Phil Wilson: A Celebration Of Melody at Jazz At The Arsenal Series at The Arsenal Center for the Arts

Phil Wilson brings in some of his musical friends to help celebrate his 80th birthday.
- Sixteen recordings ( LPs, CDs etc. ) under his own name many currently available on the Capri label.
- One of Woody Herman's primary soloists 1962 - 1965 producing five remarkable LPs currently available as a boxed set (CDs) put out by Mosaic.
- played with Louis Armstrong at the 1964 Grammy Awards.
- toured the world teaching, playing clubs, concerts, covering five continents 1965 -2012.
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee 2004.
- Arranger/composer for Buddy Rich from 1967, European Radio Big Bands from 1976....

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Phil Wilson brings in some of his musical friends to help celebrate his 80th birthday.
- Sixteen recordings ( LPs, CDs etc. ) under his own name many currently available on the Capri label.
- One of Woody Herman's primary soloists 1962 - 1965 producing five remarkable LPs currently available as a boxed set (CDs) put out by Mosaic.
- played with Louis Armstrong at the 1964 Grammy Awards.
- toured the world teaching, playing clubs, concerts, covering five continents 1965 -2012.
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee 2004.
- Arranger/composer for Buddy Rich from 1967, European Radio Big Bands from 1976.
- Phil was nominated for a Grammy Award for his arrangement of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" as recorded by Buddy Rich. The recording became the last big bang recording to hit Billboard's top forty.
- The City of Boston proclaimed December 9th 1995 Phil Wilson Day recognizing his contributions to jazz education. To celebrate, Berklee put on a great concert "The International Dues Band Reunion" bringing back many notable musicians such as Abraham Laboriel both senior and junior, Cyrus Chestnut, Hal Crook, Marshall Wood, Ernie Watts, Bill Pierce, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Scott Robinson.
- 2016 is Phil's fifty first year of teaching at Berklee where he ran The Rainbow Big Band ( formally The Dues Band ) for fifty years.


Tonight's 80th birthday concert brings five of my favorite musicians to work with over the years.

Christine Fawson; trumpet, flugal horn, vocalist, have worked together for 16 years. I wrote the arrangements for her first CD.
John Baboian; guitar, go back at least 30 years playing all the shows in the theater district.
Marshall Wood; acoustic bass 35 years all the way back to his days at Berklee
Lester Harris Jr; 30 years back to Berklee. His father and I go back to our teen age days playing all the road houses on the route 1 strip Salisbury to Newbury MA. Son like father, two great drummers.
Mark Shilansky; Great pianist I got to know working with that equally great vocal group Syncopation. We go back some 14 years.

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