Gerald Wilson had an incredible career as a composer, arranger and innovative bandleader, and yet he is rarely thought of in the same category as Ellington, Basie, Jones/Lewis, Dankworth, and other leaders whose compositions and arrangements brought a new way to hear and experience music. His birthday was celebrated recently, and is the perfect opportunity to explore the worlds of this wonderful creator. [Editor’s note: publishing was delayed; article was written back in October, closer to Wilson’s birth of 4 September 1918.]
One of his earliest gigs was taking the place of trumpeter/arranger Sy Oliver in the Jimmie Lunceford band. The chief arrangers of the band were Billy Moore and Ed Wilcox. Wilson wrote two compositions that immediately got some attention in the jazz world:
- Hi Spook, and
- Yard Dog Mazurka
He left Lunceford, and by 1943, he was in Benny Carter’s band (Benny had moved to the West Coast by that point). He wrote a number of arrangements for Carter, who loved his writing. This is “Honeysuckle Rose.
Wilson joined Cab Calloway, and wrote “Cruisin’ with Cab in 1944. Wilson would later record this with his own band.
There was a deal put together where singer Herb Jeffries was going to be booked at Shepp’s Playhouse in Los Angeles, and Wilson was asked to put together a big band for the gig, something he’d always wanted. When Jeffries dropped out, Wilson kept the gig, got some more, and signed with the record label Excelsior, owned by songwriter Otis Rene. Wilson claimed that it was the first band that played unadulterated modern jazz of that era (he’d arranged Groovin’ High and recorded it in a big band version before Dizzy Gillespie did). He also said that he was the first arranger to use seven and eight-part harmony, meaning that when he wrote for brass, there were no doubled notes in the voicings.
Whatever he was doing, the ensemble was a powerhouse and was certainly different from other big bands of the period. Its records are classics.
- Synthetic Joe
- Come Sunday live
- The aforementioned Groovin’ High live
He also recorded Rene’s songs (after all, it was his label). This is Skip the Gutter featuring The Thrasher Sisters, three women who would later become The Morgan Sisters.
Gerald’s story continues in Part 2.
