"Jazz is my religion," said Joe Lee Wilson in a ceremony last week at the Tokyo campus of the International School of the Sacred Heart, after completing a six-week music workshop with 600 students.
For almost half a century Wilson has been ministering the music he loves best, along with gospel and the blues -- the mother and father of jazz -- to willing followers.
His long career has included keeping company with such great musicians as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and many others.