Quinn Brown Wilson (December 26, 1908 – June 14, 1978) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
bassist and tubist.
Wilson played violin as a child, and studied composition and arrangement in his youth. He had his first professional experience in the mid-1920s, playing with
Tiny Parham,
Walter Barnes,
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
(1927),
Erskine Tate
Erskine Tate (January 14, 1895, Memphis, Tennessee, – December 17, 1978, Chicago) was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.
Tate moved to Chicago in 1912 and was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Ven ...
(1928-1931), and
Richard M. Jones
Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones (sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones), (June 13, 1892 – December 8, 1945) was an American jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, includi ...
(1929). In the 1930s he arranged and played bass with
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...
from 1931 to 1939, in addition to playing bass on record with
Jimmie Noone
Jimmie Noone (April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. After beginning his career in New Orleans, he led Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, a Chicago band that recorded for Vocalion and Decca. Classical ...
.
In the 1940s he began playing
electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
and started recording with
R&B and
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
musicians, including
Lefty Bates
Lefty Bates (March 9, 1920 – April 7, 2007)Doc Rock (2007) TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Accessed October 13, 2011. was an American Chicago blues guitarist. He led the Lefty Bates Combo and worked with the El Dorados, the Flamingos, Jimmy Reed, Joh ...
and
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
, with whom he played on several albums. He continued to play jazz as well, working with
Bill Reinhardt
William (Bill) Julius Theodore Reinhardt (September 21, 1908 – January 23, 2001) was an American clarinetist, bandleader and the owner of Jazz, Ltd.—the first Jazz club run by a musician in Chicago and one of the longest running Dixieland jazz ...
in the 1960s and Joe Kelly in the 1970s.
Discography
As sideman
With
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
* ''
I'm John Lee Hooker'' (Vee-Jay, 1959)
* ''
The Folk Lore of John Lee Hooker'' (Vee-Jay, 1961)
* ''Rhythm 'n' Blues'' (Disques Vogue, 1969)
With others
*
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...
, ''Swinging in Chicago'' (Ace of Hearts, 1967)
*
Ella Jenkins
Ella Jenkins (born August 6, 1924) is an American folk singer and actress. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Children's Folk Song" by the ''Wisconsin State Journal'', she has been a leading performer of children's music for over fifty years. Her alb ...
with
Franz Jackson
Franz Jackson (November 1, 1912 – May 6, 2008) was an American saxophonist and clarinetist of the Chicago jazz school.
Early life
Jackson was born in Rock Island, Illinois, United States on November 1, 1912. "He received his first lessons on sa ...
and His Original Jass All-Stars, ''Play Your Instrument and Make a Pretty Sound'' (Folkways, 1968)
*
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
, ''The King of New Orleans Jazz'' (RCA, 1959)
References
*
Quinn Wilson
Quinn Brown Wilson (December 26, 1908 – June 14, 1978) was an American jazz bassist and tubist.
Wilson played violin as a child, and studied composition and arrangement in his youth. He had his first professional experience in the mid-1920s, ...
at
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Quinn
1908 births
1978 deaths
Jazz musicians from Chicago
American jazz double-bassists
Male double-bassists
American jazz tubists
American male jazz musicians
American jazz bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
20th-century American bass guitarists
20th-century double-bassists
20th-century American male musicians