His unison playing with Tristano was precise, and his accompaniment to Tristano's piano represented some of the best and earliest examples of great guitar comping. 

Billy Bauer continued his pioneering guitar work with Lee Konitz in the 1950's and 1960's. As with Lennie Tristano, Bauer found a kindred musical spirit in Konitz. Konitz's avant-garde saxophone work was a perfect match for Bauer's advanced guitar. On the recording Lee Konitz especially, the two musicians demonstrated a unique musical dialogue across a range of styles from bop and cool to the avant-garde. Duet For Saxophone and Guitar, was an unusual instrument paring, that really allowed Bauer’s great musicianship to be heard. Early in 1956, Billy Bauer made a recording under his own name. Plectrist put Bauer front and center throughout, playing great jazz guitar.

In the history of jazz guitar there have been many examples of great musicians who are often overlooked for the enormous influence they had. Billy Bauer is one of these. Anyone interested in the early evolution of the guitar in bop and cool jazz should start with Bill Bauer. He led the way for guitarists like Jimmy Raney, and along with Lennie Tristano, brought the piano, guitar, bass trio to a whole new level.

In the 1990's Billy Bauer appeared at the 1997 JVC Tributes for Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow. Just Jazz Guitar, February 1996 had a nice interview with Billy Bauer by Michael Katz. 

©Copyright 2005 Classic Jazz Guitar

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Biography by Jason Ankeny

Guitarist Billy Bauer was a critical force behind jazz's evolution from swing to bebop, his precise, progressive fretwork foreshadowing the emergence of cool jazz and even the avant-garde. Born in New York City on November 14, 1915, Bauer played banjo as a child but moved to guitar in his late teens, first earning notice behind clarinetist Jerry Wald. In 1941 he made his first recordings with Carl Hoff & His Orchestra -- three years later, Bauer signed on with Woody Herman's First Herd, with whom he cut a series of sessions, followed by stints in support of Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden. The small groups that emerged from these big bands would prove Bauer's most fertile creative environment, however.

After brief collaborations with Chubby Jackson and Bill Harris, he teamed in 1946 with pianist Lennie Tristano, a three-year partnership that yielded the most inspired and influential work of the guitarist's career. Across a series of duet and trio recordings, Tristano and Bauer proved uniquely complementary musicians, with Bauer's razor-honed guitar navigating Tristano's intricate arrangements with nimble ease. Together, both men were cited as leaders of the growing bop movement, and on recordings like "Intuition" and "Digression," they effectively created free jazz. 

After ending his partnership with Tristano, Bauer found another kindred spirit in alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. Their collaboration reached its creative apex with the 1951 session Duet for Saxophone and Guitar, which expanded upon its unusual instrumental pairing to essentially redefine the role of jazz guitar. By now Bauer was regularly winning awards from the magazines Down Beat and Metronome, but he retained the humility and disdain of the limelight that would ultimately serve to marginalize his contributions to contemporary music -- only in 1956 did he cut Plectrist, the first and last studio recording released under his own name. 

Bauer was instead happiest and most effective as a sideman, working with the likes of Milt Hinton and Pete Candoli. He also served with the NBC Staff Orchestra and taught at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music. During the last three decades of his life Bauer rarely recorded or performed live, instead channeling his energy into the Billy Bauer Guitar School, which he operated from a small office in Roslyn Heights, NY. In 1997 he published his autobiography, Sideman, and continued offering private lessons until just weeks prior to his death from pneumonia on June 17, 2005.

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About Billy Bauer

Born: 11/14/1915, New York

Died: 6/17/2005, Melville New York

Internationally respected Jazz Guitarist. Billy Bauer was a musician, father, husband, publisher and master instructor. 

Billy evolved with the jazz movement of his time -- from swing to be-bop to cool to avante-garde to "free jazz" with outstanding musicianship. Pioneered in taking the guitar out of the purely rhythmic to an  intricate chordal melodic styling. His large life was dedicated to his art form seeking creative, authentic music expression through his guitar.

