Bill Berry

William Richard Berry (September 14, 1930 – November 13, 2002) was an American jazz trumpeter best known for playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the early 1960s and for leading his own big band.

Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the son of a bass player in a touring dance band, he spent his early years traveling with his parents; his mother said, "He was on the road when he was only a few months old; he slept in the bass case under the bandstand." From the age of five, he took piano lessons at his parents' home in South Bend, Indiana. In high school in Cincinnati, he switched to trumpet, which he played in a Midwest band led by Don Strickland, then served four years in the Air Force. He studied at the Cincinnati College of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston and played trumpet with the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson orchestra. In 1961, he became one of the Duke Ellington orchestra's first white members.

After his working with Ellington, he played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and led his own big band in New York; in 1965 he joined The Merv Griffin Show, where he remained for fifteen years, moving to Los Angeles with Griffin and reforming his group as the L.A. Big Band in 1971. Jack Nimitz, a baritone saxophonist in his band, said "He knew how to get what he wanted out of the band in a very relaxed way — nice and easy, no shouting." Among the most successful of his own recordings was Shortcake (Concord, 1978), an album of jazz for small group in the Ellington style; he appeared on many albums by other musicians, including Rosemary Clooney (Everything's Coming Up Rosie), Scott Hamilton (Scott Hamilton Is a Good Wind Who Is Blowing Us No Ill), Jake Hanna (Live at Concord), and Coleman Hawkins (Wrapped Tight).

As leader

• 1963 Jazz and Swinging Percussion
• 1976 Bill Berry and the L.A. Band Hot and Happy
• 1976 Hello Rev
• 1978 Shortcake
• 1978 For Duke
• 1978 The Ellington All-Stars

As sideman

With Chris Connor

• 1961 Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song
• 1961 Double Exposure (Atlantic) with Maynard Ferguson

With Duke Ellington

• All American in Jazz (Columbia, 1962)
• 1962 Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Featuring Paul Gonsalves
• 1963 My People
• 1976 Recollections of the Big Band Era

With The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra

• 1967 Live at the Village Vanguard
• 1968 Monday Night
• 1970 Village Vanguard Live Sessions Vol. 3

With Maynard Ferguson

• Maynard '61 (Roulette, 1961)
• Two's Company (Roulette, 1961) with Chris Connor
• "Straightaway" Jazz Themes (Roulette, 1961)
• Maynard '62 (Roulette, 1962)
• Maynard '64 (Roulette 1959-62 [1963])

With Johnny Hodges

• Johnny Hodges with Billy Strayhorn and the Orchestra (1962)
• Don't Sleep in the Subway (Verve, 1967)
• Triple Play (1967)

With Herb Pomeroy

• The Band and I (United Artists, 1958) with Irene Kral
• Band in Boston (1958)

With others

• 1957 Live Featuring Bill Harris Vol. 1, Woody Herman
• 1963 For Someone I Love, Milt Jackson
• 1966 Once Upon a Time, Earl Hines
• 1966 Presenting Joe Williams and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Joe Williams
• 1966 Profiles, Gary McFarland
• 1966 Wrapped Tight, Coleman Hawkins
• 1969 Fine Brown Frame, Ruth Brown
• 1975 Live at the Concord, Jake Hanna
• 1976 Everything Must Change, Randy Crawford
• 1976 Juggernaut, Frank Capp
• 1976 Porgy & Bess, Ray Charles/Cleo Laine
• 1977 Scott Hamilton is a Good Wind Who is Blowing Us No III, Scott Hamilton
• 1977 Everything's Coming Up Rosie, Rosemary Clooney
• 1977 Live from Concord to London, Ernestine Anderson
• 1980 Live at Ronnie Scott's, Louie Bellson