Oliver Nelson (1932-1975), was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He also served as a bandleader. Nelson was born in St Louis, Missouri on the 4th of June 1932. His family was musical. His brother, a saxophonist, played with Cootie Wilkins in the 1940s. His sister sang and played the piano. Nelson started playing the piano at six years old and began to play the saxophone when he was eleven. He played in St Louis territory bands from 1947 to 1951 before joining the Louis Jordan bigband from 1950 to 1951. There he was an alto sax player and arranger. After his military service, he returned home to Missouri to study music theory and composition at Washington and Lincoln Universities. He graduated in 1958. Nelson returned to Missouri after graduation and played with Wild Bill Davis and Erskine Hawkins. He also worked as the Apollo Theatre’s house arranger. In 1959, he also briefly played on the West Coast with the Louie Bellson Band and that same year, he began recording as a leader with small groups. He played tenor with Quincy Jones from 1960 to 1961, on both U.S. tours and in Europe. He was the leader of six albums for Prestige between 1959 and 1961. His big break came with The Blues and the Abstract Truth on Impulse!. This album featured the song “Stolen Moments”, which is now considered a standard. He was a prolific composer and arranger and this album made him famous. He also worked as an arranger for Sonny Rollins and Eddie Davis, Buddy Rich and Jimmy Smith. Between 1966 and 1975, he also led various all-star big bands in live performances. Nelson performed as a soloist throughout this period, but he was increasingly playing soprano. Nelson moved to Los Angeles in 1967. Nelson toured West Africa in a small group, apart from his appearances with big-bands (in Berlin and Montreux, New York, Los Angeles, and New York) He spent a lot of time composing music for TV (Ironside and Night Gallery, Columbo and The Six Million Dollar Man), and films (Death of a Gunfighter ). Also, he arranged Gato Barbieri’s music for Last Tango in Paris. He produced and arranged pop stars like Nancy Wilson, James Brown and The Temptations. Nelson composed many symphonic pieces and was deeply involved in jazz education. He returned to Washington University in 1969 to lead a clinic of five weeks that featured guest performers such as Phil Woods and Mel Lewis. Nelson, 43 years old, died from a heart attack in October 1975. Text contributed by users is available under Creative Commons By–SA License. It may also be available under GNU FDL.
