Jack Wilson

Jazz pianist and composer Jack Wilson was born on August 3, 1936, in Chicago Illinois. He moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana when he was young, eventually enrolling at the Fort Wayne College of Music to study piano. Inspired by the music of George Shearing, he began to form his own small combos while also playing in the Central High School ban. At the age of 15, he had become the youngest member of the Fort Wayne Musicians Union. Two years later, he was the substitute pianist in saxophonist James Moody’s band. After high school, he spent a year-and-a-half attending Indiana University, where he crossed paths with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and trombonist Slide Hampton. He also began to study the saxophone, occasionally using it as his main instrument. After touring with a rock band, he ended up in Columbus, Ohio where he befriended vocalist Nancy Wilson and multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Jack Wilson then moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey where he led the Cotton Club’s house band. After supporting Dinah Washington from 1957 to 1958, he relocated back to Chicago, where he began playing with jazz greats such as Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Al Hibler, and others. After Jack Wilson was drafted into the U.S. Army, he played tenor saxophone in the army band, becoming the first black music director for the Third Army Area. Discharged for medical reasons, he rejoined Dinah Washington’s band in 1961. Jack Wilson then relocated to Los Angeles, California, and became an in-demand sideman, working with a diverse group of artists including Sammy Davis, Jr., Lou Donaldson, Eartha Kitt, Herbie Mann, Jackie McLean, and many others. Jack Wilson released a series of albums as a leader throughout the second half of the 1960s including The Jazz Organs (1964), Jack Wilson Plays Brazilian Mancini featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim (1965), Something Personal (1966) and Song for My Daughter (1969). For stepped away from his recording career and spent nearly a decade accompanying vocalist Esther Phillips before releasing his next album, 1977’s Innovations. He also returned to session work, recording with many artists up through the mid-1980s. He recorded sporadically in the ‘80s and ‘90s with his last recording session held in 1993. Jack Wilson died on October 5, 2007, at the age of 71.

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