Gerald Wilson Centennial Birthday

Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator Gerald Wilson was a jazz treasure for more than six decades. Named an NEA Jazz Master in 1990. Wilson’s multifaceted career reached from the swing era of the 1930s to the diverse jazz sounds of the 21st century. Born in Shelby, Mississippi on September 4, 1918. Died on September 8, 2014, in Los Angeles, California.

From time to time, Gerald Wilson seemed like one of Los Angeles’ better-kept secrets, an unusually skillful, imaginative, and charismatic bandleader who hadn’t received his due outside the West Coast. His arrangements were distinctive, often complex voicings and harmonies, rooted in swing and bop, yet always forward-looking and energetic in tone. He liked to play around with structures, which contributed to the restless quality in much of his music, and being a bullfight aficionado, he was one of the first arrangers to make use of Spanish influences. He was consistently able to attract top-rank musicians to his bands, who played with immaculate precision and brio for the flamboyantly gesticulating maestro. More.

 

In a lifetime that spanned a substantial portion of the history of jazz, Gerald Wilson’s combination of articulate composition skills with a far-reaching creative vision carried him successfully through each of the music’s successive new evolutions. (GAB Archive / Redferns)