Home » Member Page

Jerome Wilson

I'm a long time arts lover who always wants to hear something I haven't heard before.

About Me

I'm an only child and I've lived in the Washington DC area my entire life. I got a degree in journalism from the University Of Maryland in 1978 but I spent most of my working life holding down a desk job for the U.S. Navy. I have largely spent my spare time writing about music and film for various local publications but my main writing gig since 1990 has been doing reviews for Cadence Magazine. I've also managed to see many cool musicians live in my time like the World Saxophone Quartet, Matthew Shipp, David Murray, Sheila Jordan, Max Roach, Anthony Braxton, Laurie Anderson and the Willem Breuker Kollektief. I retired from the Navy in August 2014 and have since begun a jazz radio show on Radio Fairfax, a local cable/internet station.

I've been single all this time but in October 2015 I met a woman who has turned out to be the great love of my life. I don't expect to still be single in a year or two.

My Jazz Story

I've been listening to jazz in some form all my life. When I was a kid, I remember seeing people like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong on TV so it was in the background of my childhood for a long time. As I got older I would hear pieces by Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane or the Art Ensemble of Chicago mixed in with rock on the local free form FM radio station. Reading about British musicians like Evan Parker and Stan Tracey in the British paper, Melody Maker just kept expanding my knowledge of how big the jazz universe was. Eventually I began writing about music for local newspapers and magazines, getting pieces on George Russell and Gil Evans printed alongside more general stuff. That led to writing for the national magazine, OPtion, where I had articles on the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and Willem Breuker published. I began writing for Cadence Magazine about 1991 and I'm still reviewing CDs for them through their change in publishers and conversion to a digital format. I get out to some gigs locally, like Dave Douglas at Blues Alley last night, but not as many as I'd like to. I have a million favorite musicians but among the very top are Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Julie Tippetts and Carla Bley. I always enjoy passionate, heartfelt jazz but the one time I've been moved close to tears was when I saw Maria Schneider's orchestra at the Kennedy Center a few years ago.