Bill McGee

Bill McGee is a unique artist especially for a brass man. (Born William Ford McGee, Feb. 16, 1952 in Richmond, Virginia) What makes him unique for a brass man is the fact that he also performs and records most of his own rhythm tracks with the help from his long-time friends guitarist Tom Reaves, Hannon Lane, and Jim Adkins. He also uses James Saxsmo Gates and James Holden on sax a lot. His style is usually smooth and flowing with lots of percussive laced rhythm grooves . He once said that his style is like Sade meets Miles Davis. Most of the songs have a percussive backdrop with a hint of afro-latin music in the groove. Bill McGee tends to play flugelhorn a little more than trumpet, hence most of his tracks have this mellow groove not a real high note brassy style, yet on several songs he will play the high notes well, but he doesn't do the Arturo Sandoval thing. His choice of songs based on the three CDs he has recorded as of 2008 is based on lots of cover songs. Some people like this because the music is very familiar and well performed, other people like more original material. He ususally has about half and half. His best cover songs tend to be from the Philly Soul group the Stylistics. He recorded "People Make The World Go 'Round" on his first CD and "Stop, Look and Listen to your heart" on the third CD. Both are excellently performed and great for listening and riding. I also think his cover of Horace Silvers "Song For My Father" is excellent which is on the second CD. His best originals are spread out over all three CD's - "Lala" from the CD "This One's 4 U" the songs "Soul Man" and "Sonrise" from "Soul Man" and the tracks "Chill" with Jim Adkins, "Gold Baby" which was a top 50 Smooth Jazz Hit in 2007, "Kicking and Screaming", and "The Groove" all of these are from the CD "Chase The Sunset". If he continues to record it appears that Bill McGee is going to be an excellent artist for those who like Nu-Jazz / Smooth Jazz with a smooth brass sound. He has a long history in the music business as a sideman and studio recording artist, but tends to play down all of the records he played trumpet on in the 70's and 80's.. he says he's looking forward and using his experience to make really good music that people will enjoy. He is most well known for playing trumpet on the first successful hip-hop records by Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang. You can hear him everyday on radio playing trumpet on "FREEDOM" Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and "APACHE" The Sugarhill Gang. Bill also recorded with Gamble and Huff on Leon Huffs only solo album and with The O'jays on their "My Favorite Person" album., The Five Blind Boys, Patti Labelle, The Sequence (Angie Stone), The West Street Mob, The Trecherous Three, his own group TRUSSEL "Love Injection" Elektra/Asylum 1979 and many others. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.