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Artists
Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame
2000 Candidates
William P. Scarlett
William (Bill) Scarlett began his musical career playing the violin at age 9. But when he was 10, his parents took him to the World’s Fair in San Francisco where he heard Benny Goodman and was inspired. Ever since he’s been playing clarinet and saxophone. Born in Russellville in 1929, Scarlett and his parents moved around the country a good bit, and while a teenager he managed to take lessons from Eddie Galvan and play gigs with people like trombonist Jack Teagarden and bop-artist Art Pepper. His family moved to Little Rock in 1945 (Scarlett’s dad, a physician, became Little Rock’s Health Officer).
Scarlett went on the road in 1947, playing alongside Pepper in the Louise Ohls band. That same year Scarlett was married to Catherine (Katy) Sharp in Mobile, with Pepper as his best man.
Returning to Little Rock, he enrolled at Little Rock University and played with Henry Thomas and others on Ninth Street and in an integrated big band directed by Howard Williams. Scarlett transferred to Louisiana State University, where he studied classical clarinet under Paul Dirksmeyer. By 1955 he had received a bachelor and masters degree.
In 1957, the University of Tennessee hired him to teach clarinet, sax and music theory, and he has been on the faculty ever since. But he kept playing, gigs on weekends with big bands created by Woody Herman, Charlie Spivak, Bob Crosby, Ray McKinley, Bob Crosby, etc. For 23 years he was the principal clarinetist in the Knoxville Symphony. Since 1984 he has played one night a week at a club called Lucille’s in what is called the “Old City” in Knoxville. In 1997, Scarlett was named the Alumnus of the Year by the College of Music at LSU. He was there for the presentation and performed at a jazz concert.
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