Gerald Wiggins born 12 May 1922

Gerald Foster Wiggins (born May 12, 1922 in New York City died July 13, 2008 in Los Angeles) was a jazz pianist and organist. 

He studied classical, but switched to jazz in his teens. He began as a professional playing accompaniment to Stepin Fetchit. He worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. In the 1940s he moved to Los Angeles where he played music for television and film. 

He also worked with singers like Lena Horne, Kay Starr, Nat King Cole,Lou Rawls, Jimmy Witherspoon and Eartha Kitt. In 1960 his best recording as an organist appeared, Wiggin' Out, known for the quality of its music and fresh, clear -like live- sound.

Gerald had long been a highly flexible pianist quite comfortable in swing or bop settings, but he was at his best when performing with his longtime trio, a group also including bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Paul Humphrey. Wiggins' swinging and consistently witty style, typically filled with catchy riffs, was at times reminiscent of Erroll Garner and Art Tatum, but generally quite distinctive.

"The Wig" started with piano lessons when he was four, switching from classical music to jazz as a teenager. He doubled on bass while attending the High School & Art and worked for a time in the early '40s as a piano accompanist for Stepin Fetchit. Wiggins played with Les Hite, and in 1943 toured with the big bands of Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. While in the military (1944-1946), he often played in local jazz clubs in Seattle. After his discharge, he settled permanently in the Los Angeles area.

 A popular accompanist for singers, Wiggins worked with Lena Horne (touring with her from 1950-1951), Helen Humes, Ella Mae Morse, Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, Kay Starr, Lou Rawls, Ernie Andrews, Linda Hopkins, and Joe Williams, among others. Wiggins was also employed at Hollywood film studios and became the voice coach for many movie actors who took on singing roles. In particular, he was Marilyn Monroe’s tutor for her songs in such films as Some Like It Hot. In pride of place in his music room was a huge signed portrait of her, inscribed with her thanks: “I can’t make a sound without you,” it said. 

                             

In the Los Angeles area, Wiggins has led trios since the 1950s, becoming a consistent fixture in local clubs. In recent times, he has played piano with Frank Capp Juggernaut and worked with fellow Concord artists, like Scott Hamilton. Gerald Wiggins has led sessions through the years for Swing and Vogue (both in 1950), Ember, Crown, Tampa, Specialty, Motif, Mode, Challenge, Hi-Fi, Contemporary (1961), Black & Blue, and, in the 1990s, Concord.

With movie work, his trio jobs and his support for vocalists, Wiggins largely disappeared off the jazz radar in the 1950s and 60s, although his profile was raised when Jerry Fielding hired him with saxophonist Buddy Collette and bassist Red Callender to appear live on his TV show, something of a breakthrough for black musicians.

Humes & Wiggins at Nice 1978

Vocalist Helen Humes persuaded Wiggins to tour internationally again in 1974. Wig appeared with Humes in 1978 at the Nice festival. But by this time he was living out of a suitcase, his overflow clothes kept in three separate "friendly" apartments across the US. When Humes died three years later, Wiggins came off the road for good and married his wife Lynn in LA in 1987.

As the days of resident studio musicians came to an end in the 1980s, Wiggins once more returned to the Los Angeles club circuit, as well as playing with the big band led by the trumpeter Gerald Wilson. Although he was known for writing various jazz tunes, such as his own feature Da Silva Wig, and continued to compose, the 1980s and 1990s led to his high point as a player, epitomised by the solo album he made at the Maybeck Hall in 1990, which encapsulates all his qualities. In particular his fellow pianist Jimmy Rowles praised his “natural relaxation”, and this remained Wiggins’s great individual asset, the ability even at a headlong tempo to create shape and form in a performance with unhurried authority. 

Wiggins died on July 13, 2008, aged 86.

(Info edited mainly from All Music & Times On Line)