1. Joseph Benjamin Wilder was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.
13 Facts About Joe Wilder
1. 2.
Joe Wilder was awarded the Temple University Jazz Master's Hall of Fame Award in 2006.
3.
Joe Wilder was born into a musical family led by his father Curtis, a bassist and bandleader in Philadelphia.
4.
Joe 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.
5.
At the age of 19, Joe Wilder joined his first touring big band, Les Hite's band.
6.
Joe Wilder was one of the first thousand African Americans to serve in the Marines during World War II.
7.
Joe Wilder worked first in Special Weapons and eventually became Assistant Bandmaster at the headquarters' band.
8.
From 1957 to 1974, Joe 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 and Columbia.
9.
Joe Wilder was a regular sideman with such musicians as NEA Jazz Masters Hank Jones, Gil Evans, and Benny Goodman.
10.
Joe Wilder became a favorite with vocalists and played for Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, Eileen Farrell, Tony Bennett, and many others.
11.
Joe Wilder earned a bachelor of music degree in 1953, studying classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music with Joseph Alessi, where he was principal trumpet with the school's symphony orchestra under conductor Jonel Perlea.
12.
Joe Wilder appeared on The Cosby Show episode "Play It Again, Russell", and played the trumpet in the Malcolm X Orchestra in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X".
13.
Joe Wilder died on May 9,2014, in New York City, of congestive heart failure.