Highlights of his musical life:

Professional banjo player broadcasting on the radio at age 14
Changed to guitar in early 30's
Early credits Jerry Wald, Woody Herman's First Herd, Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden 1941-46
Player of Be-bop with cool school stylist Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh
Historical "Free Jazz" explorations and soloist on Tristano's recordings Intuition and Digression 1949
Recipient of several Down Beat and Metronome Magazine Awards
Recorded with Metronome All-Stars 1947-1953
Founded William H. Bauer Publishing Co. 1951 - dedicated to the preservation of Jazz transcripts of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, and Warne Marsh and guitar instructional texts.
Served as an ABC staff orchestra guitarist
Freelance recording with the greatest players of all time
Leader of no-sittin' in jam sessions 1961-63 at Sherwood Inn, New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York with the finest swing and bop players of the day
Master guitar instructor for over 35 years at Billy Bauer's Guitar School in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, New York developed THE GUITAR INSTRUCTOR SERIES available on this website

Only solo album Plectrist

Known as one of the most progressive jazz players of his time or any era
Published autobiography Sideman in 1997 for future generations

Source: http://www.billybauersmusic.com/about-billy-bauer.htm

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Jazz guitarist Billy Bauer dead at 89

MELVILLE, N.Y.- Billy Bauer, a jazz guitarist who worked with Lennie Tristano, Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker, has died in Melville. He was 89. 

Bauer, who lived in Albertson, N.Y., died Friday of complications from pneumonia, said his daughter, Pamela. 

He developed much of his solo technique while playing with Tristano's group, which he joined in 1946. Before that, he had played mostly rhythm parts. 

Bauer recorded both with the band and with individual members, such as saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. He founded a publishing company, William H. Bauer Inc., to publish compositions by himself, Tristano, Konitz and Marsh. 

He went on to work with Goodman and Parker, and recorded one album as band leader: “Plectrist," from 1956. 

As the jazz recording industry began to fade, Bauer switched to teaching, opening the Billy Bauer Guitar School in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Long Island, in 1970. He continued teaching lessons until shortly before his death. 

Born in the Bronx, Bauer first played banjo and ukulele before changing to guitar in his teens. 

He wrote an autobiography called “Sideman." 

-- Associated Press

Source: All About Jazz Publicity

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Billy Bauer: Plectrist

Guitarist Billy Bauer recorded only one album as a leader.The album was Plectrist, and it featured Andrew Ackers on piano, Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums. Bauer wasn't shy. The reason for the sole leadership date was Bauer's workload as a sideman. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Bauer recorded relentlessly in bands and groups, preferring to play a supporting role. Producer Norman Granz virtually had to beg Bauer to record Plectrist for his Norgran label, cutting off Bauer repeatedly each time Bauer tried to explain how busy he was and why he couldn't do it.

Bauer had a natural, swinging style that was essential for keeping 1940s big-band rhythm sections on track. A superb sight-reader, Bauer had great taste in chord structures and improvisational lines. What's more, he was confident and clear, which is why he was in such demand. 

As the big bands gave way to smaller ensembles in the late 1940s and early1950s, guitarists increasingly were called upon to keep tempos and set moods. Like Mundell Lowe, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Smith, Dave Barbour, Chuck Wayne, Jimmy Raney and many other guitarists, Bauer was a journeyman, joining groups for brief periods and record dates before being yanked away by another leader or record producer, especially in the 10-inch LP era.

Between 1942 and 1946, Bauer played steadily with Woody Herman's band, known euphemistically as the First Herd. In the fall of 1946 Bauer joined pianist Lennie Tristano and bassist Clyde Lombardi to form the first Lennie Tristano Trio. Sessions followed with other artists, including small ensemble dates with bassist Chubby Jackson and trombonist Bill Harris, Bauer rejoined Tristano's trio in 1947, this time with John Levy on bass. In 1948, Bauer spent much of the year with Benny Goodman. By year's end, he was voted an All Star by Metronome magazine's readers.

