Joe Wilder

Joseph Benjamin Wilder (February 22, 1922 – May 9, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

Wilder was awarded the Temple University Jazz Master's Hall of Fame Award in 2006. The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 2008.

Biography
Wilder was born into a musical family led by his father Curtis, a bassist and bandleader in Philadelphia. Wilder's first performances took place on the radio program "Parisian Tailor's Colored Kiddies of the Air". He and the other young musicians were backed up by such illustrious bands as Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's that were also then playing at the Lincoln Theater. Wilder studied at the Mastbaum School of Music in Philadelphia, but turned to jazz when he felt that there was little future for an African-American classical musician. At the age of 19, Wilder joined his first touring big band, Les Hite's band.

Wilder was one of the first thousand African Americans to serve in the Marines during World War II. He worked first in Special Weapons and eventually became Assistant Bandmaster at the headquarters' band. Following the war during the 1940s and early 1950s, he played in the orchestras of Jimmie Lunceford, Herbie Fields, Sam Donahue, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, and finally with the Count Basie Orchestra. From 1957 to 1974, Wilder did studio work for ABC-TV, New York City, and in the pit orchestras for Broadway musicals, while building his reputation as a soloist with his albums for Savoy (1956) and Columbia (1959). His Jazz from Peter Gunn (1959), features ten songs from Henry Mancini ("Peter Gunn") television score in melodic and swinging fashion with a quartet. He was also a regular sideman with such musicians as NEA Jazz Masters Hank Jones, Gil Evans, and Benny Goodman. He became a favorite with vocalists and played for Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, Eileen Farrell, Tony Bennett, and many others. Wilder earned a bachelor of music degree in 1953, studying classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music with Joseph Alessi, where he was also principal trumpet with the school's symphony orchestra under conductor Jonel Perlea. In the 1960s, he performed on several occasions with the New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostelanetz and Pierre Boulez and played lead for the Symphony Of The New World from 1965 to 1971.

He appeared on The Cosby Show episode "Play It Again, Russell" (1986), and played the trumpet in the Malcolm X Orchestra in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" (1992). Since 1991 he returned as a leader and recorded three albums for Evening Star. He died on May 9, 2014, in New York City, of congestive heart failure.

As sideman
With Trigger Alpert With Count Basie With Louis Bellson and Gene Krupa With Ruth Brown With Ralph Burns and Leonard Feather With Benny Carter With Al Cohn With Tadd Dameron With Gil Evans With Dizzy Gillespie With Jimmy Giuffre With Urbie Green With Johnny Hartman With Johnny Hodges With J. J. Johnson With Etta Jones With Hank Jones With Quincy Jones With Yusef Lateef With John Lewis With Mundell Lowe With Herbie Mann With Les McCann With Oliver Nelson With David Newman With Houston Person With Oscar Pettiford With A. K. Salim With Shirley Scott With Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams With Sonny Stitt With Ernie Wilkins With Anita O'Day With Donna Hightower With others
 * Trigger Happy! (Riverside, 1956)
 * Dance Session (Clef, 1953)
 * The Mighty Two (Roulette, 1963)
 * Miss Rhythm (Atlantic, 1959)
 * Winter Sequence (MGM, 1954)
 * A Gentleman and His Music (Concord, 1985)
 * Four Brass One Tenor (RCA Victor, 1955)
 * The Magic Touch (Riverside, 1962)
 * Into the Hot (Impulse!, 1961)
 * Gillespiana (Verve, 1960)
 * The Music Man (Atlantic, 1958)
 * All About Urbie Green and His Big Band (ABC-Paramount, 1956)
 * Once in Every Life (Bee Hive, 1980)
 * With Coleman Hawkins
 * The Hawk Talks (Decca, 1952-53 [1955])
 * Sandy's Gone (Verve, 1963)
 * J.J.! (RCA Victor, 1964)
 * From the Heart (Prestige, 1962)
 * Bluebird (Savoy, 1955)
 * The Birth of a Band! (Mercury, 1959)
 * 10 Years Hence (Atlantic, 1974)
 * The Doctor is In... and Out (Atlantic, 1976)
 * Odds Against Tomorrow (Soundtrack) (United Artists, 1959)
 * The Golden Striker (Atlantic, 1960)
 * New Music of Alec Wilder (Riverside, 1956)
 * Salute to the Flute (Epic, 1957)
 * Comment (Atlantic, 1970)
 * Another Beginning (Atlantic, 1974)
 * Encyclopedia of Jazz (Verve, 1966)
 * The Sound of Feeling (Verve, 1966)
 * The Spirit of '67 with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1967)
 * The Weapon (Atlantic, 1973)
 * Broken Windows, Empty Hallways (Prestige, 1972)
 * Basically Duke (Bethlehem, 1954)
 * Flute Suite (Savoy, 1957) with Frank Wess and Herbie Mann
 * Blues Suite (Savoy, 1958)
 * Great Scott!! (Impulse!, 1964)
 * Porgy & Bess Revisited (Warner Bros., 1959)
 * What's New!!! (Roulette, 1966)
 * Top Brass (Savoy, 1955)
 * Indestructible! (Kayo Stereophonics, 2006)
 * Take One (Capitol, 1959)
 * Joe Newman: Hangin´ Out (Concord, 1984)
 * Benny Carter: A Gentleman and His Music (Concord, 1985)
 * Ruby Braff: Being With You (Arbirs, 1996)
 * Charlie Byrd: For Louis' (Concord, 1996)
 * Jay Jay Johnson: The Brass Orchestra (Verve, 1996)
 * The Heath Brothers: Jazz Family (Concord, 1998)