Abram Wilson - RIP

[Adam Blake]

I just got off the phone with Errol. The marvellous force for good music and humanity that was Abram Wilson has passed - yesterday.

I am completely shocked. We knew he was ill but had no idea how ill.

I feel very privileged to have made music with him. He was very special. He had the whole history of New Orleans music in his trumpet and in his soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RorQ0cMoaEE

[NormanD]

That's really sad. It must be so hard for you and Errol, and the others who played with him. So young too. What a loss.

[Adam Blake]

I can't believe it. He was 38 and full of life and love and music. He didn't smoke, drink, do drugs. He taught children about music, he played impeccably at all times, always gave it 100%. If anything, he probably died of overwork. A virtuoso musician, equally at home in any key, be it a one chord boogie or the most complicated jazz chart. Despite his fearsome technique, he NEVER grandstanded (hogged the limelight) or indulged himself in long showoff solos, always listened carefully to what other people were playing and played WITH whoever was onstage. No ego games, it was always all about the music with Abram. He was kind, courteous, considerate and funny. Sitting around boring dressing rooms in the long hinterland between soundcheck and show, Abram would exude camaraderie, never complain, the soul of New Orleans relaxation. I never heard him badmouth anyone. One time he (hilariously) asked a room full of disgruntled British/Jamaican musicians about Margaret Thatcher. After various long diatribes (not least from yours truly), Pete the piano player said "she was a bit like Ronald Reagan was for you guys".
"Reagan?", said Abram, "the people sure ain't feeling him now". And that was as close as I ever heard him get to a negative comment.
He was too good for this time. I hope he's jamming with Freddie Hubbard, comparing compositional notes with Charles Mingus, dutifully reporting to Sun Ra......
I cant write anymore. I can't seethe fucking scr5een...

[will vine]

Oh man! I had the opportunity to go and see him locally a couple of weeks ago........and didn't go along. I clearly didn't know what you all knew, that he was a true star.

[Nigel w]

He didn't smoke, drink, do drugs...

More horrible news on a rotten, nasty day.

The above observation by Adam reinforces my viw that we should live life to the full and do the things that make us happy to the maximum.

Yesterday, a cricketing friend of mine I've known for more than 30 years since we played together when he was 16 told me he has advanced prostate cancer. He has smoked 20 a day, drunk four or five pints a night and enjoyed a regular spliff all his adult life, and yet the doctors told him his heart, liver and kidneys are al in exceptional condition - and that the prostate cancer is probably genetic and there was nothing he could have done about it in lifestyle terms.

I remember a piece some years ago on the Guardian health pages setting out why Keith Richards will outlive Cliff Richard. If he does, I reckon a certain kind of justice will have been done.

RIP, Abram. I never knew you, but I would have liked to. If you're with Sun Ra and Charlie Mingus now, give 'em my regards...

[AndyM]

Adam, a couple of Facebook friends were mourning his loss and linked to this, I expect you've seen it, but if not......

http://londonjazz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/0 ... -2012.html

[Adam Blake]

Thanks Andy, yes I did see that. Cancer makes horrible sense. He cut off his formidable pony tail at the beginning of the year - it had been nine years in the growing - and shaved his head. He said he felt like a change and we all took that at face value, but maybe there was a much more sinister reason. Whatever it was, he kept it completely to himself.

[AndyM]

Hope you don't mind but I copied your very moving tribute to him to a friend (ex-muso, ended up in university admin, then had the sense to get out!) as I knew she'd appreciate it, and indeed she did.

Her tribute to him was to post this on FB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCMN8y_g ... ure=fvwrel

[Adam Blake]

I don't mind at all, I'm flattered, but it wasn't so much a tribute as a splurge of grief. I daresay the formal tributes will emerge over the next few days. Abram really was a very special musician and a lot of hopes for the continuing vitality of jazz as a living music were riding on him. All dashed now, of course. There just aren't very many people who emerge who can play at that level, with that degree of authority and with such an impeccable lineage going right back to the origins of the music. Very rare. Very rare indeed.