As was customary, the magazine's poll winners were recorded. So in January 1949, the Metronome All-Stars made two sides, Overtime and Victory Ball. Today, the discs remain highly charged works that not only showcase the advancedforms of jazz emerging from bebop's wide shadow but also represent an historic convergence of talent. The other 1948 Metronome All-Stars were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro on trumpets; Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson on trombones; Buddy DeFranco on clarinet; Charlie Parker on alto sax; Charlie Ventura on tenor sax; Ernie Caceres on baritone sax; Lennie Tristano on piano; Billy Bauer on guitar; Eddie Safranski on bass; and Shelly Manne on drums. Pete Rugolo was the arranger. Before you read any further, take another look at that trumpet section.

In March 1949, Bauer joined the groundbreaking Lennie Tristano Sextet, which included Tristano, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Tristano, Arnold Fishkin and Denzil Best. The group experimented with impossibly difficult modal compositions such as Wow! and Cross-Current, radicalizing the cool jazz sound introduced a year earlier at the Royal Roost by the Miles Davis nonet. Aninteresting footnote: The Miles Davis nonet 78-rpm recordings (later packaged as the Birth of the Cool sessions) were made in January 1949, just three months before Tristano recorded his. An interesting footnote: They were recorded for the same label—and Lee Konitz played on both!

In March 1951, Bauer played on the modal Ezz-thetic sessionwith Miles Davis and Lee Konitz, which further advanced the Third Stream sound. In August, Bauer recorded on Chico O'Farrill Orchestra's Dance One session for Norman Granz's Clef label. A long string of recording dates followed for Bauer in 1952 and 1953.

In December 1954, Bauer's phone rang. It was Charlie Parker asking "B.B" if he was available to appear on a Clef session. It would turn out to be Parker's last studio recordings. The date was the second half of Granz's ill-conceived Cole Porter concept album that Parker never completed before his death in March 1955.

Right after the turn of the year in 1956, Bauer finally relented to Granz's nagging and agreed to record Plectrist. The word "plectrist" wasmade up by the session's producer and means one who skillfully uses a plectrum or a triangular plastic pic on the guitar's strings. The first four tracks of Plectrist were recorded on January 23, 1956, with another six captured on March 12. 

Bauer's playing swings on the up-tempo tracks and features gorgeous chords on the ballads. Bauer is so good on the album that he sounds as if he's accompanying himself. What you notice throughout, in addition to Bauer's beautiful taste, is Osie Johnson's drums. Johnson appeared on dozens of recordings in the 1950s, but it's rare to hear his drumming style and technique so distinctly. On Plectrist, you can hear clearly just how gifted a beat-keeper he was and why he was a favorite of so many session leaders of the period.

Milt Hinton, of course, keeps rock solid time all the way through.Again, because this is a small group with guitar as the lead, you hear exactly why Hinton was so beloved by session and club artists.

Andrew Ackers is the least-known player on the date. Ackers was a session pianist who worked steadily in the 1940s with bandleaders Jerry Wald and George Paxton, and with Carmen McRae in 1955. Bauer picks up the story about Ackers in the liner notes from the 2000 re-issue:

"I just grabbed a couple of guys I'd been working with. I had been on a lot of dates with Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson who did a lot of studio work in those days. I knew Andrew Ackers because I was working at NBC at the time, and Fran Warren, the singer, had a couple of little shows, and he was the conductor; every once in a while I was called to do a show with him.

We didn't get to play much on the shows, but weused to get together about an hour before a show and talk and play. Andy was a good accompanist; he backed me up very nicely, never got in my way. Some guys play well but they get in your way all of the time. Andy let me play.

