Bill Overton (woodwinds, guitar, bass and vocals)
Bill Overton, woodwinds, guitar and vocals, was born in Memphis in 1954 and grew up there immersed in its blues, jazz and soul music. After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana, he moved to New York City in 1981 where he performed with such artists as Mel Lewis, Doc Cheatham, Mickey Roker, Major Holley, Vic Dickinson, Rosemary Clooney, Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, Howard Alden, Bo Diddley, the Temptations, the Spinners, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and many others while teaching at the Brooklyn Conservatory, William Patterson College, and the Aebersold Jazz Clinics, as well as in the public schools. He has recorded extensively and conducted clinics, master classes and seminars throughout the U.S. and abroad. Bill and his family moved to Libertyville, Illinois, in 1998, where he taught band, guitar and music technology at Oak Grove School in Green Oaks, IL, while performing with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, his own quartet at Andy’s, The Green Mill and 210, at Ravinia with Seth MacFarlane, Bernadette Peters, Michael Feinstein, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, and many others. He has taught at Midwest Young Artists, the Merit School and many others. His debut recording as a leader, “The Sun Will Shine”, was released in 2015, “Always In My Heart” came next in 2017, and his latest, “Only Love Can Do That”, was released in June, 2018.
Bill Overton