(By the way, that's a great track that your friend chose - with my man Errol on harmonica)

[nikki akinjinmi]

I think it was earlier this year that I went to The Hideaway in Streatham to see Errol Linton perform with a full band on what was a cold Sunday night. I think it had been raining earlier that day, and I managed to get one of the relatively few parking spaces left near to the venue. It was not a night I wanted to go out to anywhere.

During the afternoon that day I remember watching a couple of dvds called the Songmakers, all about the writers associated with the Brill Building (Doc Pomus, Goffin & King, Mann & Weill, etc), Bobby Darin, and one film on Dionne Warwick that had been lent to me ages ago by Adam, and because he was supporting Errol Linton on guitar I thought I’d better watch these dvds quick and give them back to him that night – which I did.

I get to the venue early have a chat with a few people, get a couple of drinks, and decide to settle down into one of the side booth seats – stage left. Sometime later in walks a man with what looks like a rectangular cornet case. It’s obviously Abram Wilson. He sits down near me, clearly enjoying the music and waiting for the time he has to get up onstage – during the interval, I can’t remember how but I end up having a conversation with him, but I mentioned how relaxed him seemed patiently waiting for his turn, complimenting the musicians when they played – I remember the keyboard/ piano-player cheekily threw in the distinctive piano solo from James Brown’s “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” impromptu, we talk about his coming to the UK, his current management, New Orleans music, the trumpeter, Terrence Blanchard, the Marsalis family, and then he tells me that his first gig on the road was with a singer called Ruth Brown. Yes, the Ruth Brown. (Atlantic – “The House That Ruth Built”.) I thought he was kidding me. How strange I should end up talking about Ruth Brown – she had appeared in one of the dvds, and I had been thinking about her. I remember him saying she was tough, in other words no pushover. I thought to myself someone should interview this man. He was charming, a gentleman and had interesting things to say about music.



I have fond memories of that evening. I remember thinking there are good people in the world, and that even something as simple as a pleasant conversation with someone can leave a lasting, and pleasant impression. What a charming, knowledgeable and unassuming man. I would never have guessed he was ill. I’m glad I got a chance to talk with him. To hear news of his death has brought tears to my eyes.

[Adam Blake]

It was March 4th, Nikki. I remember seeing you and Abram chatting. It was a storming good gig too. If only someone had recorded it. I think that was the last time we played with him.

[will vine]

Oh man! I had the opportunity to go and see him locally a couple of weeks ago........and didn't go along. I clearly didn't know what you all knew, that he was a true star.

Apparently he went down a storm with a good sized crowd on May 13, on his debut at the Hertsjazz club in Welwyn. It was fondly expected he'd be back before too long. Strange how things turn out.

[uiwangmike]

The Telegraph obituary.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... ilson.html

[Adam Blake]

And here's the Guardian's:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/ju ... sfeed=true

[garth cartwright]

I am shocked. What a loss.

I got to know Abram over the years he played with Errol and Adam. Not well. Just a friendly chat before or after the gig. I saw him with Blues Vibe several times and he really pushed their sound forward, he was just so fluid and hit those high notes, dancing inbetween Errol's harmonica and Adam's guitar. Once, at a pub in Streatham, Abram and a young black trombonist joined the band for their latter numbers - this may have been the first time he shared a stage with them - and they really took the music home. I was there with Judy and Tulse Hill Charlie (maybe Nikki too?), I believe, and we cut a rug across that pub floor. He was having such a good time!

I saw Abram solo several times - both with small outfits and once with a big, big band (over 20 musicians on stage) when he was attempting one of his conceptual jazz things ala Wynton Marsalis. I know it sounds awful to say in light of his passing but I never felt like he quite got to where he wanted to with jazz - the ideas were there but they never quite jelled. I always thought I would write a feature on him someday and that day would be when he had made the album that successfully married his love of New Orleans jazz and blues and funk with his more academic jazz musings. Now it will be his performances with Errol and Adam that I will forever treasure.

I am shocked at his loss for so many reasons - he always looked so healthy, his skin glowing, that bright smile, the energy on stage! I've not seen him this year and was looking forward to telling him of my Mardi Gras experience and asking of his. I really can't believe he left us on the same day as Jan.