Since he didn’t own a set, he’d improvise with the aid of a couple of galvanized steel rubbish barrels.īill’s backyard became his bandstand as he beat out precocious rhythms atop the inverted barrels. As a youngster in the Fields Corner community of Dorchester, he was intrigued by the drums. I can only assume that he switched to the trumpet around 1951 at about the age of 16.īoston Globe writer Ernie Santosuosso wrote about Bill in 1971, “Bill Chase has been experimenting with sounds all of his life. Since Maynard left the Kenton Band and headed to Hollywood in 1953, Bill must have seen Kenton before then. Bill was doing so much playing, and he became very good so quickly, that the dates are very confusing. After that night, Bill was hooked on jazz and high note trumpet.Īs you can tell, this time period in Bills life is hard to decipher. This was the band with Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Childers, Conte Condoli, etc. Early 1950's a neighbor coaxed Bill to attend a Stan Kenton concert with him. Not long after switching to trumpet, Bill was playing first chair in the school orchestra and classical music was his main love. It hurt so bad that he decided never to do it again, he asked his father to dig out his old trumpet for him. Patrick's Day parade he had to lug his huge drum for five miles enduring the miserably cold pouring rain.
Bill's experience as a drummer changed his life and the lives of many others.
A newspaper clipping dated 1956 pictures Bill listed as a Corporal in the 26th Yankee Infantry Division Band holding a bass drum. Bill did not even touch the trumpet, until the middle of his high school years. While Bill was growing up his parents felt that he needed to broaden his horizons and arranged for him to take violin lessons. John changed the family name to Chase, understanding that the Italian name Chiaiese was both hard to spell and pronounce. The family later moved to Squantum, Mass. William Edward Chiaiese was born on Octoto John and Emily Chiaiese(key-ah-tze) in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
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