Vance Wilson (musician)

Vance E. Wilson (February 28, 1925 – August 10, 2010)[1] was an American jazz alto and tenor sax player based in Philadelphia[2] most known for playing lead tenor and alto sax on Clifford Brown's first recording in 1952, The Beginning and the End (Columbia, 1973),[3][4][5] as a member of Chris Powell's Five Blue Flames, together with Osie Johnson[6] at a double recording session in Chicago.[7]

After settling in Philadelphia in around 1946,[8] Wilson studied classical music at the Ornstein School of Music together with John Coltrane[9] and Bill Barron. He also played in the first house band at Philadelphia's Club 421, a lineup led by Charlie Rice, and featuring Bob Bushnell (musician), Red Garland and Johnny Hughes,[10] as well as leading his own bands there.[8]

In 1958 he joined Steve Gibson and the Red Caps.[9]

A friend of Count Basie's, he didn't join his orchestra because he was tired of touring,[9] one of the reasons he retired from the music business in the 1960s.