By Jason West
Bill Reichenbach is a rare bird indeed. One of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles today, this bass trombonist is also one of the top jazz cats on his instrument. Make that the only jazz cat on his instrument. According to Reichenbach, playing jazz on the tuba-sized bass trombone - with its mouthpiece the bore of a tailpipe - is like "trying to dance with boots on, or sculpt with gloves on." Yet Reichenbach does it with skill, dexterity and incredible stamina.
Given his incredible ability and musicianship, however, it's rare that Reichenbach - an Eastman grad and veteran of Buddy Rich and Toshiko Akiyoshi's big bands - gets the opportunity to exercise his jazz chops. The reason is obvious: it's much harder to make a living playing jazz than it is playing in the studios. But, as Reichenbach imparts, the satisfaction of jazz is much greater.
So it's no surprise that when I caught up with him this spring at Tula's jazz club in Seattle, Reichenbach was in high spirits. Touring in support of Bonetown (Whirly Bird, 1999), a duo trombone release with tenor boneman Michael Davis, Reichenbach noted with a touch of pride that not since J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding has a jazz project featured two trombonists. And never, to Bill's knowledge, has one been done with tenor and bass trombone. Until now.
Jason West: Let's talk about your instrument. What brand of bass trombone do you play?
Bill Reichenbach: I play a Conn. It's a prototype they're refining. They (Conn) will probably have it finalized within the next 6 months and it'll be on the market probably within the year.
JW: What's the octave range?
BR: Well, let's see. The lowest written note we might see in the studios might be low D an octave below the D below the bass clef. And then, depending on your chops, well, theoretically you can play up to the top of the treble clef if you can handle it, but it's not a functional range on the horn. It gets a little bit like eggshells up there, and they're easy to break. (laughter)
JW: Playing bass trombone, with all the energy that's required, it's got to wear you out.
BR: It's kind of a strenuous thing, you know, the idea of trying to play jazz on a bass trombone - it was funny because since I was a little kid I loved playing bass trombone. Since I first heard it I liked it. I really liked hearing those old Frank Sinatra records with George Roberts playing those neat parts, you know, kind of like baritone sax parts, I thought, "Wow that's kind of fun," and so I started playing bass trombone. At around the same time I started playing jazz, or trying to play jazz, as a kid and that was on tenor trombone. I always had this sort of parallel thing; it was like two separate instruments. I first took lessons to play the (tenor) trombone; and eventually, I took all my lessons on bass trombone. So my legit (classical) playing, if I have to play legit style, I'm a lot more convincing on bass trombone then I am on tenor, because tenor trombone has always been my jazz instrument. Then a couple of years ago it just kind of occurred to me, like, well, nobody's doing this and why don't I try this, you know. It's still kind of like a left-right brain thing and the synapses are not always clear yet, you know. Because playing jazz is - I want it to be like a consciousness stream thing if I can help it - I don't want to be thinking about what I'm doing. I want to just let it happen. I assume that's what musicians do, you know, I've always thought that. So that's my goal. But the bass trombone still sort of surprises me, you know. (laughter)
JW: When did you decide to play jazz on bass trombone?
BR: Well, I did an album about 15 years ago called Special Edition (Nothing But Bills, 1984) with Peter Erskine and Biff Hannon and Jimmy Johnson and it was kind of like we went into the studio just to play, you know. After the first day in the studio I listened to it and the rhythm section sounded so good I figured, geez, I can play anything in front of these guys and it will sound convincing. You know, it doesn't matter how good I sound because they sound so good. (laughter) And I thought, "Cool!"
JW: And you were playing your bass?
BR: I was playing both. I was playing primarily tenor, but I played a couple of tunes on bass trombone. And I had been on Buddy Rich's band before that as the bass trombone player and he would let me stand up and play solos, which was kind of a novelty for him because he had never had a bass trombone player that wanted to do that. I mean, the instrument is bigger and a larger bore, but it's basically the same range as the tenor trombone before you press the valves. It's kind of like you're trying to dance with boots on, or trying to sculpt with gloves; it's like an extra layer of something that you have to get through. It's just a little more work. I mean getting past that point it is what I'm trying to do. When I played jazz back then on the bass trombone it was more like low tenor trombone stuff and I didn't really utilize the low register very much. And I realized - like when you listen to good jazz baritone sax players, they're not playing all down in the low register. So I'm sort of using them as a model a little bit. I've always liked baritone sax players. There is a similar range issue there. I mean people are not going to sit there and listen to you playing low notes. It's just not happening. You've got to get into the male voice range at least for the majority of what you're doing for people to listen to it, aside from tuba players and bass trombone players, and that's kind of a limited audience. (laughter) Basically I'm trying to develop it to the point were I'm fluid enough that I can go down into that range and it doesn't sound like a contrivance and it just feels like an extension of what will be my natural playing range.
