[Dixielandjazz] Eulogy for Trombone player Bill James

[willc]

A Eulogy for
William H. "Bill" James
R.I.P. June 29, 2003

by Will Connelly
	
We're gathered here tonight to pay tribute to one of the all time good
guys. Bill James was a trombone player but, far more importantly, Bill
was one of the rare people who are much more than mere human fireflies
illuminating the universe. Bill was brilliant comet in the sky, and the
trail of  sparkling joy he left brightened the world for all of us.
Bill's warm and generous heart failed him Sunday evening.

I do not believe that Bill would want us to wail and gnash our teeth at
his departure. That wasn't his style. What was his style was the sort of
celebration we have here tonight, where we remember some of the many
things that endeared him to us, and send him on his way with some of the
music he loved. 

I first met Bill in the early days of the Hot Jazz and Alligator Gumbo
Society, circa 1980. Bill showed up and, on the first set he played,
blew the socks off everybody. In fact, there may even have been some
assorted unmentionables lying on the floor after his first solo on Basin
Street, one of his favorite and most authoritative tunes.  On the
gentler passages of a song, he sometimes subsided to a mere double
forte, but usually he played fortissimo or stronger. Happily, he did so
in tune and with the right notes.

In his 76 years among us, Bill married three times. I never me his first
wife, Lucy, who is alive and living in Nevada. But she gave Bill nine
children -  Bill Junior, Robert, Patrick, David, Susan, Michael,
Elizabeth, Lisa and Timothy. He is survived by all but Timothy, and by
the  stepchildren born to the late Jeanne James,  Rick, Cathy, Tom and
Sean and those born to Kay James, Mark and LeeAnn. 

Bill was kind, and he loved his dog Smokey and neighborhood children
after his own kids had fled the nest. There are scores of grown people
today who first saw a real live Santa Claus in Bill. In full Santa
regalia and with a large black stogie threatening an inferno in his
beard . He sailed his boat around the canals of Dania and dispensed
candy to all comers. Later, on those memorable holiday evenings, he
dispensed noble waters and other treats to thirty or forty musician
friends to whom he opened his home for a seasonal jam session. 

Bill didn't work a lot of musical gigs. He was good enough to gain
employment as a musician, but was content to treat his music as an
avocation. He was a steadfast regular at the old Anacapri where Marge
Hilton played and at other area watering holes where sit-ins were
welcome.  

Bill was elected to and served for about ten years on the first HAGS
Board of Trustees ,with Hal Donovan, Billy Butterfield, Mort Middleman,
Harry Epp, Ray Brown, Lori Lea and Herb Newsome. He was a particularly
valuable member who could be counted on to answer any call for help. A
caring, hard working volunteer, he unhesitatingly answered every call to
play a grade school gig or any of the many charity events that Society
members played for.

But Bill was more than a musician. He was also the undisputed and
peerless source of the "joke du jour" - always ribald and funny, often
delectably dirty and, sorry ladies, rarely for your ears. But we men
loved ‘em. 

I do not think it is well known among his musician pals that Bill was a
dedicated and knowledgeable airplane buff. I don't know how he managed
in a condo, but his house in Dania had a room devoted to model building
with aircraft seemingly too big to get out the door hanging from the
ceiling. He built really big models. I'd put the wingspan of one he flew
at Markham Park at something close to eight feet. 

Bill's bound to be soaring now, delighted that his friends - some of
South Florida's finest musicians -  Cornetist Hal Donovan, trombonist
Armand Paradise, Pete Theodore on clarinet, pianist Harry Epp, drummer
Vic Andrews and jazz singer Miss Lori Lea  have gathered to send him off
on wings of song.    

Kay told me it would be okay to mention Jeanne James, Bill's second wife
who was as avid a jazz enthusiast as Bill himself. Until her death,
Jeanne served as HAGS "Commander", organizing and handling ticket sales
for the Society's All Purpose Toot and Slosh Jazz Cruises along the
Intracoastal Waterway. Bill strongly approved of an encouraged her
involvement, 

It wasn't long after he lost Jeanne that Bill told me "I was meant to be
married. I can't imagine not having someone to share life with."  And
sure enough, about six months after Jean passed away, he married Kay, a
nurse at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic. In these wonderful women,
Bill was twice blessed, and grateful. I know from his own words how
deeply and loyally he loved these two women who shared and brightened
his later years. My guess is that the feelings were mutual.

Some years ago Bill Bacin, the editor of  Jazzologist Magazine,
conceived the way of saying goodbye to musicians who'd gone to sit in
with Jack Teagarden, Louis, Duke and other great musicians upstairs. 

At the end of each obituary he wrote, Bacin bid farewell to the
departed. As will I.

Good night, Bill
-- 
Will Connelly
River Liffey Saloon Jazz Band
Fort Lauderdale, Florida