As Always, He’s Keeping Things Lively

When Gerald Wilson strides on stage with his orchestra Sunday at the sixth annual West Coast Jazz Party in the Irvine Marriott, it would be appropriate for the audience to serenade him with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” On Monday, the venerable but still very vigorous jazz legend will turn 82.

Watching Wilson in action with his ensemble, trim and well dressed, white hair flying, shaping the music as it unfolds, urging the best out of his players, the audience might also be inclined to reconsider what it means to be an octogenarian. “Ageless” may be an overused description, but no one merits the label more than this triumphant veteran of more than six decades in the jazz trenches.

Wilson, however, notes that he is far more concerned about the music he’s going to present on Sunday than he is about the upcoming birthday. Still, his decision to view the concert as a kind of retrospective may suggest, at least, an unconscious desire to celebrate the high points of a fruitful musical life.

“We’ll do some of my better numbers that I introduced back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, the ‘60s and ‘70s and right on up to the present,” he says.

Some of those numbers from “the present” will be selections from his “Suite for Monterey,” a lovely, multi-sectional set of variations on a theme, commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival. And he will undoubtedly include a new rendering of his classic “Viva Tirado.”

Wilson will kick off his set, however, with a much earlier number, “You Better Believe It!,” composed for the Count Basie Band.

“Basie wanted me to do a piece in which the ensemble sounded like the Lunceford band,” he recalls. “There was a little thing we did when I was with Jimmie Lunceford in which we’d play a couple of choruses real soft--triple pianissimo--and then we’d come back and hit the last chorus hard, triple fortissimo.”

Wilson gave the Count what he wanted, recording the piece later with his own orchestra for Pacific Jazz in 1961. (In a further celebration of Wilson’s birthday, Mosaic Records has just released a boxed, five-CD set encompassing all of his performances on the label, dating from 1961 through 1969.)

His innate ability to make any ensemble sound its best may, ironically, have been the factor that has prevented Wilson’s extensive body of work from receiving the full recognition it deserves. Writing arrangements for the highly regarded Lunceford Orchestra when he was barely 21, he went on to provide prime material for bands led by Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Les Hite, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Basie, of course, and on occasion, Duke Ellington.

He led his own successful bands in the mid-’40s before settling into an active arranger-orchestrator-composer career that included providing settings for Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Bobby Darrin, Nancy Wilson and Al Hibbler (among many others) and scoring for television and motion pictures. He also “wrote for rhythm and blues recordings, rock ‘n’ roll, whatever came along.”

Wilson continues to be nearly as active as ever, teaching in UCLA’s jazz program, leading his orchestra in fairly regular appearances, and maintaining a full plate of arranging charts. He has been doing so well, in fact, that he’s been thinking that it might be time to get back to doing some serious composing. (His symphonic works have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the recording of his “Theme for Monterey” was nominated for two Grammy Awards.)

“Things are looking pretty good,” Wilson says in typically modest fashion. “I’m just going to stay here, see if I can get a few more things down on paper, and keep hanging in there.”

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* The West Coast Jazz Party opens Friday at the Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. Performers include the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Ray Brown Trio with Marlena Shaw, Gary Foster, Larry Fuller, Andy Martin, Tom Ranier and Karriem Riggins. 7 p.m. $52-$60. Continues Saturday and Sunday. (949) 724-3602.