Bill Doyle's Top 10 Jazz Albums

Drummer Bill Doyle and his sweet red Gretsch kit '09

We continue our postings of individual lists from our popular Top 50 Jazz Albums List with Palm Coast's own Bill Doyle. Bill has been keeping things swinging through thick and thin in NE Florida since 2004 with his own trio. He began playing drums at 12, studying under some serious cats including Larry Rosen from the Dave Grusin band; working in the New York/New Jersey area with some of it's top jazz, pop and society musicians. He managed to maintain a part-time music career while becoming quite successful full-time in marketing.

Nowadays Bill is a high-profile musician in St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Daytona Beach and more, performing with stellar musicians like Ray Guiser and Cheryl Page; and especially with his crowd-drawing trio, featuring Don Durkee on piano and Frank Capek on bass. His top 10 jazz albums list is an exposition in exquisite taste!

1. Woody Herman - 1964  When my Dad ,who was a musician,first brought this home I was in awe and could not stop playing it and tried to master playing along with the up tempo tunes.Great charts, great solos and Jake Hanna knew how to push a big band.

2. Dave Brubeck - Time Out My role model as a drummer was Joe Morello (R.I.P.). His skill set and ability to be totally musical was unbelievable. I tried to imitate him in every way. Hah! That's a joke.

3. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross - The Hottest New Group in Jazz  Just too cool and from this I learned to appreciate scat.

4. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um  Timeless, could have been recorded yesterday.

5. Joe Morello - It's About Time  Again, I loved Joe. This was a straight-ahead jazz album with some very cool work with Phil Woods, Gary Burton and Joe.

6. Jazz Crusaders - Live at the Light House 1966  I can listen to this for hours. Joe Sample grooves as does Wayne Henderson.

7. Sinatra and Basie  Big fan of both.

8. Ella and Basie  Big fan of Ella, too.

9. John Coltrane - Blue Train  He's just too good with Lee Morgan, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones to boot!

10. Tie with all the other great work with great artists!



Thanks Bill for the list and for keeping jazz thriving in PC! You can check out more of Bill at his youtube channel, and below is a video of the Bill Doyle Trio + 2 (Pete Gemski - valve trombone; Larry Dickson - baritone sax) performing at the Three Dogs Grille this past February; they're playing Frank Capek's original "Abba". - PCJ