"Gerald Wilson was a dynamic big band leader, composer and arranger whose career spanned more than 75 years. It began in the late 1930s as a trumpeter for Jimmy Lunceford’s band before forming his own big band in 1944 featuring the female trombonist Melba Liston. He played and worked as a composer-arranger with the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie, and wrote arrangements for Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Bobby Darin. Wilson, who was born in Shelby, Mississippi, moved with his family to Detroit, started out on piano and bought his first trumpet at the age of 11. During his tenure as a trumpeter with Lunceford, he arranged the hit tunes “Hi Spook” and “Yard Dog Mazurka”. After four years with Lunceford and a stint in the US Navy in the Second World War, he settled in Los Angeles and worked in the bands of Benny Carter, Les Hite and Phil Moore before forming his own band. He worked with Billie Holiday on her tour of the southern states in 1949." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/gerald-wilson-bandleader-composer-and-arranger-who-worked-with-jazz-legends-such-as-basie-gillespie-and-ellington-9746773.html
