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Makin' It
Johnny Pisano and Billy Bean
— Decca Records
Take Your Pick
Johnny Pisano and Billy Bean
— Decca Records
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DECCA RECORDS AND BILLY BEAN
“Fred Katz left Chico’s band around the same time that I did. He ended up having some type of position with Decca Records, and he intended on doing a bunch of albums under the title of ‘mood jazz.’ I had thought about going back to New York again, but I realized that I had more contacts on the west coast, so I stayed here.
I started studying at City College with a wonderful teacher, composer conductor Leonard Stein, who was a protégé of Arnold Schoenberg. I took all the courses that I could from him, but I started getting a lot of work, to the point of having to drop out of school.
I did some sessions with Fred, and in 1958, and in 1958 recorded two albums of duets with Billy Bean. They were titled MAKIN’ IT and TAKE YOUR PICK.
As I recall, Billy and I first got together in Philadelphia. We (The Chico Hamilton Quintet) were playing there and Billy came into the club where we were playing. He had a guitar under his arm, and we played a little. His playing was spectacular. It’s the way I always thought I’d wanted to play. I said to myself, ‘I think I’ll let this guy hang around.’
As far as I was concerned, Chuck Wayne was my idol. You’ll hear a lot of Chuck in some of those things, because I used a lot of sweep picking. Then I started realizing that I wanted to get more of that definition in the way that Billy did. So, I practiced that ‘up and down’ style of picking so I could get more attack, more definition, more of an eighth note feel.
Billy asked me one day when we were playing, ‘What do you think about?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. What do you think about?’ He said, ‘I think about Charlie Parker.’ If he were to come back on the scene today, playing the way he was capable of, he would devastate a lot of people. He was one of the best.”
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