Billboard : 06/02/1956
Score of 80

Trumpeter Wilder, on the basis of this program, should become a much bigger jazz name. He gets a gorgeous, full tone and plays like a warmer, tastier edition of Charlie Shavers. Also, he should appeal to the people who have been buying Ruby Braff. His is a singing, emotional style especially suited to ballads like Prelude to a Kiss and Mad About the Boy, but he also can turn in a highly expressive blues. Hank Jones‘ piano is in a sympathetic idiom. It’s for jazz fans of almost any persuasion and for many who buy jazz only occasionally.

—–

Army Times
Tom Scanlan : 09/22/1956

This is about two excellent trumpet players. Both are from Philadelphia, both have had sound classical training, and their approach to jazz – or “style” if you prefer – is similar. One is finally beginning to get the national recognition he deserves. The other remains nationally unknown. Both are in their 30s.

The first is Joe Wilder who can be heard to advantage on a new LP called Wilder N’ Wilder. Although Wilder has had solos on other records (MGM’s Winter Sequence LP and Savoy’s Tops in Brass LP among others) this is the first time Joe has been the “leader” or, more accurately, the featured performer on an LP. Everyone concerned with this record is to be congratulated. It’s a fine job.

Wilder has tone, rare technical skill, and he swings. Note especially his exciting work on Cherokee, the first tune on this LP. Other tunes are Ellington‘s Prelude to a Kiss, My Heart Stood Still, Mad About the Boy, Darn That Dream, and a blues. Joe is backed by a fine rhythm section composed of pianist Hank Jones, bassman Wendell Marshall and drummer Kenny Clarke.

Wilder is best known in New York as a studio musician (translation: good musician able to play most anything well) although he has played with the Count Basie and Lionel Hampton bands, among others. He spent three years in the pit for “Guys and Dolls” and, at this writing, is with “The Most Happy Fella” pit band.

For more Wilder, I suggest you hear his work on Meet Marlene (Savoy LP 12058), another new record. Marlene is a pleasant enough singer who is billed by first name only. Listen to the Wilder chorus on Snuggled on Your Shoulder.

—–

San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 07/15/1956

Wilder is a good trumpet player with fine tone, clean execution and a restrained, though pleasing, jazz feeling. He plays with only the house rhythm section (H. Jones, W. Marshall, K. Clarke) accompanying him and demonstrates his agility on the horn. The ballads sound best to me.

—–

Down Beat : 05/30/1956
Nat Hentoff : 4.5 stars

Having had the sense to give Joe Wilder his first LP is another mark of A&R distinction for Savoy’s Ozzie Cadena. Wilder, whose band experience includes stays with Les Hite, Lucky Millinder, Sam Donahue, Hampton, Herbie Fields, and Basie, has spent the last three New York years in pit bands, TV, and recording work. On this wonderfully individual set, Joe is excellently backed by Hank Jones, Wendell Marshall, and Kenny Clarke. Wendell is heard in several capable solo statements while Jones is superb throughout. Hank continues to evolve into one of the major pianists in jazz.

Joe has a beautiful, proud-to-be-brass tone; conception that is fresh and always building; and above all, that rare quality that combines flowing, singing lyricism with drive and swinging strength. Though he makes it at any tempo, he is especially commanding on ballads on which he is sometimes like a modern Frankie Newton in terms of his penetrating sensitivity. An unusual success is Six Bit Blues, a long, wholly relaxed, integrated blues in 3/4. (The Blues track also contains a growl chorus by Joe, one of the few hornmen left who can do that kind of muted work convincingly.) Very god sound. In an era when many styles blur into each other, Wilder is maturely his own man.

—–

Liner Notes by H. Alan Stein

Note: Mr. Stein doesn’t believe in paragraphs, which makes his liner notes feel like a giant run-on sentence. My apologies.

Long recognized in the trade as one of today’s top performing trumpeters, Joe Wilder is that much-desired musical combination of idea-fluency and execution that (though modern in end result) transcends schools and fads for its all-around appeal. With a basically big band background, including Lucky Millinder, Sam Donahue, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Fields, and Count Basie. Joe’s more recent years have found him doubling between pit band work, (3 years with Guys & Dolls and Silk Stockings, currently) and many pop recording dates with Camaratta, TV shows, etc. His background is completely musical. Born February 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, Joe’s father was and still is a bandleader there. Joe first debuted on a local radio show for talented Negro children, went on to study at Mastbum School of Music with other local Philly Jazz luminaries like Buddy DeFranco and Red Rodney, then went on the road with the Les Hite band, sharing trumpet chores with Dizzy Gillespie. This was 1941, pre-bop and pre-service for Joe. After a stint as Asst. Bandmaster for the Marines, he returned to the bands and New York recording work, as described above. Joe’s style is marked with an emotional, swinging tone that is lyrical while delivering its rhythmic Sunday punch. Listeners will note in this album that constant medium level of volume that he maintains, yet presenting a varied set of tonal pictures and riving beauty within the constant dynamic metre. Joe’s comrades-in-arms, the trio of Savoy fame, need no further bouquets thrown at them. They represent the finest rhythm section assembled in recent years and are a continual sensation both supporting and soloing with Savoy’s large roster of jazz artists. Hank Jones, Wendell Marshall, and Kenny Clarke as the epitome of tasteful musicianship bringing out the best qualities of any musician they play with and each is a soloist of major stature in contemporary jazz circles. To highlight the tunes in this set… Cherokee is taken at a modified bounce tempo, giving it almost a ballad-like reading. Open and close has piano playing block chord melody with trumpet weaving in and over the structure. Each takes a solo when Joe trades 4s all around. Prelude is almost all Joe, weaving new mysteries about the mood melody. Hank comps and solos brilliantly. Heart has a cute intro and opening chorus bit with offbeat accents, solos all around including Klook’s brushes. Six Bit Blues is a gas! Slow walking blues in waltz-time! Get a load of how really able improvising soloists can readjust the traditional lines of the blues into a 3-beat measure as if it were the most normal thing in the world! Your most unsuspecting friends will listen un-noticing and, as it begins to sink thru, turn gasping to you to find out if this is really true! It just sounds so natural, so regular, so easy… it just feels like those cats were thinking in 3s all their lives. And… all this without ever losing that earthy feel for the blues, too! Mad and Darn are ballad showcases for trumpet that again show Joe Wilder’s fluency and ease of expression. This writer feels the album is not linked to any school or form of jazz, but rather a sincerely universal approach to good, tasty jazz that should appeal to fans of all types of music. Try it on and see.