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QUARTET Boys

CL 1819

JAZZ FROM “PETER GUNN" The Joe Wilder Quartet

Music by HENRY MANCINI from the TV Series ‘‘Peter Gunn”

A PROFOUND GASS SLOW AND EASY

NOT FROM DIXIE A QUIET GASS

BRIEF AND BREEZY JOANNA

THE FLOATER

JOE WILDER, trumpet

“In our show it’s the beat—the same thing that made jazz from Dixieland to Dorsey exciting,”’ says Henry (Hank) Mancini, creator of the pulsating music for television’s most popular new “whodunit,” Peter Gunn.

But there’s more than a beat to the music for this urbane and witty series of private eye comedy- dramas. Mancini’s original themes, many of them leaning gracefully on a blues base, are the stuff of jazz—whether played by a big band or by a small combo such as the one led by Joe Wilder on this record.

Mancini, with several years of dance-band arranging experience as well as many major film scores

<to his credit, has composed doz- ens of sketches, fragments and full-blown short compositions for the Peter Gunn shows. Ten of the best of the musical miniatures are included on this record. All of them, although composed as pro- gram music, lend themselves re- markably well to the kind of warm, swinging treatment offered by Wilder and his men.

The most refreshing thing that one becomes aware of while lis- tening to Joe Wilder is that this is a musician with the rare ability to be both modern and uncompli-

MILT HINTON, bass

(Recorded January 18, 1959, New York City)

HANK JONES, piano

cated at the same time—a seem- ing contradiction in terms in an era in which hyper-tension and introversion have become accepted as characteristics of contemporary music, both “classical” and jazz.

With refreshing clarity, we understand that Wilder has the happy faculty of playing with a sensitivity that is as vigorous as itis meaningful. He communicates with directness, spontaneity and a virile delicacy unique in jazz to- day. Further, Joe Wilder is blessed with impeccable taste, penetrating intelligence andthe most beautiful horn tone since the great Joe Smith blew his heavenly sounds in Fletcher Henderson’s band. A prominent British critic recently summed up this impres- sive brace of qualities by naming Wilder ‘one of the very few com- pletely fresh and original trumpet stylists to emerge with modern 1022."

The son of a musician, Joseph Benjamin Wilder was born in Colwyn, Pennsylvania, on Febru- ary 22, 1922. Educated in Phila- delphia, Joe joined Les Hite’s band in 1941, working with another, somewhat frantic trumpeter named Gillespie. Then, during 1942 and 19438, he was part of the violently swinging band led by Lionel Hampton. That tour of

BROTHERS GO TO MOTHER’S FALLOUT

BLUES FOR MOTHER’S

duty was interrupted by the draft - board and for the next two years Joe played trumpet for the United States Marines, from which he graduated with the title of “As-

sistant Bandmaster’’—with rank to match.

Immediately afterward, he re- turned to the din of Hampton’s brass section, moving on from there to Jimmie Lunceford’s last crew and then for shoyt periods, he served with Lucky Maillinder, Sam Donahue, Herbie Fields and Count Basie, making a European tour with the latter in 1954.

After this jazzman’s basic training, Joe settled in New York. For three years, he played in the pit orchestra of the Broadway hit Guys and Dolls — studying for his B.A. degree at the same time at the Manhattan School of Music.

For the past few years, Joe Wilder has been working steadily in New York, as a staff member of a network TV orchestra, in symphony orchestras and on hun- dreds of recordings. His superb technique and extraordinary adaptability have made him one of the most sought-after musicians in New York—so much in demand that—until Columbia Records signed him early in 1959, his jazz appearances were becoming re- gretably rare.

JOHN CRESCI JR., drums

CL 1319 |) COLUMBIA | O

GUARANTEED att FIDELITY

Joined by three recording studio cohorts—Milt Hinton, Hank Jones and Johnny Cresci — who just happen to be three of the bus- iest and best jazzmen around, Joe took on this first Columbia assign- _ :

ment with a maximum of enthu- siasm. Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn music was perfect for the kind of free-wheeling date that Joe has been waiting to do. There were blues to blow and Basie-like riff patterns to swing, and some lovely little melodies to make even prettier.

Joe’s arrangements are clean and spare — managing to convey much of Mancini’s original inten- tions, but leaving ample room for extended solos. Joe himself takes on most of the solo work and whether displaying his gorgeous open horn tone or working with mutes, he is always clearly and cleanly Joe Wilder —a distinct and happy new sound on the jazz scene. |

We wish to thank Bill Randle of radio station WERE in Cleveland, Ohio, for his aid in the planning and production of this record. Aside from being one of the most astute citizens of the popular mu- sic world, Bill also has been a long- standing crusader for Jazz and folk music. His suggestions, en- couragement and enthusiasm helped make this record possible.

This Columbia High Fidelity recording is scientifically designed to play with the highest quality of reproduction on the phonograph of your choice, new or old. If you are the owner of

a new stereophonic system, this record will play with even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity. In short, you can purchase this record with no fear of its becoming obsolete in the future.