Jerry Hey

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and arranger who works across jazz, pop, and film music. He has played on hundreds of recordings, including Michael Jackson’s Thriller and other MJ hits like Rock with You, Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough, and Workin’ Day and Night, as well as the flugelhorn solo on Dan Fogelberg’s Longer. He has performed with many famous artists, such as George Benson, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Earth, Wind & Fire, Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, and more. He is best known as the trumpeter and arranger for Seawind, a band that also included Gary Grant, Larry Williams, and Bill Reichenbach Jr.

Hey was born in Dixon, Illinois into a musical family—his mother was a pianist and his father a trombonist; two older brothers played trombone and tuba. He attended the National Music Camp for two summers and studied with Bill Adam at Indiana University. He moved to Hawaii to join Seawind and relocated to Los Angeles in 1976 with the band. There, Seawind recorded two albums for CTI Records under Harvey Mason. Gary Grant invited Hey to join him on recording sessions in L.A., helping launch his career as a studio musician. Soon after, Quincy Jones asked him to play and arrange for the album I Heard That!!, and Hey went on to work with Jones on many projects. He also collaborated with David Foster.

Hey is the uncle of keyboardist, songwriter and producer Henry Hey. He composed and arranged the song “Jedi Rocks” for the 1997 Special Edition re-release of Return of the Jedi and co-produced four songs on Lisa Stansfield’s 2014 album Seven. He has won 6 Grammy Awards and received 11 nominations.