Goodbye, Gerald Wiggins

Wig's passing is a huge loss, as he was a one of a kind musician and person. I feel honored to have heard him many times and also have some wonderful memories of fun times and many laughs. I'd also like to point folks to one of my favorite Wig recordings, which was made with the late and soulful bassist (and Wig's soulmate), Andy Simpkins and the wonderful and creative drummer, Paul Humphrey. It is called "Soulidarity" on the Concord label. Tough to find, but worth the search.

Wig last released recording was a labor of love with his son, Hassan J.J. Wiggins Shakur, and the always swinging Joe LaBarbera on some of the tracks. It is titled "Wiggins and Wiggins."

I'm not sure where you can find "Soulidarity;" maybe at Concord's website, but Wiggins and Wiggins is available at cdbaby.com.

He will be missed by many and there is going to be a celebration of Wig's life in Los Angeles at the Nate Holden Theatre on July 28.

(Amazon.com lists "Soulidarity" at: http://www.amazon.com/Soulidarity-Gerry-Wiggins/dp/B0000006PT/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1216416693&sr=1-2 --DR)

Concord IS still making the music available to all who want to hear it, so I don’t consider it “dropped”. You can download the whole album at emusic.com, for example. The distribution and delivery method, however, is leaning more and more toward digital and not physical CD these days, as there are fewer and fewer retail stores stocking CDs, especially the deep jazz catalog titles like this one, and there are additional costs to continuing to keep an album available in the physical CD format (manufacturing minimum reorder quantity and cost, warehousing costs, shipping costs, returns from retailers, etc.)

[Mr. Phillips is Concord's vice president of jazz and catalog A&R -- DR]

There are a couple of Gerald Wiggins albums available on http://www.emusic.com/.

I became familiar with Gerald Wiggins' music from the movie "Let's Make Love" starring Yves Montand and Marilyn Monroe. His work was outstanding.

In fact, the CD soundtrack from the movie gave him sole credit for the movie's three instrumental tracks: Strip City; Latin One; and Christmas Eve Waltz. The only other artists who were given credit on that soundtrack were the movie's featured vocalists: Montand, Monroe, and Frankie Vaughan.

What a career. What a loss.

I have pleasant memories of hearing Gerald Wiggins at the late lamented Triangle Jazz Party in the mid-1990s. Sure enough, his glasses remained perched on his forehead every time he played.

Wig was a nice guy who swung effortlessly.