Bill Moody: R.I.P.

More sad news. Bill Moody, 76, musician and mystery author, passed away on January 14. I haven't seen a formal obituary yet, but saw this on his Facebook page, a post by Piro Patten:

We lost Bill Yesterday. He was late for a gig and the musicians went looking for him. Great way to go. I hope musicians are looking for me when my time comes. WE love you Bill and that wonderful lilting swing that propelled the music so well.

I knew Bill for many years, both as a musician and mystery author. We worked together on several events (the drummer side of his life), and I hosted him at Literary Salons and saw him at several mystery events, most recently at Noir at the Bar. Bill and his group played at Bcon Monterey several years ago. He lived in Sonoma in a converted train car. How cool is that! But that was Bill. I will miss him.


Bill Moody was a mystery author and professional jazz drummer. He was the author of the Evan Horne Mystery series: The Man In Red Square, Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz, Fade to Blue, Shades of Blue, Looking for Chet Baker, Bird Lives! and other novels, as well as a short story collection, Mood Swings.

From his website:
Bill Moody was born in Webb City, Missouri and grew up in Santa Monica, California. A professional jazz drummer, Bill played and/or recorded with Jr. Mance, Maynard Ferguson, Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, and Lou Rawls. He lived in Las Vegas for many years as a musician on the Las Vegas Strip, hosted a weekly radio show at KUNV-FM, and taught in the UNLV English Department. He lived in northern California, where he taught creative writing at Sonoma State University, and was active in the Bay Area jazz scene with the Terry Henry Trio and Dick Conte's trio and quartet.

"The connection between playing jazz and writing crime fiction is a strong one for me. A jazz musician begins with the framework or the song — the chords, the structure, the form — but during a solo, he doesn't know what he's going to play or how until he reaches that part of the song. Writing crime fiction for me is a similar process. Working from the basic structure of the crime novel, I then improvise on a premise or motif, if you will, and I'm a fervent advocate of the 'what if' game during the writing process."
-Bill Moody

Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz: Bill Moody

Join Bill Moody, author and musician, in celebration of his latest mystery Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz. Bill will be joined on stage by pianist Dick Fregulia and bassist Steve Webber for a live jazz session to accompany the reading. Czechmate is the latest installment of Moody's popular Evan Horne mystery series. Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA. Saturday, November 3, 5:30 p.m.

I asked Bill to write a few words about Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz. 

BILL MOODY: 

In 1968, I found myself not only at the Prague Jazz Festival, playing with a Czech band, but also embroiled in a political hot spot when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. Based on this experience, I decided to try my hand at a spy thriller, combining the jazz festival with the invasion.  

Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz was born,  but it was difficult to find it a home. I finally connected with a small publisher in 1986, but before it was released, the facility burned to the ground. By the time the insurance investigation was completed, the Berlin Wall had come down, so cold war spy novels were a hard sell.

I never gave up and kept trying over the years, finally finding another publisher now that Czechmate could be labeled historical espionage. The book is also a  lesson in persistence. It only took 26 years.  

I'll be talking about the book and my experience on November 3 at Book Passage in Corte Madera that will include a set with my trio. Hope to see you there.

Russell Hill & Bill Moody: Lit Salon 7/25

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening Literary Salon on Wednesday, July 25, 7 p.m. in Berkeley, CA. Please comment below with email to RSVP and directions.  Hope you can make it!

Russell Hill is the author of three Edgar nominated novels: The Lord God Bird, Robbie's Wife and The Dog Sox. He has lived long enough in California to consider himself a native, is married, has three children and six grandchildren. His latest novel is Deadly Negatives.

Read a guest post by Russell Hill on Mystery Fanfare.

Jazz musician Bill Moody is the author of 7 novels that feature jazz pianist-amateur sleuth Evan Horne. His latest book is a spy thriller entitled Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz. He has also published a dozen short stories in various collections.