He did his National Service in the RAF from 1955-57, where he learned Russian and the saxophone.

Going up to St Peter’s Hall, Oxford in 1957 he immediately co-founded The Ambassadors Dance Band with Andrew Hayman.  He took a degree in Modern Languages and during vacations worked as a fair-ground attendant, vacuum cleaner salesman, barman, sous-chef, baker, wholesale grocer’s warehouseman and tri-lingual tour guide in Switzerland.

His third year was spent in France as an English Assistant. During that time he played in The Stardust Combo in the Caveau des Fouleurs, Chateaudun and worked in Paris as a street photographer, office worker and gardien de nuit des Bateaux Mouches.

Returning to Oxford he co-founded the Oxford University Big Band in1960. He stayed on at Oxford to do a Post-graduate Diploma in Education and after university worked as a musician on the American bases in France.

In 1963 he came to London, where he played in Red Bludd’s Bluesicians with organist Jon Lord, whilst working first as a supply teacher and then as a French teacher in London Schools for 10 years.

In 1965 he founded the London Schools Jazz Orchestra with Pat Evans, Mike Kershaw and others. This rapidly became the London then National Youth Jazz Orchestra which for five years ran Easter Jazz Courses in London as well as rehearsing every week. Bill has missed no more than half a dozen weekly rehearsals in nearly 45 years.

To date, NYJO has made about 50 albums and Bill has taken the orchestra all around the world: notably to USA twice, USSR, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Malta three times, Portugal five times, France and Germany several times each, Sicily, Madeira and Spain. NYJO has performed many times on television and in front of the Royal family, notably at The Royal Variety Performance and the Royal Celebration of Youth.

In 1978 Bill was awarded the MBE, the first time the word “jazz” had ever appeared in the Honours List. Bill has subsequently received the Silver Medal of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Radio 2 Award and the Parliamentary Special Jazz Award. He was made a Fellow of the City of Leeds College of Music.

He has written over 70 songs in whole or part, including notably Much Too Much, Wait and See, It’s Over, Looking Forward, Looking Back, New in London, Don’t Try Argue With Me, Let’s Settle Down, A Step Too Far, A Way With Words, Paris is for Lovers, London, No Flowers By Request, and several instrumental themes.

He served on the committee of The International Year of the Child, and the Association of British Jazz Musicians.
He married Kay (nee Watkins) in 1966 and has three children, Grant b.1967, Miles b.1968 and Helen b.1983. He has one grandson and three grand-daughters. He lived in Harrow since 1968.

Likes: Big Band Jazz (the supreme art form), snorkelling, songwriting, science fiction, English television, and real ale. Dislikes: football, opera, fizzy beer and mayonnaise.

Bill became Life President in 2009 and continues as Founding Musical Director of NYJO. He was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in 2010.

…and I’ve always loved cars – as a consequence I ended up spending half-a-lifetime working for major car companies – initially Ford of Europe and later Renault UK. It was a great career – trouble is, the higher up the corporate ladder you go, the less involvement you have with the stuff that you’re really interested in…

So eventually I left to freelance on various car-related marketing and business consultancy projects – doing the stuff I found really interesting – and, as a result, was invited to join the marketing agency Crazy Horse, as the Account Director responsible for developing their below-the-line (non-advertising) automotive business.

Whatever you’ve heard about working in an agency – well it’s all true, and then some… Despite that, however, weI managed to develop a sizeable number of commercially successful Aftersales marketing and communications programmes for the likes of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai and Proton. And the nice thing about a marcoms programme is, if it’s done right, you can actually measure just how successful it’s been…

An entirely different set of circumstances led to an invitation for me to join a working party, convened by the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, to develop National Clinical Guidelines for patient rehabilitation following acquired brain injury. This project (now completed) and a subsequent, currently ongoing, one for the National Institute for Health Research, about ways the NHS can provide cost-efficient long-term neuro-rehabilitation services, has involved me in developing, and making presentations to, MPs’ Working Parties and audiences of medical professionals at the Royal College of Physicians.

None of which explains my interest in the music – that’s really down to my Dad. When I was a lot younger than I am now he took me to see the Count Basie Band, who were then promoting ‘The Atomic Mr Basie’ at the Walthamstow Granada – an establishment that once rivalled the nearby dog-racing Stadium as an Art Deco architectural masterpiece.

(Believe it or not, Walthamstow was once a music hothouse, nurturing the young jazz talents of Evan Parker and Sir John Dankworth amongst others – just don’t mention E17…)

Anyway, back in the Granada – my Dad and I were seated in the second row, eyes just about level with the floor of the stage when, muffled behind the curtain, the band started playing. As the heavy velvet curtain rose, a shock-wave of newly-released sound rolled off the stage, pinning us to our seats. The spotlights sparkling off the monogrammed music stands and glittering off the instruments, the musicians dressed in their matching shiny blue suits, the incredible brass sound and, under it, that insistent Basie beat – all made an indelible impression. So – later in the concert – did the innovative trio singing of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. It was a truly magical evening, and one which, without question, kicked off my life-long love affair with big band jazz.

In addition to my involvement with NYJO, I also co-promote – along with Ian Fielding and NYJO alumnus Jay Craig – Jazz@TheManor in Ruislip, London’s only regular Sunday lunchtime showcase for some of the biggest and best names in British Big Band Jazz…

I’m married to Ann, who has a seriously glam job in TV, we have two ‘grown-up and gone-away’ sons, Peter and Robin, and a black miniature schnauzer called Phoebe.

I currently work part-time for a large retail car dealership and I’m also a co-director of my wife’s TV production company. When I’m not working, editing/writing for the NYJO website or writing newsletters and reviews promoting J@TM, I race regularly in a national karting championship, fly a Cherokee PA28 and go for long walks with Ann & Phoebe in the Chilterns, where we usually end up eating in one of the nice country pubs that do real ale…