Gerry Wiggins discusses his time in New York

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Gerry Wiggins discusses his start with jazz and blues

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Gerry Wiggins discusses his time after the army

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Q: “You got out of the army and then what? Your home was at that point California, right?”

A: “Yeah, well, when I got out of the army, I went to New York for like six or seven months and I joined Benny, and then I came back to California. I had been with a bass player in the army and he lived in San Francisco and we had promised each other if we ever got out, we'd have a trio together. So I joined him and we had a little trio in San Francisco. We worked quite a bit. Then when that broke up, I worked with Vernon Alley and Jerome Richardson. We had a quartet. Eric Miller was the guitar player. Then I had a job working single at the Edison Hotel in San Francisco and Chico Hamilton brought Lena Horne up to, you know, to listen to me. Lena and Chico, and they decided that I was going to play for them. That's about 1950.”