Oliver Nelson

American jazz composer, arranger, saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist. St. Louisan Oliver Nelson came from a musical family and worked his first jobs while he was still in high school with the Jeter- Pillars Orchestra, George Hudson, and Eddie Randle. He studied composition and theory at Washington University (1954-7) and at Lincoln University (1957-8). Nelson went to New York, where he made several landmark albums…