So when I got the record date, I said, 'Well, I'll get Andy.' I could have gotten anybody—I probably could have gotten Lennie [Tristano] to do it—but I was with Andy a lot, and I like the way he accompanied me...

Norman wasn't in the studio when I made the album. It was just the musicians and an engineer. I'd say, 'Here we go!' and we'd play. I let everybody do what they wanted to do." 

For an example of Bauer and Ackers playing in completeharmony, dig the Bauer original ballad Night Cruise. Or the uptempo Irving Berlin standard, Maybe I Love You Too Much. Ackers had great taste. It's a shame he didn't record more.

Plectrist is a snapshot of the level of taste and talent that existed in early 1956, especially among guys who went from studio to studio earning a living on record dates. It's a sleeper album that's a must-own for any collection.

Source: www.jazzwax.com/2008/ 06/billy-bauer-ple.html

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Remembering Billy Bauer

Jazz Guitarist With Woody Herman, Lennie Tristano And Others Dies At 89

by Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

Jazz guitarist Billy Bauer, who was a member of Woody Herman's thundering First Herd of 1944-1946, and who later worked with Lennie Tristano, Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker, died on Friday, June 17, 2005, in Melville, NY. He was 89.

Bauer, who lived in Albertson, NY, died of complications from pneumonia, said his daughter, Pamela. 

He developed much of his solo technique while playing with Tristano's group, which he joined in 1946. Before that, he had played mostly rhythm guitar. 

Bauer recorded both with the band and with individual members, such as saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh.  

He founded a publishing company, William H. Bauer Inc., to publish compositions by himself, Tristano, Konitz and Marsh. 

He was twice named Best Guitar by Metronome's Readers' Poll from 1948-49 and from1949-50. He went on to work with Goodman and Parker, and recorded one album as band leader: Plectrist, from 1956. 

As the jazz recording industry began to fade, Bauer switched to teaching, opening the Billy Bauer Guitar School in Albertson, NY, on Long Island, in 1970. He continued teaching lessons until shortly before his death. 

Born in the Bronx, Bauer first played banjo and ukulele before changing to guitar in his teens. 

He wrote an autobiography called Sideman. 

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The following article on Billy Bauer was originally published in the September 2003 issue of Jazz Connection Magazine.

Guitarist Billy Bauer may have blended very well playing with many jazz musicians, but he was and continues to be a stand out plectrist in jazz music. Known best for his stints in Woody Herman's thundering First Herd and in pianist Lennie Tristano's alternative jazz ensembles, Bauer is one of the few jazz guitarists of his generation to avoid the influences of Charlie Christian and he is considered by many as a major living link in the evolution of the jazz guitar.

"One of the things I did was that I 'comped' with the ensembles and bands," said Bauer, 87, from his second-story guitar studio in Albertson, NY, on Long Island. "Not that what I did was ever done before. It was, but not to that extent. The basic thing is that I was so dumb that I would blend with whomever I played with. I played in Dixieland groups, swing groups, modern jazz groups, even Irish musical groups. I played with every kind of combination you can think of. Before he died, (trumpeter) Charlie Shavers told me he liked the way I backed him up. Even (drummer) Max Roach said the same thing. I blend well. I'm not trying to cut them."

By the end of the 1940s, Bauer was considered the best guitarist in jazz, winning the Metronome All-Stars Readers' Poll several times. His 1959 guitar solo on Greenway, remains a textbook example of his modern approach to harmony and composition that continues to inspire new generations of guitarists.

William H. "Billy" Bauer was born on Nov. 14, 1915, in Bronx, NY. His mother played organ in a church and his father, a German immigrant, was a vaudevillian song and dance man who performed under the name of Harry Nelson.

"My father's introduction was, 'Harry Nelson: He Says He Sings,'" Bauer said with a chuckle. "But he did get to be in a Broadway show called School Days."

