Bill Ramsay

Performance affiliations

• Ramsay has been a member of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra since its founding in 1995.
• He is the co-leader, with Milton Edwin Kleeb, of a ten-piece jazz band based in Seattle – the Ramsay-Kleeb Big Band. The band plays the music of Miles Davis, Gil Evans, and Gerry Mulligan

• Alto sax in the Buddy Morrow Band in the early 60s
• Bari sax in the Maynard Ferguson Band
• Lead alto sax in the Ray McKinley Band
• Tenor sax in the Benny Goodman Octet
• Bari sax in the Count Basie Orchestra for two years; Ramsay was hired in April 1984, three weeks before Basie died, to sub for Johnny C. Williams, who had been hospitalized; Ramsay got the call from Basie's road manager, Sonny Cohn; Bobby Mitchell had recommended Ramsay to Basie after having heard him with the Benny Goodman Band
• Bari in the Duke Ellington Orchestra
• Toured with Les Brown, Frank Wess & Sweets Edison Band, Grover Mitchell's New York All Star Orchestra, Dennis Mackrel Jazz Orchestra, and Frankie Capp's "Juggernaut."
• Performed with the bands of Thad Jones, Cab Calloway, Mel Lewis, Gene Harris, and Quincy Jones
• In the 1980s, Ramsay led his own big band that performed Sundays at Parnall's Jazz Club in Seattle

  Selected discography

• Ramsay-Kleeb Band, "Red" Kelly's Heros, C.A.R.S. Productions

• Jay Thomas with the Cedar Walton Trio, Easy Does It, Discovery

• Frank Wess–Harry Edison Orchestra, Dear Mr. Basie Concord Jazz
• Grover Mitchell Orchestra, Hip Shakin, Ken Music
• Jay Thomas, 360 Degrees Hep Jazz
• Mel Torme with the Frank Wess Orchestra, Live at the Concord Jazz Festival, August 17, 1990, Concord Jazz
• The Frank Wess Orchestra, Entre Nous, Live "Kan-i Hoken Hall", Tokyo, Japan, November 11, 1990 Concord Jazz
• Becca Duran with the Jay Thomas Group, Hide & Seek, Discovery Records
• Bud Shank, Lost Cathedral,
• Seven Sensational Saxophones - Fujitsu-Concord 26Th Jazz Festival, Jesse Davis, Gary Foster, Bill Ramsay, Ken Peplowski, Chris Potter, Frank Wess, and Rickey Woodard
• , Live Live Live, recorded at Triad Studios, Redmond, Washington
• , Forever, MNOP Records
• Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, SRJO Live, Origin Records
• Mel Tormé, Two Darn Hot: A Night at the Concord Pavilion/Live at the Fujitsu-Concord
• Pete Christlieb, For Heaven's Sake, C.A.R.S. Productions
• Jon Belcher & Savoy Swing, Till Tom Special, Irrational Behavior Productions
• Charlie May All Star Big Band Plays the Arrangements of Gaylord Jones
• , Let the Good Times Roll
• , Mood Swings
• & the NW Prevailing Winds, Convergence Zone, Origin Records
• Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Sacred Music of Duke Ellington, Origin Records
• & the SW Santa Ana Winds, My Museum, Origin Records
• Bud Shank, Awakening
• Jimmy Heath & the Seattle Jazz Orchestra, Endless Search, Origin Records
• & The Northwest Bouncing Beagles, Ballet of the Bouncing Beagles, Origin Records
• Stix Hooper, Many Hats
• Primo Kim Villaruz, Make it Right, R.K.K. Productions, Inc.
• Milt Kleeb Octet, Something if Nothing Else,

• Bill Ramsay & the Hipshaker Big Band, Thaddeus, unpublished live recording at Tula's

  Filmography

• A Tribute to Count Basie, filmed at Kan-i Hoken Hall, Tokyo, November 11, 1989
• Fujitsu Concord Jazz Festival, filmed at Kan-i Hoken Hall, Japan, November 11, 1990
• Diane Schuur: Live from Seattle - With Maynard Ferguson and His Big Bop Nouveau Band

  Service in the U.S. Armed Forces

Family

Audio & video links

• , featuring Frank Wess and Doug Lawrence on tenors