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January 2015 Vol. 52 No. 5

Recently retired as associate director of the Institute of Jazz Studies and author of several jazz biographies (notably, the celebrated Benny Carter: A Life in American Music, 1982), Berger makes another excellent contribution to jazz literature with this biography of the unsung trumpeter Joe Wilder (1922–2014).  Berger interviewed Wilder extensively over a number of years, and also talked to family members and friends—especially fellow musicians.  Wilder’s life was not particularly filled with drama, but this dignified gentleman suffered the expected incidents of racism while coming of age in Philadelphia, in road bands, and in the armed forces during WW II.  Though Wilder played in the bands of such well-known figures as Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie, he spent much of his career in the bands of Broadway shows and in New York recording studios.  He was an African American pioneer in both.  He was more visible as a staff musician in the ABC studio orchestra, and he also played classical music in the Symphony of the New World.  Berger describes the racial integration of all of these venues in detail.  He also chronicles Wilder’s long recording career, and includes a discography.

--K. R. Dietrich, Ripon College

Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.