JW: You're featured on Michael Davis' Bonetown CD for which you've done some limited touring. How does it feel to be playing jazz bass trombone?
BR: Oh, it feels great. It really is terrific for me, especially in contrast to the studio business. I mean the studio business, when it's up and running - it's kind of limping along right now because of the corporate climate in this country - they're trying to downsize everybody and they want to produce everything out of the country if they can do it. I mean if they could take a $200 million movie and take the first $150 million off the top and give it to the actors and producers, they'd love to produce the whole movie for the last 50, you know. And so if they could get somebody to record the music for $10/hour somewhere they'd be happy, and they're trying to do that. I mean we [L.A. studio musicians] are still doing some percentage of what we do because we have the whole infrastructure down there for doing it. We have great studios; we have great musicians. We have studio musicians and that's all they do. They're used to going in and playing all this different kind of stuff (snaps finger) like that. That's just what they do. And it's a different style of playing, and you get used to doing it, and you know how to make it work. If it's something that's unplayable you fix it, and you don't talk about it, you know, it's over and done with and you move on to the next thing. The studio business is sort of anonymous. You go in and you play and you have friends. You're not going in as a soloist, especially on trombone. Trombone is sort of a background instrument. We have lots to play when somebody is getting the shit kicked out of them on camera, or when somebody's getting shot. (laughter)
JW: Right. That's when you make your entrance. (laughter)
BR: Yeah, we come in when the tanks come in. Otherwise we're just playing soft stuff in the background, you know. One of my friends, Lloyd Ulyate, who has been a fixture in the studios in L.A. for maybe about I don't know maybe 50 years, he says, "Well, as long as there's a new war every couple of years we'll always have something to play." (laughter)
JW: Again, with the Bonetown group, you said it feels good to be doing these gigs.
BR: Yeah, well the contrast between playing in the studios, which becomes kind of like a job, and coming out and playing for a live audience - especially people that - I mean we've gotten very good response from this music. People seem to like it. You know, this sort of work doesn't necessarily pay as much as the studio, but the satisfaction level is a lot greater.
JW: Last night at the gig, Michael Johnson introduced you as the world's preeminent bass trombone player. What's your response to that kind of praise?
BR: I think that's very nice of him to say. I mean it's all a person's opinion. I'll just go as far as to say that I might be the best bass trombone player standing in that spot. You know, at this point I'm 50 now and there's another generation of trombone players functioning that I'm not too aware of. I'm just gradually meeting them and younger guys coming up, and the level of playing is much greater. Now there's a whole generation of guys that have grown up listening to Bill Watrous and Herbie Green - well I kind of grew up listening to Herbie Green - but they've had all of these new, real technical whiz players to listen to, you know, so there's a lot of material for them. So technically there's a lot of young, hot players.
JW: Talk about some of your influences growing up and who you assimilated.
BR: Well, as a jazz player, the people that I really liked to listen to - and I can't say that I've been a tenacious listener - I've listened to a lot of Clifford Brown because I thought his time feel was so spectacular and the way he approached the notes. I liked a lot of John Coltrane's records, the more inside playing that he did. And then Cannonball Adderley played some fantastic things. Bill Evans, harmonically, wiped me out. This piano player friend of mine, Biff Hannon, was always a great student of Bill Evans' playing, and because of the fact that Biff and I have played together so much in the last 30 years, that harmonic thing I love - not that I have it under my fingers or anything, but I really would like to, you know. Trombone players: Frank Rosolino and J.J. Johnson are the two main influences that I have and they're both tenor trombone players. I mean I still haven't heard anybody that plays jazz like Frank Rosolino in terms of making the trombone burn, you know, the energy that came out of his horn and the way he approached the time and the notes. He had something special that nobody else has had. I mean you listen to him on a bad day and it's terrifying, what he's doing. It's really incredible.
