This occasional series profiles longtime performers and aficionados to mine their memories and knowledge of a lifetime in music. For links to other profiles in the series, "A Life in Tune," go to www.post-gazette.com.

John H. "Doc" Wilson knew he could arrange the song differently, but he wasn't sure he could make it better.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Trumpeter and arranger John "Doc" Wilson, at home in Murrysville, is the former director of jazz studies at Duquesne University. Click photo for larger image. This occasional series profiles longtime performers and aficionados to mine their memories and knowledge of a lifetime in music. For an index to this series, go to A Life in Tune.

"Lush Life" was a near perfect piece of music. To touch it would only leave a dirty fingerprint.

He had been asked by Marty Ashby at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild to arrange music to Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," "Take the A-Train" and other songs for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's "Indigo in Motion," a scintillating presentation of jazz and ballet inspired by Pittsburgh artists Strayhorn, Ray Brown, Stanley Turrentine and Lena Horne.

He accepted the assignment and agonized over the challenge. If he was going to change a single note he knew he needed a reason.

Finally, he infused "Lush Life" with additional harmonies and voiced it differently by adding parts for fluegelhorn.

On "Take the A-Train," he re-harmonized trumpeter Ray Nance's original solo, scoring it for four trumpets, then took saxophonist Joe Henderson's chorus and harmonized it for five saxophones.

It was a beautiful piece of orchestration.

Special arrangements .....

Inside the recording studio at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, the 78-year-old trumpeter and arranger sits at the piano next to trombonist Jay Ashby.

For the past few hours, Wilson and Ashby have been working on an arrangement of Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee" for Cuban saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, who requested an arrangement for clarinet.

It's unusual to find two arrangers working together, but they feed off each other. They collaborated on previous projects for D'Rivera, including an arrangement of "'Round Midnight."

Wilson defers to Ashby when there's a question. Ashby has a longer musical association with D'Rivera.

Ashby tends to write technically difficult parts. He'll push a player to the edge of his capabilities. Wilson prefers to write music that's a bit more easily realized. But with a virtuoso like Rivera, neither arranger has to worry much about how tough the part is.

"Anything you do, he can play," Wilson says. "But if you were writing a piece of music for trombone, then you have to take into consideration the instrument's built-in limitations. Nothing worse than playing a piece of music that is beyond the capabilities of the instrument."

He is acutely aware of the temperament and limitations of an instrument. For more than 60 years, the Waynesburg native has dedicated his life to performing, teaching and arranging music. Over the years, he's arranged music for Tony Williams and John Scofield and played trumpet in the Benny Goodman and Eddie Sauter/Bill Finnegan orchestras. His arrangements could be heard on "A Nancy Wilson Christmas" (2001) and "Day In, Day Out" for Nancy Wilson's 2005 "R.S.V.P.," the Grammy winner for Best Jazz Vocal. That same Wilson/Wilson collaboration was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts' "Jazz Masters," a double-CD compilation.

Before retiring in 1996, he was the director of jazz studies at Duquesne University.

After leaving Benny Goodman's band, trumpeter John Wilson, top right, joined the Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra. Wilson recalls that the band played new and interesting arrangements that featured multiple percussion instruments. Click photo for larger image.

"He's just a great musician, and that's obvious the minute you hear him play and speak about music," said Don Aliquo Jr., a Pittsburgh native, Duquesne graduate and current jazz studies director at Middle Tennessee State University. "When you hear Doc play and write music, there's never any waste. Not a lot of technique for the sake of technique. Economy takes discipline."

Aliquo said he didn't realize the impact Wilson had on him until he arrived at Middle Tennessee State. "Now that I have to run different bands, I often find myself thinking about how he conducted the practice sessions."

Wilson, sitting on a couch at the Murrysville home he shares with his wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Amanda, recalls how it all began.

Growing up in Waynesburg, his trumpet teacher, Chauncey Libely, not only taught him the rudiments of the instrument, but also helped him to realize there was more to music than playing beautiful trumpet melodies.

During his second lesson, Libely, who later became a staff arranger at WDTV (now KDKA), demonstrated a few things on piano that would change the young Wilson forever.

"I became passionately interested in writing," says Wilson. "I would be playing my part in a band but I was always listening to what everyone else was doing."

After Libely was drafted into the Army, Wilson continued to perform in his high school band. By the time he turned 15, he was one of the best musicians in town.

"Can you imagine growing up in a tiny town wanting to become a jazz musician?" he asks rhetorically.

From Uncle Sam to Benny Goodman

Wilson continued to practice and listen to records of some of his favorite trumpeters. The sounds of Pittsburgh native Roy Eldridge and Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berrigan blasted from the old turntable.

After graduating from high school, he joined the Dick Stabile Orchestra. Stabile, whose band played swing charts, later became the musical director for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

But in 1944, Wilson's career was interrupted when the U.S. Army came calling. He was drafted on the same day as guitarist Joe Negri. After boot camp, the two men didn't see each other for more than 25 years. But last year, Wilson wrote some of the arrangements on Negri's "Uptown Elegance."

