MUSIC HISTORY 101 AUGUST 9, 1974 - While working on their fourth album in August of 1974, the band called Chase (named for founder/trumpeter Bill Chase, born as William Edward Chiaiese on October 20, 1934 in Squantum, Massachusetts) were en route to perform at a fair in Minnesota when bad weather caused the chartered twin-engine Piper Twin Comanche plane to crash, in Jackson, Minnesota killing Chase, keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark, and guitarist John Emma, as well as the pilot Daniel Ludwig, and his secretary and co-pilot Linda Swisher. Four other members of the Chase band and five stage crews had driven in during the afternoon. The plane, a twin engine Piper Comanche, had left Chicago at 2 p.m. and stopped at Waterloo, Iowa, for fuel and then was on instruments as the weather got steadily worse as it neared Jackson county. The pilot talked with the airport at Estherville and reported nothing amiss. From that point on the exact sequence of events can never be fully known. It appeared the plane had flown by Jackson to Worthington using the radio equipment at the Worthington airport as a homing signal. Once the pilot had located Worthington he let down through the clouds and broke out beneath. Ceiling were reported variable between 400 and 800 feet with frequent rain showers and thunderstorms. After breaking out of the clouds the pilot started east toward Jackson using Interstate 90 as a navigation aid. It was probable he was flying in and out of clouds as he went. Dean Anderson, manager of the airport at Jackson, heard a plane overhead at 6 p.m. but the craft did not land and Anderson heard nothing more of it. Rain continued off and on into the evening. As concert time neared fair officials and other members of the Chase band expressed growing concern. The show went on without the leader and some of his star musicians but by this time it was becoming apparent they were never going to get there. A missing plane alert was sounded by the Federal Aviation Agency asking all pilots to be on the lookout for any sign of the plane and for all pilots to monitor the aircraft emergency frequency of 121.5. North Central Airlines Flight 700 enroute from Sioux Falls to Rochester radioed Redwood Falls Flight Service Station at 8 p.m. to report hearing an emergency signal on 121.5. As near as he could tell the signal was strongest 12 miles east of Jackson. Ground search parties were dispatched to that area but the rainfall and the darkness of the night made search difficult and nothing was found. The search came to an end the next morning. A pilot spotted airplane wreckage about 75 yards off the north end of one of the sod runways at the Jackson Municipal Airport, and the crash was discovered about 8:30 a.m. Saturday by George Worshek and Dave Deel, Sr., who were looking for the downed craft. It was located approximately 300 yards northeast of the airport runway in a soybean field belonging to Leland Fransen. A ground party was rushed to the scene only to find all six persons aboard dead and the emergency radio located in the tail portion of the aircraft still transmitting its forlorn call for help. All six had been killed instantly. Investigators said it appeared the plane had lowered its landing gear and landing flaps and was circling the field in preparation for landing. Whether the pilot became disoriented and lost control or whether he permitted the plane to get too slow so that it stalled will never be known. Whatever the reason may have been the plane dove to the ground in an inverted position striking at a sharp angle and burying its nose into a soybean field. The group was scheduled to play at a Rock Concert at the Jackson County Fair Friday night. The other members of the group arrived by a car, along with the road crew, and when the remainder of the group didn’t arrive, they assumed they had landed at the airport in Cherokee, Iowa, where a similar plane had landed earlier. Chase had played lead trumpet with Maynard Ferguson in 1958 and Stan Kenton in 1959, and most notably during the 1960s in Woody Hermans Thundering Herd. Recordings of the Herman band from that time period, including Woodys Winners, Live in Antibes, Encore, My Kind of Broadway, Blue Flame, Live in Seattle, Somewhere, Live at Newport, Heavy Exposure, Woody Herman & the Fourth Herd, and Jazz Hoot are considered some of the most exciting in the Herman discography. The band also filmed several television appearances for the program Jazz Casual. One of Chases original charts from this period, Camel Walk, was published in the 1963 Downbeat magazine yearbook. Between 66-70 Bill freelanced in Las Vegas working with Vic Damone, Tommy Vig and others. In 67 Bill led a six piece organization at the Dunes and Riviera Hotel(s) where he was featured in the Frederick Apcar lounge production of Vive Les Girls, for which Chase arranged the music. Chase, an early ’70s jazz rock band whose sound was not dissimilar to Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears, was created in 1970 by Chase, Ted Piercefield, Alan Ware, and Jerry Van Blair, all veteran jazz trumpeters who were also adept at vocals and arranging. They were backed up by a rhythm section consisting of Phil Porter on keyboards, Angel South (b. Lucian Gondron) on guitar, Dennis Johnson on bass, and Jay Burrid (b. Jay Mitthauer) on percussion. Rounding out the group was Terry Richards, who was featured as lead vocalist on the first album. In April 1971, the band released their debut album, Chase, which contains Chases best-known song, Get It On, released as a single that spent 13 weeks on the charts beginning in May 1971. The song features what Jim Szantor of Downbeat magazine called the hallmark of the Chase brass—complex cascading lines; a literal waterfall of trumpet timbre and technique. The band received a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, but was edged out by rising star Carly Simon. Chase released their second album, Ennea, in March 1972; the albums title is the Greek word for nine, a reference to the nine band members. The original lineup changed midway through the recording sessions, with Gary Smith taking over on drums and G. G. Shinn replacing Terry Richards on lead vocals. Although the first Chase album sold nearly 400,000 copies, Ennea was not as well received by the public. One likely reason was a shift away from trumpet sections. As Bill Chase put it in a Downbeat interview, I dont want people to be heavily conscious of a trumpet section. They should just hear good things, but not be clobbered over the head with brass. A single, So Many People, received some radio play, but the side-two-filling Ennea suite, with its tightly chorded jazz arrangements and lyrics based on Greek mythology, was less radio-friendly. Following an extended hiatus, Chase reemerged early in 1974 with the release of Pure Music, their third album. Featuring a new lineup, yet keeping the four-trumpet section headed by Bill Chase, the group moved further from the rock idiom, and became more focused on jazz. Variety magazine called the record probably Chases most commercial effort, and their brand of jazz could have a commercial impact. The songs were written by Jim Peterik of the Ides of March, who also sang on two songs on it, backing up singer and bassist Dartanyan Brown. The tragic end of the band generated shock waves throughout the jazz community, although in the world of popular music, which was becoming dominated by arena rock acts and beginning its embrace of disco, as well as encountering the noise of the punk rock sideshow, Chase were soon forgotten by listeners without long memories In 1977 a Chase tribute band (composed primarily of the original lineup, and added Walt Johnson) recorded an album entitled Watch Closely Now. READ MORE: allmusic/artist/chase-mn0000100840/biography great-music.net/story.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Chase
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 20:22:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015