Mit ein paar Tagen Verspätung hier doch mal noch die Meldung – einer der letzten aus den alten Zeiten, mit Lionel Hampton oder Count Basie hat er gespielt, immer eine gute Figur gemacht und mit seinem tollen Ton überzeugt.
Nachruf aus der NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/arts/music/joe-wilder-horn-player-dies-as-92-elegance-was-his-theme-song.html?src=rechp&_r=0
Und eine Erinnerung von Mark Stryker, die ich gerne hier zitieren möchte, weil sie zu fassen scheint, wer Joe Wilder war:
Mark StrykerWhat a beautiful musician, both highly intuitive and highly schooled (he studied with the midcentury trumpet gurus Joseph Alessi and William Vacchiano). He had one of the most purely gorgeous trumpet sounds of them all – honeyed, round, mellifluous – along with the versatility to play lead trumpet in a big band, solo creatively with a small group, play principal trumpet in an orchestra or handle any Broadway pit assignment. He was a pioneer too, one of the very first black horn players to crack the studios and Broadway. And he was an elegant, lovely man, dignified, modest to a fault and never seen in public without a coat and tie. Joe represents the kind of gifted foot soldiers in jazz that almost never get the attention they deserve. When he received the NEA Jazz Master Award in 2008 I thought it was among the program’s finest moments. His life was a monument to the idea that to be a musician was a noble calling. Nothing was more sacred to him than his professionalism.
I spoke with him briefly on a couple of occasions but can’t say I knew him. But about a decade ago I witnessed a scene I have never forgotten. Joe was playing in suburban Detroit on a small jazz society series backed by a local trio and a singer from mid-Michigan who had known Joe and arranged to bring him out to the area for a couple gigs. Joe played wonderfully with his exquisite sound, elegant melodic sense and still-remarkably supple technique. But there was one moment that stood out. He was playing a samba that he had written and there was this tricky little curlicue figure coming out of the bridge during the melody. Joe flubbed it during the first chorus and you could see immediately in his body language how much it bothered him to have made a mistake. After the solos, when it came time for the out-chorus, as soon as he started playing the melody again, you could clearly sense him aiming all of his attention toward that spot in the tune that he had previously missed. Sure enough, when he got there he nailed it.
That sense of pride and craftsmanship has really stayed with me — the fact that here he was at 81, when no one would begrudge him a tiny technical slip (and the passage was tricky enough to trip up a much younger player), and he was playing for maybe 100 mostly older folks in a place that to him must have seemed like 1,000 miles from nowhere. But, by God, he was not going to miss that passage two times in a row. It was just so inspiring to see that level of commitment. A model for anyone doing anything at any age.
Quelle:
http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/75569-joe-wilder-1922-2014/?p=1357735
Und hier einiges zu seinem ersten NYC-Gig als Leader (mit 84!), im Village Vanguard, 2006:
http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/24459-joe-wilder-debuts-at-village-vanguard/
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #151: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv – 09.04., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba