Tribute to Gerald Wilson

Bandleader Gerald Wilson, a prime member of the Los Angeles jazz community for more than six decades, is retiring from his position as a member of the UCLA jazz studies faculty. Tonight, a tribute concert at the university’s Schoenberg Hall will celebrate his contributions as an educator, band leader, trumpeter, composer and arranger.

The bill includes the full UCLA jazz studies faculty, with guest artists Ernie Andrews and Anthony Wilson, and three student ensembles: the UCLA Jazz Orchestra, the UCLA Latin Jazz Ensemble and the UCLA Contemporary Jazz Ensemble.

Wilson, 89, played trumpet with the big bands of Jimmie Lunceford, Les Hite, Benny Carter, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie before organizing his own jazz band in the late 1950s. He has arranged for, among others, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

The concert is free to the public and begins at 7 p.m.

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-- Don Heckman