All Wilson Wants to Do Is Keep Composing

Ask Gerald Wilson and he will tell you that his musical loves have always been composing and arranging. In his 55-year career, he’s written material that’s been recorded by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and hundreds of others.

For Wilson, who fronts his Orchestra of the ‘90s tonight at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, being a bandleader or trumpeter has come second to the writing and arranging. In 1946, Wilson’s big band was close to its peak. He was playing venues all across the country, including the Apollo Theatre in New York, where he was on the bill with Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford. But then he quit and disbanded his orchestra.

“The Apollo wanted me to play there twice a year for five years, bookings were coming in from all over. We were on top, but it was happening too fast,” recalls the spry Wilson, 73, as he sits in his office at UCLA, where he teaches a survey class on the history of jazz. He said he thought: “ ‘This is fine, but this isn’t what I’m looking for.’ I hadn’t even begun to get to where I wanted to get with writing.”

So Wilson, who by the mid-’40s had written for Lunceford and others, decided to return to Los Angeles and study and write. “I studied very hard,” he says. “I wanted to be able to handle strings, woodwinds, everything!”

Wilson says that eventually he achieved his goal. “I can make my band sound any way I want to,” he says.

The Shelby, Miss., native’s compositions have long had a modern bent, and are typified by complex interweavings of brass and reed passages that create a grand, pulsating sound. Pieces like “The Wailer” and “The Moment of Truth” show his ability to give the blues a regal stance, and his fondness for musical depictions of matadors and bullfighting can be heard in such long-lasting works as “Viva Tirado” and “Carlos.”

Wilson says that for several years, his ultimate goal was to write for the symphony. That wish was fulfilled in 1972, with his work “Debut: 5/21/72,” commissioned by then-musical director Zubin Mehta for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which had its premiere at the Los Angeles Music Center.

Now he says his goal is to keep cranking out the material. “I want to continue writing now that I kind of feel that I can handle my stuff the way I like,” he says. “And since jazz is a creative art form, I’ll try to be creating something.”

Wilson says he’s never far from the process of composing and arranging. “I’m at the piano every day, getting things in my head that I can work on,” he says. “I’m always seeking things to do orchestrally.”

Wilson, whose most recent album, “Jenna,” was recorded on the Discovery label in 1991, is currently trying to negotiate a new recording contract.

The man who was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship in 1990 now spends a good deal of his time teaching. He first began teaching jazz history classes at Cal State Northridge in 1970 and says he still relishes the contact with students that he now has at UCLA.

“They’re interested,” he says, “and it’s a chance for me to express my love for jazz. I love telling the students about these guys who are so great, who helped develop this music. It’s beautiful.”

Jazz Meets Dance: Dancer-choreographer Pat Taylor had always wanted to do a piece with jazz musicians. “I liked the idea of jazz music kicking off the dance,” she says. Two years ago, she found a willing collaborator in bassist Mark Shelby, leader of the group Black/Note. Their work, “Midtown Sunset,” a series of nine pieces based on a collage by noted African American artist Romare Bearden, will will be performed Sunday afternoon at 3 at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Blvd., in Santa Monica. Tickets are $10. Tonight’s performance will benefit the Taylor’s Dance Collective, which is the host of a summer camp for urban teens.

“Midtown Sunset” will feature six dancers from Taylor’s Jazzantiqua Dance Ensemble performing to music played by Shelby’s quartet, which includes Phil Vieux (saxes), Ark Sano (piano) and Guy Killim (drums).

Shelby says his original music comprises a number of moods--from swing to Afro-Cuban to waltzes--but there’s one overall stance: “It’s romantic,” he says. “There aren’t a lot of complicated rhythms.”

Information: (310) 828-7519, (310) 657-7115.

Critic’s Choice: In the ‘60s, pianist McCoy Tyner’s playing was often built on serpentine long lines that spoke as much of his be-bop roots as of his modern openness, exemplified by his work with John Coltrane. These days, the jazz giant, who appears with his trio Tuesday through Feb. 27 at Catalina Bar & Grill, favors a denser, though still lyrical, style often based on thick streams of notes. His trademark buoyancy, however, has never left.