Oliver Nelson

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Oliver Nelson (* 4. June 1932 in St. Louis , Missouri ; † 27. October 1975 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American jazz - saxophonist , jazz and film composer , arranger and band leader.

life and work

Nelson came from a musical family - his brother was also a saxophonist and played with Cootie Williams in the 1940s, his sister also played the piano and sang. At the age of six he learned to play the piano and at the age of eleven to play the saxophone. From 1947 he appeared in local bands around St. Louis before joining the Louis Jordan Big Band from 1950 to 1951 to play and arrange the 2nd saxophone (alto saxophone). Like Jordan, Nelson remained shaped by rhythm'n'blues throughout his life . After serving in the Marines , he studied music theory and composition at Washington University in St. Louis until he graduated in 1958 .

In the 1950s he was with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and briefly with Louie Bellson in 1959 , but has already brought out his own albums as a leader with musicians such as Kenny Dorham , Johnny Hammond Smith , Eric Dolphy , Roy Haynes , King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest . His breakthrough came with the album The Blues and the Abstract Truth with his standard "Stolen Moments". Contributors to the album were u. a. Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard and Bill Evans . From 1967 he lived in Los Angeles to devote himself to film and television music assignments. But from 1966 he occasionally appeared with his own All Star Big Band, for example at the jazz festivals in Berlin in 1970 , in Montreux in 1971 and in New York and Los Angeles in 1975.

As an arranger, he not only worked for Quincy Jones (in whose orchestra he also played) from 1960 to 1961 , but also for Thelonious Monk ( Monk's Blues , 1969), Jimmy Smith (on his first big band appearance), Wes Montgomery , Gato Barbieri (Montreux 1971), Count Basie (in Afrique ), Cannonball Adderley , Sonny Rollins , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Johnny Hodges , Buddy Rich , Stanley Turrentine , Billy Taylor . He has also arranged for pop and soul stars like Nancy Wilson , Diana Ross , the Temptations and James Brown .

His TV and film compositions include the music for Death of a Gunfighter (a western starring Richard Widmark ), Ironside , Night Gallery , Columbo , The Six Million Dollar Man , The Bionic Woman and Longstreet .

He died of a heart attack when he was only 43 years old.

Filmography (selection)

movie theater

watch TV

  • 1968: Istanbul Express (Istanbul Express)
  • 1970: Dial Hot Line
  • 1970: In the Last Moment (The Alpha Cape)

Recordings (selection)

Jazz collection

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Date of death according to the Jazz Rough Guide (1999). Sometimes October 28 is also given, e.g. B. in Kunzler Jazzlexikon 2002
  2. ↑ Article in the New York Times of October 30, 1975 on the death of Oliver Nelson on October 27, 1975
personal data
SURNAME Nelson, Oliver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American saxophonist, big band leader and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1975
Place of death Los Angeles , California