Today in Jazz

Ernie Wilkins, Saxophone, 1922, St Louis, MO

Ernie was well known as a composer and arranger as well as a saxophonist.  As a child he also learned piano and violin.  He attended Wilberforce University where he studied music. As a teenager he gained much experience playing jazz in the St Louis area.  Ernie also spent his military service time playing in service bands.  After leaving the military, Ernie worked with the last big-band of Earl Hines and then joined Count Basie in1951.  It was while with Basie that Wilkins became known  for his wonderful jazz compositions.   In the mid '50s he performed and wrote for Dizzy Gillespie's band.  With Dizzy he also toured South America and the Middle East.  From the mid '50s into the early '60s Ernie performed and arranged for the big-bands of  Tommy Dorsey and Harry James.  In 1968 he became the music director and principal composer for one of the finest groups Clark Terry ever led.  He then served as head of the A&R department of Mainstream Records.  In the late '70s Ernie settled in Copenhagen where he worked with local and visiting musicians. 

 Arnold Fishkin, Bass, 1919. Bayonne, NJ

Arnold played the violin from age eight and switched to the bass at age fourteen.  He took private lessons and gained much experience playing with local bands in northern New Jersey while still in his teens. The first "name" musicians he worked with were Jack Teagarden and Bunny Berigan in the mid '30s.  After serving in the army, Arnold worked with Chubby Jackson, Jerry Wald, and Lenny Tristano in the mid '40s. In 1947 he joined Charlie Barnet with whom he moved to the West Coast where he recorded with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and Freddie Slack, among others.  In the late '40s he returned to New York and resumed his association with Lennie Tristano.  During much of the '50s and '60s Fishkin was mainly employed by the staff orchestras of CBS and ABC.   From the latter part of the '60s Arnold worked as a freelance with musicians such as Mel Powell, Howard McGhee, Hank Jones, and Lee Konitz. 

July 2008

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