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"I must confess I'm very much on the periphery of the jazz scene here, but incredibly interested in it," says Bill Fawcett, who has led a fantastic career in classical music playing the double bass in the Vancouver Symphony for 38 years. As a young student (and classmate of PJ Perry) at Como Lake High School in Coquitlam, Fawcett remembers becoming "very keen on music" when a group of musicians (Jim Kilburn on guitar, Billy Boyle on drums, Tony Clitheroe on bass, Jim Johnson on tenor sax) from the original Cellar jazz club performed at his school. "They put on a fantastic noon hour concert for us at the school... And then I just got the bug and started going down to the Cellar to hear them."

Eighteen-year-old Bill Fawcett used to make the trek from Coquitlam to Vancouver (this was in the days before there was a Lougheed Highway, let alone a freeway, he adds) just to listen to "the most wonderful jazz at the Cellar," whether it was local groups or visiting artists (including Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts) brought in by the musicians who ran the club (among them Dave Quarin, Jim Kilburn, and others). "That was the beginning of my musical education," says Fawcett, who asked Jim Kilburn for some guitar lessons and eagerly made an even greater trek from Coquitlam to Lulu Island (now known as the city of Richmond) on a weekly basis where Kilburn would show Fawcett (whose previous experience was mainly in rock 'n roll) some new things on the guitar.

"Certainly the Cellar was the main jazz hall in Vancouver," Bill Fawcett declares. In addition, "the Black Spot was quite an important place in my life, certainly as I look back on it." Before it became a hangout for some of the younger emerging jazz musicians such as Terry Clarke, Claire Lawrence, Blaine Wikjord, and Al Wiertz, the Black Spot was "sort of a beatnik-type coffee house" in the late 1950s and early 60s. "The walls were painted black with weird designs on it... fishnets hanging from the ceiling and bamboo blinds and all that sort of thing. And it was poetry and coffee, and people could get up and sit in at the piano and play." Situated at Dunbar Street and West 28th--quite an odd location compared to the Cellar and all the other jazz clubs downtown, the Black Spot attracted young student-types in the neighbourhood from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Lord Byng High School, and even a convent of young ladies that lived down the street on West 29th (now St. George's Junior High School). "The Black Spot was very much a place for young musicians who were just kind of getting started and who wanted to experiment and try out ideas," says Fawcett, who first started going to the Black Spot as an "ill-fated" engineer student at UBC where he was also a member of the UBC Jazz Society (also known as JAZZSOC). "John Le Marquand (who ran the Black Spot) reminded me of the story," Fawcett says. "He said he remembers me as an engineering student, and when I first walked in the club, my life just took a 180-degree turn. And I guess it did indeed."

Shortly after the Black Spot days, Bill Fawcett moved to Edmonton for three years (where he connected with many great musicians including Tommy Banks), put together a jazz trio with Ron Johnson and Joe Wade, and resurrected the Yardbird Suite. "It sort of took off and as far as I know, it never looked back," says Fawcett, who also spent three "awakening" and "incredible" summers in Edmonton as a member of the National Youth Orchestra, which inspired him to audition for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. "I always loved Vancouver and I knew Vancouver from my childhood," says Fawcett, who went on to play in the orchestra for 38 years with many terrific musicians.