Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

FULLER, Gil

(b Walter Gilbert Fuller, 14 April 1920, Los Angeles CA; d 26 May 1994) Composer and arranger. He wrote for Les Hite, Jimmie Lunceford, Tiny Bradshaw, etc. To NYC after WWII service, where wrote for big bands including Machito and Tito Puente; one of the first (with Tadd Dameron, Gil Evans, George Russell) to write in the bop idiom for big band, writing for Billy Eckstine; for Dizzy Gillespie he composed and/or arranged 'Manteca', 'Swedish Suite', 'One Bass Hit', 'Ray's Idea', 'Things To Come' etc, many premièred at Carnegie Hall '48; 'Fuller Bop Man' and 'Tropicana' for James Moody. He had his own music publishing companies and was said to have written a book about his arranging methods. He made a big-band LP The Scene Changes; worked outside music in the early '50s; wrote for Stan Kenton c.'55, again '65, writing music for Gillespie's appearances with Kenton's 'neophonic orchestra'. He led the Monterey Jazz Festival band '65 and made an album with it on World Pacific; later Night Flight on the same label. He also wrote for Ray Charles c.'62, did film work, stock arrangements, etc. An all-round musician, typed by important early work as a bopper; contributed valuable pages of reminiscence to Dizzy's autobiography To Be Or Not To Bop. In later life he was resentful about not having received enough recognition and did not respond to people wanting to buy copies of his arrangements; some doubted that he ever wrote a book.

Another Walter Fuller, a trumpet player who died in San Diego CA in 2003 aged 93, was not related.