“Rich Willey is a damn fine musician…an excellent trumpet player with great chops, great ideas, excellent reading skills and amazing dexterity on both trumpet and bass trumpet. His singing is not too shabby either. He’s everybody’s pal!” ~ Bandleader, drummer & vocalist Russ Wilson
If you’ve been around the jazz scene here for any time at all, you’ve likely encountered Rich Willey. As a bandleader, Rich presents music with highly versatile groups ranging from quartet to sixteen-piece big band — performing Latin, swing, Dixieland or bebop styles, employing some of the premier musicians in WNC.
Firmly rooted in the jazz tradition as a player and composer, he draws upon the wellspring of bebop with contemporary freshness. His compositions and arrangements are thoughtful and substantial, yet always accessible and listenable, combining a solid sense of swing with an overriding concern for melody.
“Growing up in Florida, I started playing trumpet in 6th grade and writing music in 10th. I enjoyed the bands of Count Basie and Woody Herman, but when I heard Charlie Parker I knew then and there that I wanted to learn how to improvise. I graduated from Clearwater High School in 1973 and joined the Army as a trumpeter and went to the US Navy School of Music. That was the first time I’d been around so many excellent players. It’s where I learned how to practice, and even though I’d had my charts played by my high school stage band, that’s where I started learning how to really write and arrange.”
When Rich left the Army in 1977, he joined a funk/disco band and toured the U.S. for about a year before going to North Texas State University in the fall of 1978 to study composition and arranging.
“This made the Navy S.O.M. look like kindergarten as I was now surrounded by many great players! Possibly my biggest influence as a composer is Frank Zappa, although I love the music of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bach, and many other non-jazz composers, including Lennon and McCartney.”
Rich was active on the New York scene in the 1980s to the mid-1990s, handling a wide range of Latin and jazz gigs, most notably backing up legendary vocalist Mel Tormé.
“Coming up in Philadelphia in the early 80s, jam sessions were about encouraging and seasoning younger players, but in New York, they were mostly about slicing you to ribbons and trying to thoroughly humiliate any up and coming player.” He finished his M.M. in jazz performance in 2001 at the renowned Manhattan School of Music.
“Rich Willey plays beautiful jazz and I’ve always enjoyed playing with him. On a recent recording project, I wanted Rich to play the introduction for a tune and it was so perfect, I told the engineer to kill my vibraphone track and let Rich just blow over the whole thing. Sweet notes, melodic, swings hard — that’s Rich Willey!” ~ Percussionist Paul Babelay
Rich spent the fall of 2001 on tour playing second trumpet with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau. He has performed with many other great musicians, including Hank Mobley, Lionel Hampton, Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, Cecil Bridgewater, Natalie Cole, The Temptations, James Moody, and Jon Hendrix…to name but a few. In 2001, Rich and his New York quintet recorded Gone With the Piggies, a striking collection of brilliantly conceived and impeccably performed tracks including four of his own distinctive compositions. That year also saw the formation of the partnership between Rich Willey and Bob Bernotas into Boptism Music Publishing.
Rich moved to WNC in April 2002 and resides in Candler. He is a trumpet and music appreciation instructor at Clemson University, jazz band director at Gardner-Webb University, and has taught trumpet and jazz combos at UNC-A. He is the author of numerous practice and music study books.
“Rich really sets the tone, so to speak, for any situation where he’s involved. He brings a level of musicianship and attitude to the bandstand that is inspiring for the audience and the other musicians in the band. We are truly fortunate that Rich calls Asheville home.” ~ Bassist Mike Holstein