Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bill Hughes was born William Henry Hughes in Dallas, Texas on March 28, 1930. His family moved to Washington, D.C., when he was nine years old where his father worked at the Bureau of Engraving and played trombone in the Elks Club marching band. He began learning to play the trombone around age twelve and was performing in Washington jazz venues by the age of sixteen. One of the clubs was the 7T Club, where he met and performed with saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess.

While students at Howard University, Hughes and Wess played in the Howard Swingmasters, along with bassist Eddie Jones. Though interested in music he originally wanted to pursue a career as a pharmacist and graduated from the University’s School of Pharmacy in 1952 and began working at the National Institutes of Health.

His career plans changed the following year when Wess, a member of the Count Basie Orchestra, suggested that Count Basie invite him to join the band. Also asked to join the Duke Ellington Orchestra, he declined and in 1953, he joined the Basie band where he already knew members Frank Wess, Eddie Jones, and Benny Powell. He played in a three-piece tenor trombone section with Powell and Henry Coker until 1957, when he decided to take a break from touring in order to help raise his family.

During this hiatus, Bill worked for the United States Postal Service and played trombone at the Howard Theater as well as with some small groups in Washington. A few years after returning to the band in 1963, he switched from the tenor to the bass trombone. In 2003 he took over leadership of the band following the death of Grover Mitchell.  He retired from the band in 2010 and spent the last years of his life in Staten Island, New York with his wife and three children. On January 14, 2018 trombonist Bill Hughes passed away at the age of 87.

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