Crow on Skis

Quick, before it's over, let's wish the stalwart bassist and jazz anecdotist Bill Crow a happy birthday, his 78th.

After he saw the lingual postings below, Bill wrote to say:

And a happy Saturnalia to all!

Then he followed up on the recent Rifftides ski postings (here) and (here) to reminisce about his own ski adventures as a struggling youth.

I empathize with your efforts on the ski slope. I grew up in Kirkland, WA, where there was rarely any snow, and on trips up to the Cascades I had to borrow skis, being a depression kid. The skis I borrowed just had leather toe straps...no bindings...and on our hike back from the cabin that we had reached on a cross-country ski, one of my straps broke. On the flat I could skid it along, but on inclines I had to push the crippled ski ahead of me while sinking up to the hip on that leg. Thought I'd never get back to the car.

Bill was a drummer and valve trombonist around Seattle before he took up the bass, moved to New York and ended up playing with Stan Getz, Claude Thornhill, Terry Gibbs, Marian McPartland, Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Quincy Jones, Benny Goodman, Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer and—well, you get the idea: everybody.