Ernie Wilkins


Ernest Brooks Wilkins Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist, conductor and arranger who spent several years with Count Basie. He also wrote for Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Dizzy Gillespie. He was musical director for albums by Cannonball Adderley, Dinah Washington, Oscar Peterson, and Buddy Rich.

Early career

Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In his early career he played in a military band, before joining Earl Hines's last big band. He worked with Count Basie from 1951 to 1955, eventually leaving to work free-lance as a jazz arranger and songwriter. His success declined in the 1960s, but revived after work with Clark Terry, leading to a tour of Europe.

Final years in Denmark

Eventually Wilkins settled in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he would live for the rest of his life. There he formed the Almost Big Band so he could write for a band of his own formation. The idea was partly inspired by his wife Jenny. Copenhagen had a thriving jazz scene with several promising jazz musicians as well as a well-established community of expatriate American jazz musicians which had formed in the 1950s and now included representatives like Kenny Drew and Ed Thigpen who joined the band along with Danish saxophonist Jesper Thilo. The band released four albums, but after 1991 he became too ill to do much with it.
Wilkins was responsible for orchestral arrangements on 1972's self-titled album by Alice Clark, on Mainstream Records.
Ernie Wilkins died in Copenhagen on June 5, 1999 of a stroke.
He has a street named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Ernie Wilkins Vej".

Awards and honors

With Count Basie
With Louis Bellson
With Maynard Ferguson
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Al Grey
With Joe Newman'
With Ernestine Anderson
With Count Basie
With Ray Brown
With Kenny Clarke
With Jimmy Cleveland
With Al Cohn
With Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
With Maynard Ferguson
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Freddie Green
With Milt Jackson
With Harry James
With Quincy Jones
With Sam Jones
With Mark Murphy
With Charles McPherson
With Joe Newman
With Herb Pomeroy
With Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams
With Sarah Vaughan and the Count Basie Orchestra
With Dinah Washington
With Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson
With Charles Williams