[1] His father's American citizenship allowed the family to take refuge in the United States during World War II, where Wilen started learning the saxophone.
After moving to Paris in 1953, Wilen regularly appeared at the club Le Tabou together with musicians such as Jimmy Gourley, Bobby Jaspar and Henri Renaud, as well as American jazzmen passing through.
[3] In 1959, Wilen wrote the soundtrack for Édouard Molinaro's film Un témoin dans la ville and recorded the studio album Jazz sur Seine with Kenny Clarke, Milt Jackson and Percy Heath.
As Moshi was a commercial failure, Wilen withdrew from recording for the remainder of the 1970's and relocated to Nice, where he worked as a producer and organizer of local jazz events.
[5] In the 1990's he collaborated musically with his partner at the time, the singer and visual artist Marie Möör,[3] and played with modern jazz musicians until his death from cancer in Paris in 1996, at the age of 59.