Having an actor in the family was something that didn't sit well with the song and dance man's father who believed working hard at a craft was the only way to get ahead in their newly-adopted country.

"My grandfather didn't like my father to be an actor," Bauer said. "When my father went up to Ossining, NY, to open School Days, my grandfather told him don't ever come back home until you are ready to get a real job. Eventually, my father conceded. He came back and went to work in the print factory which my grandfather owned. He became a printer."

Bauer's grandparents also owned a board and livery stable where work horses and buggies were rented out. As a result, young Bauer and his numerous cousins got their first jobs working as stable boys, he said.

"Us kids had to do work," Bauer said. "We had to clean the stables and bring the horses food and water. My grandmother was married with six kids before she met my grandfather. After they were married, they had six more kids! I had a large collection of aunts and uncles."

As a family, the Bauer's always sang, especially during their weekly Sunday afternoon car rides to Almond, NY, 16 miles away, where the family congregated for coffee and doughnuts, Bauer said.

"We'd sing all the way up and all the way home," Bauer recalled. "We had an open-air Ford touring car, the ones that you had to crank up to get it started. We were one of four families on our block that owned an automobile."

At age 9, Bauer began his life in music via a broken leg.

"My mother got an old baby carriage and hired this 13-year-old girl to push me around all summer long," Bauer said. "A friend of mine gave me a pair of drum sticks and I started drumming on my plaster cast. My father came home one day with a ukulele and gave it to me to play. At that time, 'Ukulele Ike' was very popular on radio and records. By the end of that summer, I could play some tunes on the ukulele." ("Ukulele Ike," whose real name was Cliff Edwards, went on to greater fame in 1940 as the voice of the Walt Disney character, Jiminy Cricket.")

Shortly thereafter, Bauer's father presented his young son with a tenor banjo. The youngster took banjo lessons from a Mr. Beca, a street-wise man who owned the neighborhood candy store, Bauer said.

"Mr. Beca made me read music which gave me an advantage," Bauer said.

By age 12, Bauer became so proficient on the tenor banjo that his father got his young son jobs working in speakeasies, Bauer said.

"My father would see ads in the newspapers like 'Banjo Player Wanted For Saturdays,' or something like that, and he would take me to see the owners," Bauer recalled. "One of the owners, Johnny Lane, was skeptical about hiring me because of my age. My father said, "Why don't you try him? Let him play.' I played for him and he hired me. His wife had to bring me to the club when my father couldn't take me."

Although he entertained in speakeasies, Bauer seemed unafraid to play in an environment frequented by gangsters, he said.

"Nah, I was too dumb," he said. "I still am."

At 16, Bauer played his first out-of-town in residence job in Rockaway, NY, a place owned by noted gangster Waxy Gordon.

"We'd be sitting around for two days and all of a sudden people would come in and the boss would say, 'Get up there and start now,'" Bauer said. "We'd start playing and the whole place would get jammed."

During the summer after his junior year in high school, Bauer played in a band at various resorts in the Catskill Mountains. Upon his return to school on the first day after summer vacation, Bauer was boasting to friends, albeit in jest, about the many "adult" experiences of which he supposedly engaged. A teacher came along after overhearing the teen banjoist's comments and believing the comments to be inappropriate, whacked him over his hands with a yard stick. The incident led to Bauer dropping out of high school.

"I got up and said, 'That's it! I'm through!'" Bauer said. "I walked out and I never went back. My father never went to school either, so he didn't mind."

Bauer then began to hang out with bar room pianist Bob King, "who could play a million tunes," according to Bauer. The association helped the young plectrist to get his ear accustomed to playing just about any kind of song.

"I guess that's why I got work because I was schooled in just playing tunes," he said.

From there, Bauer played in a group at Broad Channel, NY, replacing a black band which never returned to perform at that venue. The group Bauer was in was hired to play for dancing and for musical back up for an all-black girl show.