	Guitarist Jimmy Raney's ensemble, including John Wilson (far left), alto saxophonist Phil Woods, drummer Joe Morello and bassist Bill Crow, produced this 1954 recording -- the first album for Wilson and Woods. Click photo for larger image.

Wilson arrived in Europe during the Battle of the Bulge. He was a combat engineer attached to Gen. Patton's Third Army.

Wilson's unit was among the first occupation troops to enter Japan after its surrender.

He was discharged after about 18 months of service and went directly to New York, where he accepted a job in the trumpet section of Benny Goodman's Orchestra.

Goodman was starting a bebop band, and he hired Wilson, Zoot Sims, Wardell Gray and a few other modern players.

"Benny had heard this Swedish clarinet player named Stan Hasselgard playing bebop, and he loved it," recalls Wilson. "So he started a bebop band. But after a year and a half, he became frustrated. He eventually reformed his band and went back to playing Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Benny was a swing player and decided to concentrate on what he does best."

Wilson often received encouraging advice from the bandleader.

"Goodman had a reputation for not being a nice guy," Wilson says. "But we got along OK. Everyone respected him as a musician. ... For him, it was all about the music. Sometimes he would tell me to put a few grace notes in there because he felt I sounded too cold. It was always professional."

Wilson also learned how to rehearse a band by watching Goodman.

"When the band wasn't swinging the way he wanted, Benny would have a rehearsal early in the morning without the rhythm section so we could get our own swing thing going," Wilson recalls. "I found later in my career that that's a great technique. If you've got a great rhythm section and the music isn't swinging, it's not the rhythm section's fault."

Wilson left Goodman and later joined bands lead by Pete Rugolo, Neal Hefti, Claude Thornhill and others.

In 1954, Wilson made his debut recording with guitarist Jimmy Raney. The recording was also the first for alto saxophonist Phil Woods and featured drummer Joe Morello and bassist Bill Crow. Wilson later would record with Bob Brookmeyer and Gerry Mulligan.

Still, Wilson found his greatest enjoyment working in the Sauter-Finnegan orchestra.

"Those guys had some really novel ideas when it came to arranging," Wilson says. "The effects of that band are still felt today. They used woodwind doubles, extra percussions that are now commonplace. But when they started doing it, it was new."

Education pays off

When he wasn't working, Wilson was taking advantage of the GI Bill. On the advice of his parents, he enrolled in New York University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music.

The advice was on the money.

In the early 1960s, the music scene began to dry up. Musicians were having difficulty finding work.

"I was fortunate because I had a couple of degrees," says Wilson. "But things in New York were getting bad. Musicians were going from working six days a week to one or two days. I ran into [trumpeter] Kenny Dorham working in a music store on 48th Street. The great Kenny Dorham couldn't find work. I had my trumpet stolen, so I go into this store, and I'm in the basement trying these different horns, and here comes Kenny and he said, 'I heard some of those licks you were playing, and I had to come down and see who was playing that.' "

Wilson decided it was time to go back to school. In 1970, he received a Ph.D. in Music from NYU.

Two years later, he was hired at Duquesne University. Initially, he worked as the band director, conducting classical music and wind ensembles. Eventually, he was able to develop a formal jazz curriculum.

"Getting this started was hard because it's like the chicken and the eggs," he says. "You need students to get a curriculum, and you can't get a curriculum without students. ... Fortunately there were a lot of people who said they wanted to be a part of what we were trying to do. Once I got it started, it really grew."

During his 26-year tenure, Wilson estimates more than 200 students passed through the program.

He recalls the first time he met Tom Roberts, the North Side pianist whose music set the mood in Martin Scorsese's biopic "The Aviator."

Wilson was teaching a jazz history class at Duquesne, and that night the discussion was about the piano music of cornetist Bix Biederbecke.

"We were talking about Bix, and Tom said, 'I know this music; would you like me to play it?' And he walks over to the piano and plays it from memory. I was just blown away because everyone else was into John Coltrane and Chick Corea, and here's this kid who was already focused in that area."

In 1996, Wilson retired from Duquesne and was replaced by Mike Tomaro. Today, the two men are collaborating on a jazz-arranging text that is scheduled for publication later this year.

"I've always considered him my musical father," said Tomaro, who is a 1980 graduate of Duquesne's music school. "John was as tough as a father. He would encourage us, but he was also the first person to point out what we were doing wrong."

Wilson has continued to write arrangements and perform in the area. When he isn't leading his jazz band, he can be found teaching trumpet and arranging at Carnegie Mellon University.

During a private lesson recently, he paced the floor in a CMU music room listening to student Ryan Hoover struggle through the trumpet parts to an arrangement of "Star Eyes."

With a stern look, he stopped and pointed to the arrangement. "Play G-major and A-flat major," Wilson commanded. "Now, let's go here, OK?"

Wilson walked over to the piano and started to accompany Hoover.

After a few notes, he stopped. "Let's try it again. Too many mistakes. You weren't focused."

Hoover played the part to the end.

"OK, that was much better. Let's try it again from the E-flat chord. Think now."

Hoover played the part to the end.

"That was much better. I think you have it. You just have to stay focused."