Jazz Monsters features Gerald Wilson's Big Band

Gerald Stanley Wilson (born September 4, 1918) is an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, and educator. He has been based in Los Angeles since the early 1940s.

Wilson was born in Shelby, Mississippi, and went on to graduate from Class Technical High School in Detroit. Wilson joined the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra in 1939, replacing its star trumpeter and arranger Sy Oliver. While with Lunceford, he contributed numbers to the band's book, including "Hi Spook" and "Yard-dog… Show more Mazurka," the latter being a big influence on Stan Kenton's recording "Intermission Riff." In addition to leading his band, Wilson has written arrangements for others including Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson to name a few.

Wilson formed his own band, with some success, in the mid-1940s. In 1960, Wilson formed a Los Angeles-based band that began a series of superb recordings for the Pacific Jazz label. Musicians in the band at various times included lead trumpeter Snooky Young, trumpeter Carmell Jones, saxophonists Harold Land, Don Raffell and Teddy Edwards, guitarist Joe Pass, vibists Roy Ayers and Bobby Hutcherson, and drummers Mel Lewis and Mel Lee. His wife of over fifty years, Josefina Villasenor Wilson, is Mexican-American. A number of Wilson's compositions showed his love of Spanish/Mexican themes, especially "Viva Tirado," which later became a hit for the rock band El Chicano. Along with his wife, Wilson has three daughters (Jeri Teri and Nancy Jo), his son Anthony (who is guitarist for Diana Krall), and a number of grandchildren, all of which have songs composed for them.

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