Oliver Nelson

Oliver Edward Nelson was born on the fourth of June 1932 at Saint Louis, Missouri, the son of a Saint Louis Black-and-musical family of the principal post-Great-Migration Saint Louis Black community. He was raised in the principal Saint Louis Black community of the principal post-Great-Migration period.

He was instructed in piano from age six and in alto and tenor saxophone from age eleven — and was hired in 1947 at the principal George Hudson Saint Louis Big Band as a junior saxophonist.

He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1954 in the Korean War period — and completed the bachelor's degree in composition at Washington University at Saint Louis in 1957 and the master's degree in composition at Lincoln University at Jefferson City, Missouri in 1958.

He relocated to New York in 1958 — and was hired across the principal late-1950s and early-1960s at the principal Erskine Hawkins Big Band, the principal Quincy Jones Big Band, and the principal Count Basie (placed in this archive) Big Band as a junior arranger.

He recorded the principal Oliver Nelson Sextet long-playing-record The Blues and the Abstract Truth at the principal Impulse! Records at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in February 1961 — featuring the principal saxophonist Eric Dolphy (placed in this archive), the principal trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, the principal pianist Bill Evans, the principal bassist Paul Chambers, and the principal drummer Roy Haynes.

The principal Blues and the Abstract Truth long-playing-record — including the principal compositions 'Stolen Moments', 'Hoe-Down', 'Yearnin'', and 'Cascades' — is at this day the principal foundational post-bop long-playing-record of the principal post-1961 American post-bop jazz canon.

He relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 — at the principal post-1967 Oliver-Nelson Hollywood-television-soundtrack commercial-residency period — and composed across the principal post-1967 Hollywood-television-soundtrack period the principal Hollywood-and-television-soundtrack compositions for approximately fifty principal Hollywood-and-television-soundtrack commissions.

He composed across the principal post-1967 Hollywood-television-soundtrack period the principal television-soundtrack compositions for The Six Million Dollar Man, Ironside, Columbo, The Name of the Game, The Bionic Woman, and the principal post-1967 American television-jazz-soundtrack commissions.

He composed across the principal post-1967 Hollywood-feature-film-soundtrack period the principal film-soundtrack compositions for Death of a Gunfighter of 1969 and Skullduggery of 1970.

He was a principal post-1967 American Hollywood-and-television-jazz-soundtrack composer-arranger of the principal post-1967 American Hollywood-jazz-commercial-and-television-soundtrack period.

He died at Los Angeles on the twenty-eighth of October 1975 of complications of a heart attack, at forty-three.

He is honored here as the composer of The Blues and the Abstract Truth.