[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 14, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING NEA JAZZ MASTER GERALD WILSON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 14, 2010

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, legendary jazz artist Gerald Wilson will 
be honored at the 2010 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual 
Legislative Conference Jazz Issue Forum and Concert. This event will 
take place on Thursday, September 16, 2010, at the Walter E. Washington 
Convention Center, in Washington, D.C. The concert will feature 
selections from Mr. Wilson's masterwork ``Detroit,'' performed by the 
Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. While not a native of Detroit, 
Mr. Wilson was raised in my home town. He has had an outstanding career 
that deserves the recognition of this body. Let me share some of the 
highlights from his biography.
  Gerald Wilson is a premier composer, trumpeter, arranger, bandleader 
and educator. His work, during his rich and varied seven-decade career, 
has supported some of the greatest names in jazz including Ella 
Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, 
Benny Carter, Nancy Wilson, and Sarah Vaughn, as well as a scorer for 
motion pictures and television shows such as Otto Preminger's ``Anatomy 
Of A Murder'' and ABC's variety program ``The Red Foxx Show.'' Wilson 
also scored a top 40 pop hit with El Chicano's version of his song 
``Viva Torado'' in 1971. Recently, Wilson was in the studio recording 
new material for his sixth release for the Mack Avenue Records label, a 
follow up to 2009's ``Detroit.''
  The perennially inexhaustible bandleader will be included in two 
upcoming documentaries; the first about Cab Calloway produced by ARTE 
France and expected to air in America on PBS, and the other about Los 
Angeles' storied Million Dollar Theater.
  Wilson has earned seven Grammy Nominations, a recent NAACP Image 
Award nomination, a NARAS President's Merit Award, top Big Band and 
Composer/Arranger honors in the Downbeat International Critics Poll, 
the National Endowment for the Arts' American Jazz Masters Fellowship, 
two American Jazz Awards for Best Arranger and Best Big Band, and 
currently his masterpieces are ensconced at the Smithsonian Institution 
in Washington, DC. His love for jazz and his 30 year educational career 
in teaching music also earned him the Teacher of the Year award at UCLA 
in 2008. Most recently, The Gerald Wilson Orchestra's ``Detroit'' (Mack 
Avenue, 2009) won ``Record of the Year'' at the 2010 Jazz Week Awards.
  Despite earning such various accolades throughout his career, his 
road to success hasn't always been easy. At 91 years old, Gerald Wilson 
has struggled through more than 9 decades of opposition to contribute 
to the fight for civil rights and to share his passion for music with 
the world. Born in 1918 into a hotbed of racial tension in Shelby, 
Mississippi, Wilson was sent by his mother to live with family in the 
more tepid Detroit, where his musical talents afforded him the rare 
opportunity to attend the performing arts school, Cass Tech High School 
(a school that was second only to Juilliard for musical education at 
the time). As Wilson will tell you, this is where his musical career 
truly began.
  By the age of 26 Wilson had toured the United States with Jimmie 
Lunceford's band, served time in the Navy during World War II, and 
wrote and played trumpet for Benny Carter and Les Hite before starting 
his own successful band, The Gerald Wilson Orchestra.
  After reaching commercial success in the late '40s and marrying his 
Mexican-American soul mate, Josefina Villasenor Wilson, Wilson's 
passion for cultural immersion came to life both emotionally and 
creatively. Wilson began composing for more than half a dozen 
professional bullfighters. These masterpieces bonded Wilson in a 
lifelong kinship with the bullfighting community and afforded him the 
opportunity to be a member of the exclusive international bullfighting 
club, Los Aficionados des Los Angeles, and then honored with an award 
for contributing something positive to the world of ``tauromaquia'' 
(the world of the bull fight).
  Hopping from one creative outlet to the next, in 1969 after intense 
study of his own on the art of classical music, Wilson was honored to 
receive an invitation from Zubin Mehta to compose a number for the Los 
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
  Wilson's passion to incorporate his art into his selfless crusade for 
civil rights has remained paramount in his life and has touched the 
lives in countless cultures and countries around the world. When asking 
this humble legend about his great successes, Wilson, who will be 92 
years old this September, responds with sincere humility, ``I just try 
to be a person worthy of being a part of this great art form.''
  Madam Speaker, I am very proud of the accomplishments of Gerald 
Wilson. I urge all Members to acquaint themselves with this great 
artist and his music.

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