Bill Carrothers

Bill Carrothers was born in Minneapolis in 1964. His musical training began at the age of five with lessons given to him by his church organist. He briefly left the piano at age 11 to pursue every boy's dream of becoming a great right-handed pitcher. At the age of 14 (having decided he could never be another Nolan Ryan) he began studying with local pianist Bobby Peterson and at the age of 15 he played his first gig. In 1982 he enrolled at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas on a music scholarship. He left a year later in order to pursue greener pastures.

In 1986 Bill made a quintet recording, "The Artful Dodger", with local Minneapolis musicians Anton Denner, alto saxophone, and Bill Stewart, percussion, that was regarded highly by many national publications. During these years he had the fortunate opportunity of playing with Dewey Redman, James Moody, Charlie Rouse, Eric Gravatt, James Spaulding, Benny Wallace, Buddy DeFranco, Ira Sullivan, Curtis Fuller, Billy Higgins, Prince, and Bobby Rivkin.

In 1988, Bill moved to New York City to further his musical studies. During his tenure in New York he made three recordings, one with Gary Peacock and Bill Stewart, another with Bill Stewart and saxophonist Anton Denner, and a duo recording with two saxophone players, Anton Denner and John McKenna. Mr. Carrothers also played a week at the Village Gate with his trio and appeared at Birdland and Visiones in addition to playing numerous engagements at the Knitting Factory. He also appeared for a week at Condon's with Buddy DeFranco and Joe Beck and toured with Matt "Guitar" Murphy for over a year.

Mr. Carrothers has recorded as a sideman with drummer Bill Stewart on two recordings, "Snide Remarks" with Joe Lovano, Eddie Henderson, and Larry Grenadier (August of 1995), and "Telepathy", featuring Larry Grenadier, Seamus Blake and Steve Wilson, both on the Blue Note label. Bill currently records for Birdology Records, distributed by Warner Brothers.