My Friend, Fletch Wiley

My Friend, Fletch Wiley

In the spring of 1973, I attended a concert of one of my favorite musical groups, Andraé Crouch and the Disciples. I will never forget in the middle of the concert hearing one of the musicians on stage play an incredible jazz flute solo. I had never heard anything like that in Christian music! I rushed up to the platform after the concert to meet the player, and that was my introduction to someone who has been my friend for over five decades – Fletch Wiley.  

After the concert, we kept in contact, with Fletch coming one time to lend his expertise to a Christian jazz group I played with while a student at North Texas State University (now UNT). 

Some time later, through my work with Word Music, I was presented with the idea of arranging a solo instrumental project, using tracks that had been originally created for choral arrangements. “I know just the guy who can play for the demos for this project,” I told Ken Barker, my editor contact at Word. Since Fletch was adept at both flute and trumpet, his unique talents would lend a wonderful variety to the recordings of the arrangements.  

In the ensuing years, we ended up collaborating on seven projects for Word. We were honored to have two of the recordings nominated for the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, for Best Instrumental Recording. Books and accompaniment tracks for the series were published by Word, and enjoyed by many church musicians. Unfortunately, most of these are now out of print, though two are still available from Word, “Shout to the Lord” and “Redeemer.”  Occasionally, used copies for some of the older collections can be found online on sites such as eBay. 

Like me, Fletch and his wife, Kathryn, have lived in several places around the country, but we have enjoyed being in the same city, Austin, Texas, for the last few years. Fletch is still very active in music and ministry, and has been involved with several international projects recently. Watch the video below called “Fletch & Kathryn Wiley’s Vision” to learn more about their ministry, and to discover some interesting insights as to how musical disciplines correspond to aspects of the Christian life. 

Just last year, Fletch published his autobiography, titled “God Doesn’t Play Fair (and that’s a good thing) – How This Jazz Trumpeter Was Saved by Grace.”  It’s a wonderful testimony of how God can transform a person’s life and make it useful in His kingdom.  You can purchase a copy on Amazon or other online sellers. 

To conclude, here is a beautiful recording from the “Shout to the Lord” collection of Fletch playing “I Will Never Be the Same Again” on flute. You can hear a bit of his jazz flair in his interpretation of the song. (And that’s me playing the “accordion” solo in the middle of the piece!)

CHECK OUT THESE NEW PIECES

WE'VE RECENTLY ADDED TO OUR SITE: Be Still, My Soul — for congregational worship with choir and full orchestra Fanfare on MATERNA (America the Beautiful) —

brass ensemble Nunc Dimittis — cello solo and string orchestra Tiptoeing Down the Stairs — beginning string orchestra

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