"After a few nights at this gig, we knew why this black band never returned," Bauer said. "We started around 8:30 p.m. and the boss would put out bottles of gin, rye, and scotch on the bandstand. We couldn't leave the bandstand until everyone went home, and that could be 4 in the morning. Because of all the booze we drank, we had to go to the bathroom in shifts. If I had to go, the piano player and drummer would have to stay on stage and continue playing. If the piano player had to go, the drummer and I would stay, etc. It was like being held hostage."

In 1933, after Prohibition was repealed, Bauer made the switch to guitar as the usage of the stringed instrument was gaining popularity over the banjo in many bands. He continued playing banjo while in Leo Clinton's band, a seven-piece outfit from the Bronx. When Clinton suddenly quit, Bauer was made leader and the instrumental switch was made.

"I bought my first electric guitar when I became a leader, a Rickenbacker," Bauer said. "It was a plastic guitar that looked like a frying pan."

Also in Clinton's band at the time were drummer Russ Williams and a young enthusiastic piano player named Harry Raab, who emerged in 1944 as Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, combining song and jive. Gibson was best-known for tunes such as Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?, I Stay Brown All Year 'Roun', and Get Your Juices At The Deuces. Gibson died in May 1991 at age 75.

Bauer and Gibson worked together for one summer playing for a yacht club in New Jersey, according to Bauer.

"Harry wanted me to go and work with him in a group he called 'The Domino Boys: The White Boys With The Black Rhythm,'" Bauer said.

Bauer gigged with smaller groups around The Big Apple playing downstairs at one night spot while trumpeter Bobby Hackett was playing with his group upstairs at the same venue, Bauer said.

"That's where I met Bobby and I got to know him pretty well," Bauer said.

It was during this time that Bauer began listening with an attentive ear to the music of young guitar phenom Charlie Christian, who reached stardom with Benny Goodman's orchestra from 1939 to 1941. Christian died of tuberculosis in March 1942 at age 23.

"All the other guitarists went for Django Reinhardt, but he was a crazy player!" Bauer said.

Bauer then started getting jobs playing in larger bands such as those led by Henry Jerome, Carl Hoff, clarinetist Jerry Wald and Abe Lyman.

In 1943, Bauer joined Lyman, who led a solid and successful commercial outfit many years before the big band boom began. Prior to getting an invitation to join Lyman and his Californians, Bauer was working with a comedy show band at The Metropole, a famed nightclub in New York City.

"Lyman's booker, Al Pollack, told me that Abe was looking for a guitar player and he invited me to come over to the Lincoln Hotel where the band was playing and to play a set," Bauer recalled. "I started The Metropole job at 9 p.m. and Lyman's band started at 7 p.m. So I went over the next night."

When Bauer got on the bandstand, he noticed there wasn't any music for the guitar, he said.

"The band started to play and Abe pointed to me saying, 'You take it,'" Bauer said. "He didn't even ask me if I knew the tune or not. I got through the set and Abe said to me, 'Hey, Kid, when are you going to take it out of the case?' I got up and walked right out of the place."

As Bauer was making his way out of the hotel, Pollack came running after him and asked where he was going.

"Did you hear the way he talked to me?" Bauer replied angrily.

"Are you kidding?" Pollack replied. "After you started playing, Abe waved to me to get you. Don't be an idiot. You'll make about $8,000 next year. Abe treats the guys very well. Plus, we do nightly broadcasts."

Pollack smoothed things over with Bauer and the booker told Lyman that the guitarist would take the job.

In Lyman's band at the time were such outstanding musicians as Sy Zentner and Ray Heath on trombones; Marty Gold on Violin; Wolffe Tannenbaum on tenor sax; Bill Clifton on piano; and Sid Weiss on bass.

It was his friendship with tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips that eventually led Bauer to join clarinetist/alto saxophonist Woody Herman's orchestra in the spring of 1944.

