ARTHUR JAMES WILSON

Trumpet

JC: State your name and location.

AW: Arthur Wilson. I am from Plantation, Florida.

JC: How did you first come to music as a child?

AW: I was in elementary school. I was coming home, one day, and heard this man playing a clarinet. His name was Curtis White. I was mesmerized by what he was doing. He asked me if I wanted to go to band practice. He took me and everything started from there.

JC: Did you study music theory?

AW: Yes, in elementary, middle, and high school. I played a lot of instruments. I was a prodigy, I guess. I was very good at it. Right after the 11th grade, I played with some small bands around the city. I got a chance to play at the bowling alley. Otis Redding was coming to play at a local club. I took an audition and got the gig to go with him on the road from 1964 to 1966, when I came home. I played at a local club for four months, before Otis had that fatal accident.

JC: Do you compose music?

AW: Yes, I compose, arrange, perform, and record music.

JC: How many songs have you composed?

AW: I have 35 songs copywritten, on CD Baby.

JC: Are you with ASCAP or BMI?

AW: BMI

JC: Tell me about the formation of your band and your musical journey.

AW: After Otis died, I worked with a band from Miami, called the Rocketeers. I was with them when Otis had the accident. Soon after, I got a call from Jeff Brown to come to New York to be the bandleader for Sam & Dave. But when I got there, the bandleader was still there. So, I was a sideman with

by Dr. Joan Cartwright

Sam & Dave, with Ben Littles as the leader. When he left, I became the bandleader. We toured overseas. When Sam & Dave broke up, I went with Dave, in Miami. Too many of us were trying to work at this club. Then, Jeff called me, again, to come to New York to be the bandleader for Sam & Dave, once more. The last time they broke up, I became Sam’s bandleader in California and New York. Eventually, I left Sam and came back to Florida.

JC: Did you tour on a bus?

AW: Sam & Dave had a bus and a plane. We toured Japan, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

AW: I got a call from Bobby Blue Bland’s bass player, asking if I would be his bandleader. Bobby had just fired his whole band. So, I got there, and we talked for a few days. His musical director took all of his music. He needed me to form a new band and redo all of his charts. That took me a few months. I did all of that. I was ready to come back home. But Bobby wanted me to be his bandleader for five years. I picked trumpeter Joseph Harden to be the bandleader and he stayed, until Bobby died. I was a pallbearer at his funeral. His wife and I were good friends.

JC: So, you formed your own band in Florida?

AW: Yes, in Fort Lauderdale, I formed my band, Lowdown, with Johnny Riles on alto saxophone, Joseph Harden on trumpet, and seven others. There were 10 of us in the band. It was hard to find work for that band, so we split up, and went on the road. You cannot make a living in local clubs. You have to get a job or do something else to earn money.

https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/otisredding-death-anniversary-2/

JC: Were you only playing their music?

AW: Yes, only Sam & Dave’s music.

JC: They must have been very popular to be able to buy a plane.

AW: They had two back-to-back #1 hits, “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Coming”. So, they were making a lot of money.

JC: So, pop musicians made a lot more money than jazz musicians?

AW: I believe so. I was very young and soaking it all in.

JC: After you left Sam & Dave, what did you do?

JC: How did you split the band?

AW: I had three horns. We had conga players beside the drummer. We cut it down to seven pieces.

JC: What were some of the clubs you worked in?

AW: It was hard to find work for a 7-piece band. We would play for artists that needed a group. We worked in Miami, most of the time. Frank Williams and the Rocketeers had Benny Latimore and Willie Hale a/k/a Little Beaver was the bandleader. We worked six nights a week.

JC: Did you work at the Historic Hampton House?

AW: Yes, Dave was living there,

Art toured with Otis Redding from age 19-21

and that’s where we played every night with a big band that had 12-14 pieces. Dave could not pay us like we got paid on the road. So, we broke up. That’s when Jeff Brown, former road manager with Ray Charles, invited me up to New York.

JC: Where did you live in New York?

AW: I lived in Newark, New Jersey. I would come to New York every day, to rehearsal. First, I took the bus, until I bought a car. I was in New York for two years.

JC: Where was Bobby Blue Bland from?

AW: Memphis, Tennessee

JC: Where was Otis Redding from?

AW: Macon, Georgia

JC: How did they find you?

AW: After I left Otis, I was working with Frank Williams and the Rocketeers. Sam & Dave’s manager, Jeff Brown, called me.

JC: How many CDs do you have?

AW: Five. Three are on CDBaby. com. The other two are not there because they contained songs that I did not write. They are jazz standards. I didn’t know how to give all the composers credit for their songs. I had my own recording equipment. I recorded my own projects, but I didn’t know how to give other artists like Miles Davis credit for recording their songs. Now that I am older and know how to do that, I am going to release those two albums. I’m back at it, now. I have to finish up a couple of songs and I will release them soon.

JC: When do you anticipate the release of your next album?

AW: In a month or two.

JC: When did you meet and marry Mildred?

by Dr. Joan Cartwright (con’t)

AW: I was in Los Angeles, California. I shared an apartment with a friend, actor Teddy Wilson. We grew up together. He graduated from Dillard High School. He moved back home to New York. and I stayed with him for a while. He was Earl the Mailman, in “That’s My Mama”.

JC: So, when did you marry Mildred? AW: I moved back from L.A. in 1994. I went to school for dry cleaning, when I came off the road with Bobby Bland. I had my little studio. My girlfriend invited me to a club, where they celebrated my birthday with her and my Mom and children. I turned around and said, “Hello” to Mildred and that was it. We dated for a year, got married in 1995, and have been together for 31 years.

JC: Tell me about your dry cleaning business.

AW: I worked at a dry cleaners owned by these guys from India. They didn’t know what they were doing. They had too many claims, so I quit. I went to work for Barton & Miller, a very popular cleaners for two years. I went back to the

Indians and bought their dry cleaners in 1994. I sold it but I still service my special clients with pick-up and delivery. The person to whom I sold the business does the dry cleaning. I just pick-up and deliver. I owned the cleaners for 20 years.

JC: Did you marry before Mildred?

AW: Yes, I married Yvonne Devoe, and we had one son,

JC: What did your sons think about that, the two baby-mamas having them six months apart?

AW: My Mom had a lot to say about it. I was 18 or 19, before I went on the road with Otis Redding, I played on the weekend with different bands, while I was in high school.

JC: There was the Bachelor’s 3 Club on Sunrise Blvd. The, the club, near 31st and Sunrise Blvd., where EJ used to play. I sang there with him a couple of times.

AW: That was the Embassy. I remember EJ.

JC: Did you play at O’Hara’s on Las Olas Blvd.?

AW: Yes, with Lowdown.

JC: Was that before the opened up the other side?

by Dr. Joan Cartwright (con’t)

https://high.org/collection/ bobby-blue-bland-bandclub-paradise/

Bobby Blue Bland Band, Club Paradise Artist/Maker: Ernest Withers (American, 1922–2007)

Date: ca. 1970s

Credit: Gift of Panopticon Gallery, Waltham, MA, and Mr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Withers in loving memory of their sons, Wendell Jacob Withers, Ernest C. Withers, Jr, Dedrick (Teddy) Withers, Dyral Withers

Accession #: 2002.101

AW: After. You and I were working at the same time. We would pass each other, though we never met, until later on. I have a flyer with both of us on it.

JC: So, you’re about to put out three albums. What are the titles?

AW: I’ll let you know.

JC: Did you ever work with any women musicians?

AW: With Sam & Dave, we did Paul Simon’s movie, “One Trick Pony” with a saxophone player.

JC: Vi Redd?

AW: No, I told you about her before. She lived in New York. I mentioned her in our radio interview.

JC: Oh, Kitt McClure?

AW: Yes, that’s it. Kitt McClure. She was in that movie with us and Paul Simon.

JC: Did you know Myrtle Jones, pianist and organist?

AW: You know, I really didn’t know a lot of women musicians.

JC: Did you know Millie Jackson?

AW: Yes, I may have met her during my Otis Redding years.

JC: So, there were no women that you met that impressed you.

AW: The only one I can think of is Kitt McClure, who could play with the best of them.

JC: What would you suggest to a young person coming into the music industry?

AW: Stay in school. Get enough of that knowledge as possible because you’re going to need it. Get as much music education as you can.

JC: A lot of musicians never went to school for theory. You studied theory, right?

AW: I didn’t go to college. I learned everything from the musicians on the road.

JC: You didn’t need to go to college, right?

AW: I was writing and arranging for the high school band. I learned much more with the orchestra of Bobby Blue Bland. That increased my skills, tremendously. Bobby was more professional. Our uniforms were two- and three-piece suits.

JC: Were the suits made?

AW: A few were made. The road manager would go out to the stores and, if they were conservative enough for Bobby or me, we would

buy them. We could not wear just anything.

JC: What was your most exciting moment as a musician?

AW: Before I was with Bobby Bland, I was in Nat the Cat’s band. He know Cannonball and Nat Adderley. Nat came up to sit in, one night. I was floored. I had played some of his songs. One was “Lilly”. When he came on the stage to play with us, I was excited. He was one of my idols. Cannonball taught at Dillard High School, where I attended.

JC: Do you know Thomas Dorsey, the band leader at Dillard High School?

AW: I played a couple of gigs there and I met him. He took that jazz band to another level.

JC: They won the Duke Ellington Big Band competition in New York several times.

AW: Yes, they are great!

JC: What’s your birthday?

AW: January 20, 1946.

JC: Did you know about the policy in the 1960s, that you had to have an ID card to work on Miami Beach?

AW: Yes, you had to have a union card to play on Miami Beach.

JC: Was that the union office in Hollywood, Florida?

AW: Yes, it was in a warehouse back then.

JC: The black musicians stayed at the Knight Club, a jazz club at the Sir John Hotel.

AW: That’s probably where Nat Adderley came on the stage with our band. We would play on the beach with drummer Freddie Scott, vocalist Benny Latimore, and Roach Thompson, the Blues guitarist. I played trumpet.