Alone with Just My Dreams

Featuring James Williams (piano), Remo Palmier (guitar), Jay Leonhart (bass), and Sherman Ferguson (drums). Mention the name Joe Wilder to almost any professional musician in both the jazz and classical worlds, and you're sure to get a smile and a testimonial -- not only to Wilder's musical talents, but also to his sterling personal qualities. Wilder has accomplished just about everything one can accomplish in music -- from big bands to bebop, classical concertos to commercials. He has not enjoyed the same success is in bringing his name to the general public, however. This failing is far more a function of his self-effacing nature than any lack of appeal in his music. Considering his near-legendary status among his peers, it is hard to believe that this is his first album as leader in over thirty years. Reaching musical maturity during the transitional period between swing and bebop, Wilder easily fits into a broad range of musical settings, owing allegiance to no single school or style. His logical solo conception and pure tone are immediately identifiable, even on his earliest recordings. As Whitney Balliett wrote in a 1986 New Yorker profile of Wilder, 'His solos are immaculately designed... He makes the song gleam.'