Oliver Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975)
Oliver Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. You may know his name best as a jazz composer/arranger. One of the most significant jazz recordings in jazz history is his album The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1960), and Nelson's composition, "Stolen Moments" is key to that recording and has become a jazz standard.
Nelson was in the Marines (playing woodwinds in the band) and while stationed in Japan attended a concert by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and heard Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Paul Hindemith's Symphony in E Flat. Nelson later recalled that this "'was the first time that I had heard really modern music for back in St. Louis I hadn't even known that Negroes were allowed to go to concerts. I realized everything didn't have to sound like Beethoven or Brahms. It was then that I decided to become a composer'".
Upon his return to Missouri from military service, Nelson studied music composition and theory at Washington and Lincoln Universities. He graduated with a master's degree in 1958. Composers who he studied with include Elliott Carter, Robert Wykes and George Tremblay.
In 1958, after completing his degree, Nelson moved to New York City and played with an amazing array of jazz legends and bands including Erskine Hawkins and Wild Bill Davis. The west coast followed, where he played with Louie Bellson big band, and began recording for Prestige Records and briefly played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington and the Quincy Jones big band.
Nelson was also involved in writing music for the television and movie industry and in 1967 moved to LA to be closer to that work. He composed background music for television and film including Ironside, Night Gallery, Columbo, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Films scored by Nelson include Death of a Gunfighter and Skullduggery He was also the arranger and producer for albums for Gato Barbieri, Nancy Wilson, James Brown, the Temptations, and Diana Ross.
Oliver Nelson died of a massive heart attack in 1975 at the age of 43. Those close to him knew he was spreading his talents too thin by going from the East Coast to perform, and to the West Coast for music-arranging jobs. His was a great talent that left us too soon.