Bill Ramsey & The Jay Five
Biography Bill Ramsey & The Jay Five
Bill Ramsey
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 17th 1931, Bill Ramsey grew up with the abundance of musical styles found in the "Queen City" of the thirties and forties. At home, music played an important role. Bill's father, a talented amateur pianist, played the classics and enjoyed listening to jazz; his two teenage sisters were avid collectors of the records of the big bands of the era: Benny Goodman; Glenn Miller; Artie Shaw; Ellington; Basie. The great folk artist, John Jacob Niles, was a close family friend and frequent visitor; an early influence on Bill's musical tastes. But the sounds of the city were the ones that eventually formed Bill's deepest musical interests. Headquarters of KING Records, famous for Jazz, Blues, R&B and Country -- all of which were daily fare for the city's five or six radio stations -- Cincinnati was also a favorite venue for the big bands, and its downtown clubs offered plenty of swinging, live music.
His first real exposure to 'live' jazz came on a trip with his father to New York and a visit to Café Society Downtown, where Meade 'Lux' Lewis, Albert Ammons and Hazel Scott were the stars, and it was not long after that visit that Bill began playing a little "Boogie", by ear. Later, his love of vocal jazz took over and he began singing the blues -- and studying the work of the famous jazz singers. His favorites? Jimmy Rushing, Louis Jordan, Fats Waller. Folk singers like Josh White and Big Bill Broonzey. Leadbelly. The great Joe Williams (who would later become a life-long friend and mentor). They all added bits and pieces to the musical mosaic that would become the Bill Ramsey style. As his interest grew, so did his repertoire. Ella. Nat Cole. Dinah Washington. Billy Eckstine. Bill listened -- and sang whenever and wherever he got the chance.
When the Korean War broke out, Bill was studying Sociology at Yale. He enlisted in the Air Force and, instead of being sent to Korea, found himself in Frankfurt, Germany, a city that had developed an especially lively postwar jazz scene and was beginning to create some major jazz names (Albert Mangelsdorff; Vera Auer; Atilla Zoller) as well as attract established stars like Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Don Menza and Dave Amram. In a short time, Bill was part of that scene.
His work in the Air Force as "Chief Producer" AFN-Frankfurt, the key station of the American Forces Network, kept him busy with the world of Jazz. His boss, Programm Director Johnny Vrotsos, also functioned as Norman Granz' partner for the Frankfurt area and gave Bill the assignment of supervising the recording of the big Jazz Concerts that came to the area (Count Basie; Duke Ellington; Louis Armstrong; Stan Kenton -- to name a few). After recording a terrific "Jazz at the Philharmonic", Bill was invited to join Vrotsos. Granz and some of the musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, for a nightcap. At the hotel bar, much to his embarassment, Vrotsos and some of his AFN colleagues asked Bill to sing for the JATP stars. After the first chorus, Ella turned to Vrotsos and said: "All you got to do is close your eyes." For her, Bill was -- at least acoustically -- black. As far as Bill was concerned, it was "the greatest compliment I've ever had".
Again, it was Johnny Vrotsos who encouraged and helped Bill to appear at military and civilian Jazz events, which led to his appearance at the 1st and 2nd German American Jazz Festivals in Nürnberg, singing with Germany's top big band: the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra. Even as a GI, Bill became so well-known to the German jazz public that in 1954, still in unifrom, he was voted the number two jazz vocalist in Germany by the magazine "Gondel" (then Germany's "Downbeat").
Taking his discharge in Germany, Bill entered Frankfurt's University and continued his jazz activities, on the side. In May, 1955, he appeared at the German Jazz Festival -- the first American to do so -- with the Jutta Hipp Combo, and, later that summer, made it another first by touring Yugolslavia with one of Germany's top traditional bands, the "Two Beat Stompers".
To augment a meager GI-Bill income, Bill appeared regularly on weekends as a blues- and folk-singing MC at military clubs throughout Germany and France. During this time he also appeared in two German films. At the end of 1955, he returned to the United States for a short period, before coming back to Germany, permanently, in 1957. In two years, not much had changed. He returned to the University, played the clubs -- and spent every free evening jamming in Frankfurt's famous "Domicile du Jazz".
Through 1957, Bill concentrated on jazz, appearing with the "Two Beat Stompers" at the German Jazz Festival; Later joining the "Frankfurt All Stars" on another Jazz Federation tour, this time to Poland, starting with the "2nd Sopot Jazz Jamboree" and ending up at the Culture Palace in Warsaw. A live recording of the Sopot concert (released on the Polske Nagrania label and now a collector's item in Poland) has recently been reissued (September 1997) as part of a compilation CD "Caeldonia & More", Bear Family Records BCD 16151. Only two weeks after the Polish tour, Bill appeared in Scheveningen, Holland at a concert arranged by Paul Acket (founder of the North Sea Jazz Festival), performing with "Eric Kran's Dixieland Pipers" plus Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman and Beryl Bryden. From this concert came his first single "Caldonia" and "Big Fat Mama" and first EP "Jammin' the Saints", released on Columbia, Holland.This too is part of the compilation CD "Caldonia & More". www.ramsey.de/bio-english.html
