Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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WILDER, Joe

(b 22 Feb. '22, Colwyn PA) Trumpet, flugelhorn. Has combined classical training with jazz in low- profile career; highly regarded by other musicians. Played with Les Hite, Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Lunceford etc; settled in NYC '47; worked with Noble Sissle, in Broadway pit bands; studied with Joseph Alessi, first trumpet in Toscanini's NBC Symphony, played Bach under cond. Jonel Perlea, etc featured on Count Basie's Softly With Feeling '54; played in film soundtrack The Wild Party '56; ABC network staff musician '57--73 (played in bands on Jack Paar and Dick Cavett shows), then back to Broadway. First chair with Symphony of the New World '65--71; played at Colorado Jazz Party from '72. Sessioned in concerts and/or records with New York Philharmonic, Benny Goodman (incl. USSR tour '62), big-band recording sessions with Ralph Burns, Jimmy Giuffre; also Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Roberta Flack, Charles Mingus (Let My People Hear Music), etc. Golden Crest LP '63 incl. Alec Wilder's Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, written for Joe (no relation). He played beautifully on pieces commissioned by Brandeis U '57 (now on Birth Of The Third Steam; see Gunther Schuller). He solos with immaculate tone and selection of notes, never too many: 'You try not to trample on a nice melody.' Own records on Savoy and Columbia long out of print; plays on Benny Carter: A Gentleman And His Music, co-led quintet album Hangin' Out with Joe Newman and Hank Jones, both on Concord. His first album as a leader in 30 years was Alone With My Dreams '96 on Evening Star, a tiny independent in New Jersey.