Gerald Wilson has just passed over.
From Richard William's excellent Blue Moment Blog...
"Gerald Wilson 1918-2014
The news of Gerald Wilson’s death this week
at the age of 96 reminds us of the sheer scale
of his career: he wrote his first arrangement in
1939 (for Jimmie Lunceford) and was still
making fine records with his own large
ensemble well after the turn of the millennium.
In between times he produced an enormous
amount of worthwhile music, as is recounted
in a good Los Angeles Times obituary by Don
Heckman here . But three albums that he made
with his own big band for Pacific Jazz in the
early ’60s — You Better Believe It! , Moment of
Truth and Portraits — have always been
particularly precious to me, for the way they
blend the influences of Duke Ellington and Gil
Evans with a receptiveness to then-current
developments in modal jazz and the avant-
garde, and for the presence of a bunch of
smoking soloists.
Wilson wrote music that swung hard, but he
never disengaged his brain or his imagination
— Portraits includes tracks dedicated to Aram
Khachaturian, Ravi Shankar and Eric Dolphy
— and he provided a stimulating framework for
such hand-picked improvisers as the
trumpeter Carmell Jones, the trombonist Lou
Blackburn, the altoist Jimmy Woods and the
tenorists Teddy Edwards and Harold Land.
Here’s a clip from the episode of Frankly Jazz ,
a Hollywood TV show sponsored by Pacific
Jazz, that featured Wilson’s band. It shows
them performing a snatch of “Blues for Yna
Yna”, the hit tune from You Better Believe
It! (on which it featured the organist Richard
“Groove” Holmes), before going into Wilson’s
storming arrangement of Miles
Davis’s “Milestones”, from Moment of
Truth. The leader picks up his trumpet to kick
off a solo sequence that also features Buddy
Collette on alto, Blackburn on trombone,
Edwards on tenor and Jack Wilson on piano.
The drummer is Mel Lewis, the bassist is
Jimmy Bond and other recognisable faces
include the altoist Joe Maini...."
BN.
From Richard William's excellent Blue Moment Blog...
"Gerald Wilson 1918-2014
The news of Gerald Wilson’s death this week
at the age of 96 reminds us of the sheer scale
of his career: he wrote his first arrangement in
1939 (for Jimmie Lunceford) and was still
making fine records with his own large
ensemble well after the turn of the millennium.
In between times he produced an enormous
amount of worthwhile music, as is recounted
in a good Los Angeles Times obituary by Don
Heckman here . But three albums that he made
with his own big band for Pacific Jazz in the
early ’60s — You Better Believe It! , Moment of
Truth and Portraits — have always been
particularly precious to me, for the way they
blend the influences of Duke Ellington and Gil
Evans with a receptiveness to then-current
developments in modal jazz and the avant-
garde, and for the presence of a bunch of
smoking soloists.
Wilson wrote music that swung hard, but he
never disengaged his brain or his imagination
— Portraits includes tracks dedicated to Aram
Khachaturian, Ravi Shankar and Eric Dolphy
— and he provided a stimulating framework for
such hand-picked improvisers as the
trumpeter Carmell Jones, the trombonist Lou
Blackburn, the altoist Jimmy Woods and the
tenorists Teddy Edwards and Harold Land.
Here’s a clip from the episode of Frankly Jazz ,
a Hollywood TV show sponsored by Pacific
Jazz, that featured Wilson’s band. It shows
them performing a snatch of “Blues for Yna
Yna”, the hit tune from You Better Believe
It! (on which it featured the organist Richard
“Groove” Holmes), before going into Wilson’s
storming arrangement of Miles
Davis’s “Milestones”, from Moment of
Truth. The leader picks up his trumpet to kick
off a solo sequence that also features Buddy
Collette on alto, Blackburn on trombone,
Edwards on tenor and Jack Wilson on piano.
The drummer is Mel Lewis, the bassist is
Jimmy Bond and other recognisable faces
include the altoist Joe Maini...."
BN.
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