William Reese “Bill” Perkins was born in San Francisco on -July 22, 1924, and raised in Chile, South America, and Santa Barbara [USA]. He was studying to become an electrical engineer, and even obtaired his diploma. However, this didn’t stop rim from playing clarinet in the school orchestras of Santa Barbara and study'ng the tenor sax during his sojourn at the University of Stanford with Chuck Trav's, formerly of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Later, he became a student at Hollywood's Westlake College of lVlodern Music and then, at the age of 23, he decided to become a pro essional musician as a member of the reed section of the orchestras of Dan Terry, Shorty Rogers, Jerry Wald and Desi Arnaz. Woody Herman hired Perkins in 1951, and the saxophonist remained with the “Third Herd” until 1958, after having made the acquaintance of Fiichie Kamuca, whom he was soon to re-encounter in Stan Kenton’s band from 1956 to 1958. The rest of the 1950s were spent alternating between the Herman and Kenton orchestras, steadily gaining a reputation as a subtly inventive soloist. The light, relaxed and elegart style of Perkins made him a natural ‘or the currently active West Coast scene. ln 1956, he recorded with John Lewis, Pichie Kamuca, Art Pepper and others, and in the 1960s he decided to leave life on the road to take a job with Pacific cazz Records as a recording engineer. At the same time, he remained active in the studios and continued playing occasional jazz gigs. He joined Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show Band in 1969, where he remained for almost the next twenty five years. During this period, he worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin’s Big Band, and was once again reunited with Herman on an occasional project. By the ’1980s, Perkins was touring widely, and appeared in the UK where he showed that he had lost none of his earlier inventiveness. At the start of the following decade he was diagnosed cancer, a disease which he fought for the rest of his life and which required nine throat operations. He died in Sherman Oaks, California, on August 9, 2008.
Liner notes, from the booklet
Bill Perkins
Art Pepper
Richie Kamuca
Just Friends
Tracks
1 Just Friends (Klenner, Lewis) 5:09
2 All Of Me (Simmons, Marks) 4:33
3 Limehouse Blues (Braham, Furber) 3:18
4 Solid Desylva (Perkins) 4:32
5 Sweet And Lovely (Arnheim, Daniels, Tobias) 5:04
6 Cotton Tail (Ellington) 4:34
7 I Want a Little Girl (Mencher, Moll) 5:58
8 Blues for Two (Mitchell) 4:30
9 Indian Summer (Herbert) 4:40
10 Don't Be That Way (Goodman, Parish, Sampson) 5:05
11 Oh ! Look at Me Now (Bushkin, DeVries) 5:38
12 Spain (Jones, Kahn) 5:01
13 Pick a Dilly (Cohn) 4:25
14 Diane-A-Flow (Pepper) 4:05
15 Zenobia (Pepper) 5:17
16 A Foggy Day (Gershwin, Gershwin) 3:56
17 Angel Eyes (Dennis, Brent) 3:39
*
Personnel
[# 1-5]
Bill Perkins - ts, b-cl & fl
Richie Kamuca - ts
Hampton Hawes - p
Red Mitchell - b
Mel Lewis - dr
Recorded in Los Angeles, California ; October, 1956
[# 6-13]
Bill Perkins - ts
Richie Kamuca - ts
Pete Jolly - p
Red Mitchell - b
Stan Levey - dr
Recorded same location as above ; July, 1956
[# 14-17]
Art Pepper - as
Bill Perkins - ts
Jimmy Rowles - p
Ben Tucker - b
Mel Lewis - dr
Recorded in Los Angeles ; December, 1956