Bob Perkins, August 2014

Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon-Thurs. 6 to 9pm & Sun., 9am–1pm.

Oliver Nelson

Many talented souls in various walks of life, have departed the planet well before their loved ones and others who appreciated them and greatly admired their work, thought they should have. The abbreviated stay of the gifted, makes one ponder what other wonders they might have contributed had they lived.

In jazz music, I always think of the contributions Clifford Brown made in such a short time. He died in his middle 20s, but not before becoming a near legend, and a well-established one after the fact. And there was Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, both of whom were jazz innovators and pioneers—Parker passing in his mid 30s, and Coltrane just a shade past 40.

Less famous, but a much respected jazz musician also comes to mind when I think of the aforementioned, and his name was Oliver Nelson. Nelson was not only a multi-instrumentalist, he was a top-flight arranger and composer, and did much to advance the careers of many performers—and not only those in the jazz idiom.

I first heard of Nelson in the early 1960s, via his composition, “Stolen Moments,” which became a jazz classic. A few years later, I lucked out and broke into the radio, and began hosting a jazz program. Oliver Nelson then became an even more familiar name to me, because I played his music on the air. His LP liner notes and other readings, told me more about him. I learned that he was born on June 4, 1932, in St. Louis, Missouri, that he came from a musical family, and that he started playing piano at age six, and several years later was drawn to the saxophone.

After gigging in bands around his St. Louis, he got his first major job with Louis Jordan while still in his teens. He played alto saxophone in the band and did some arranging. Military service called, and he joined a band in the Marine Corps. While traveling with the band in Tokyo, he heard the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, which he credited with whetting his appetite to become more advanced as an arranger. 

Following military service, Nelson attended Washington and Lincoln Universities, studying harmony and theory, while also mixing in study with private teachers. He moved to New York City, and made music with Erskine Hawkins, organist Wild Bill Davis, and a host of other established musicians. He also landed a job as house arranger for the famed Apollo Theater.

Prestige records signed Nelson to a contract and he recorded six albums for the label. He later inked a contract with the Impulse label and recorded the landmark Blues and the Abstract Truth, which included his composition “Stolen Moments.” The piece is a work of art and with the likes of pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer, Roy Haynes, Eric Dolphy doubling on sax and flute, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and Nelson on tenor sax—how could the cut not be the monster it was, and still is!

Doors began to open for the young multi-talented Nelson. Not only was he producing and arranging for the likes of Nancy Wilson, James Brown, the Temptations, Diana Ross, organist Jimmy Smith, and other well-known artists, he was also composing music for TV, including  Ironside, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Longstreet.  And he arranged the music for the film, Last Tango in Paris.

Those close to him knew he was spreading his gargantuan talents too thin by racing from the East Coast to perform with his own group, then to the West Coast to write for artists he was complimenting with his arrangements. Their concern for his well being, turned out not to be an abstract truth—Nelson suffered a massive heart attack in Los Angeles in 1975, and died at the age of 43. The word was that Nelson literally worked himself to death.

Oliver Nelson, like some of his still youthful jazz predecessors, left while still having much more to say. But he, like they, kicked up a lot of creative dust prior to departing. One of his best CDs (besides Blues and the Abstract Truth) is one he shares with vibraphonist Lem Winchester, titled, Nocturne. On the disc, his solos on “Azurte,” and “Man with a Horn,” massage the heart.