I first met Flip when he was playing clarinet in (trumpeter) Frankie Newton's band," Bauer said. "We formed a sextet and we'd play after hours. One night Abe came to hear us and he liked it and wanted to put us on the next show to broadcast. We played one of my tunes, Burma Bomber."

Shortly thereafter, Phillips got the nod to join Herman, who was revamping his aggregation from "The Band That Plays The Blues" into an explosive modern jazz unit. Herman's earlier band had a hit in 1939 with Woodchopper's Ball.

A few weeks later, Bauer received a call from Herman to join the band.

"Flip recommended me to Woody," Bauer said. "I joined the band a few days later in Detroit."

Herman's new band, which would later become known as "The First Herd (1944-1946)," reflected spirited, muscle-flexing exuberance in its music. The band during this period boasted new and exciting young talents in Sonny Berman, Pete Candoli and his younger brother, Conte, Carl "Bama" Warwick, Ray Wetzel and Shorty Rogers on trumpets; Bill Harris and Ralph Pfiffner on trombones; Sam Marowitz and John LaPorta on alto saxophones; Phillips, Pete Mondello and Mickey Folus, tenor saxophones; Skippy DeSair and Sam Rubinowitch, baritone saxophone; and an ironclad rhythm section of Chubby Jackson, bass; Ralph Burns, Tony Aless, and later, Jimmy Rowles, piano; Bauer, guitar; Dave Tough and later, Don Lamond, drums; and Margie Hyams and later, Red Norvo, vibraphone. Burns and trumpeter Neil Hefti contributed stunning arrangements, while the band's "girl" singer, Francis Wayne, shared the vocal duties with Herman.

"It was a swinging band, that's for sure," Bauer said. "It had fire. I guess the rhythm section had something to do with it, too. The tight rhythmic sound just came. It seemed natural. Everyone just played the way they played. That was the good part."

As a member of Tristano's ensemble, Bauer was present when the group was one of five bands that helped open Birdland Jazz Club in mid-town Manhattan in December 1949. Also on the opening night's bill were groups led by alto saxophone genius Charlie Parker, who served as the inspiration for the famed jazz spot, tenor sax stylist Lester Young, pianist Art Tatum, and trumpeter Max Kaminsky's Dixieland unit.

"They had all different types of jazz to open the club," Bauer recalled. "Ours was just a little different."

Bauer's success with Tristano was also recognized when he was named Best Guitarist in Metronome's Readers' Poll for 1948-1949 and for 1949-1950. He participated in both traditional Metronome All-Star recording sessions. The 1948-49 All-Stars included Charlie Parker, alto sax; Charlie Ventura, tenor sax; Ernie Caceres, baritone sax; Buddy DeFranco, clarinet; J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding, trombones; Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro, trumpets; Lennie Tristano, piano; Eddie Safransky, bass; Shelly Manne, drums; and composer/arranger Pete Rugolo, conductor. The All-Stars for this recording session waxed for RCA-Victor (20-3361) Victory Ball and Overtime, a Rugolo composition.

"I remember we went over the allotted studio time to do the recordings and we named one of the tunes Overtime," Bauer recalled. "We just did one or two takes on a tune and that was it. In situations like that you get maybe eight bars to solo and if the whole band doesn't play good, you don't play good, then forget about it."

The 1949-50 All-Stars included Stan Getz, tenor sax; Lee Konitz, alto sax; Serge Chaloff, baritone sax; Buddy DeFranco, clarinet; Kai Winding, trombone; Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Lennie Tristano, piano; Eddie Safranski, bass; Max Roach, drums; and composer/arranger Pete Rugolo, conductor. The All-Stars on this recording session waxed No Figs, a Tristano original based on the chord progression of Indiana, and Double Date (Jan. 10, 1950).

Bauer continued to work in jazz throughout the 1950s, recording with the J. J. Johnson-Kai Winding band (Jay And Kai on Savoy Jazz, 1954), and with Tristano, Konitz and others, but most of his time was spent in studio work.

