photo by Shelley Ho
Bill Dendle – Bill began playing banjo in 1963, and by 1967 he performed at Mickie Finn’s in San Diego as leader of the South Market Street Jazz Band. Bill was the lead banjoist at apone’s Warehouse in Monterey for nine years. By 1977 Bill was an entertainment consultant, banjoist, trombonist, bandleader and entertainer at Florida’s Disney World, where he opened on the Empress Lilly Showboat. In late 1977 he revived the South Market Street Jazz Band, and from 1982 to 1995, Bill appeared as one-half of the duo called Goodtime Banjos. Bill plays trombone, guitar and banjo with Shelley Burns & Avalon Swing, and has performed with Bob Haggart, Bob Crosby, Johnny Varro, Dick Cary, Abe Most, Nick Fatool, Bob Draga and others. A retired Vice-Principal, Bill is the former director of the annual Teagarden Trad Jazz Camp. Many of his jazz campers have not only continued playing Traditional Jazz, but also have become ccomplished professional musicians and band directors, who continue passing the torch. Bill was recently selected to the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame in Oklahoma.
