He began playing drums in the Chicago Militia Boys Band, then switched to violin at age eight.
In 1928, Wilson moved to New York City and played with Lloyd Scott at the Savoy Ballroom.
He worked first in the Netherlands with Ed Swayzee, Leon Abbey, the Utica Jubilee Singers, the Louis Douglass Revue, Little Mike McKendrick's International Band, and Tom Chase.
He made trips to Spain and North Africa before settling in Malta, where he became a local star.
He worked there through much of the 1940s and 1950s as a multi-instrumentalist, and made further tours around the Mediterranean before coming back to the United States in the 1960s.