Tristano died in 1978 at age 59.

"With Lennie Tristano I was going broke," Bauer said. "I had a wife and two kids to support. It was OK working with these guys but we'd work one week, then we'd be out of work for two weeks. Then we'd maybe work three weeks somewhere, then we'd be out of work for a week. It got so that I couldn't even buy a house. I tried to buy a house, but then the banks would ask me where I was working. I'd have to say, 'Well, next week I'll be working at this club, and the week after that over here.' The bottom line was the banks refused me."

Bauer then heard of an opening for a guitar player at NBC. He auditioned for the job and became a studio musician.

"(Guitarist) Johnny Smith was leaving the studios to go into jazz and I was leaving jazz to get into the studios," Bauer said. "Meredith Wilson was the musical director at NBC and he liked my playing. He told the execs that I was the best rhythm guitar player he had ever heard. That sowed up the job for me right there! The following day I went to the same bank that refused my home loan a week earlier. When I told them I was working for NBC, they then approved my loan!"

Bauer worked for NBC for eight years doing The Bob And Ray Show, The Big Show with Tallulah Bankhead, and The Toast Of The Town with Ed Sullivan, among others. He also was hired out by the studio to do commercial "jingles" and to do outside record dates, including some duet work with Lee Konitz from the alto saxophonist's New Sounds album on Prestige Records, he said.

"I got some recognition doing duet recordings with Lee," Bauer said. "Lee has made it big. He's still going! He's made more records than anybody I ever heard. Every time he plays, he gets recorded."

From 1950 to 1953, Bauer also taught at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music and toured with Benny Goodman in Europe in 1958. He's on Goodman's Live At The Brussels' World Fair album.

After his work at NBC ended, Bauer began receiving calls to play in the pit orchestra for Broadway shows, most notably, How Now, Dow Jones, he said.

"I didn't like playing for Broadway very much because you were playing the same thing over and over again," Bauer said. "I didn't know if they liked me either. (laughs) I stuck it out for about three years."

During this period, Bauer continued to do free lance work in New York.

"Then that started to go because the whole music business went downhill," he said.

So, in 1970, Bauer opened an instructional studio for guitar players in Albertson.

"I'm still going at it," Bauer said with a laugh.

And what Bauer emphasizes at his music studio are the fundamentals, he said.

"I go back to the ABC's of the guitar," he said. "My students need to know the scales in all twelve keys. If they don't want to do that, I tell them that they shouldn't be here."

Reading music is also a high instructional priority for Bauer's students, he said.

"For guitarist's, they're given a G7 chord and that's it. Put any notation on it and they're lost," Bauer said. "Through that I can get into theory as to why things are the way they are."

Although Bauer may run the guitar school, he doesn't take any credit as a teacher, he said.

"I tell my students from the beginning that I'm not a teacher," Bauer said. "I'm an instructor."

That's not too shabby for a guy who claims he doesn't know anything.

"My students are teaching me just as much as I teach them," Bauer said.

In addition to guitar instruction, Bauer is also a published author. In 1997, he published his autobiography, Sideman, recounting his life as a jazz musician with prolific insights about his passion for music. The book may be purchased on line through Amazon.com at www.amazon.com or from Bauer himself by sending a check for $19.95 plus $3.50 postage to: William H. Bauer, Inc., P.O. Box 270, Albertson, NY 11507-0270.

Bauer continues to perform publicly on occasion. In 1995, he performed for Flip Phillips' 80th birthday party in Florida. Phillips died two years ago at age 86.

More recently, Bauer was part of an all-star Woody Herman alumni band that performed last November in Los Angeles to honor the late bandleader with a statue erected to his memory. Herman died in 1987.

"I just do what I can when I can," Bauer said. "I'm on the way out, but I still have something to give. If I can impart to my students just a little as to what I know, then it's all for the best."