Joseph (Benjamin) Wilder (1922–2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer. Wilder was awarded the Temple University Jazz Master's Hall of Fame Award in 2006. The National Endowment for the Arts honoured him with its highest honour in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 2008.
Wilder was born into a musical family led by his father Curtis, a bassist and bandleader in Philadelphia. Wilder's first performances took place on the radio program, Parisian Tailor's Colored Kiddies of the Air. He and the other young musicians were backed by such illustrious bands as Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's that were also then playing at the Lincoln Theater. Wilder studied at the Mastbaum School of Music in Philadelphia but turned to jazz when he felt that there was little future for an African-American classical musician. At the age of 19, he joined his first touring big band, Les Hite's Band.
Wilder was one of the first thousand African Americans to serve in the Marines during World War II. He worked first in Special Weapons and eventually became Assistant Bandmaster at the headquarters' band. Following the war during the 1940s and early 50s, he played in the orchestras of Jimmie Lunceford, Herbie Fields, Sam Donahue, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie and finally with the Count Basie Orchestra.
From 1957 to 1974, he did studio work for ABC-TV, New York City, and in the pit orchestras for Broadway musicals, while building his reputation as a soloist with his albums for Savoy (1956) and Columbia (1959). His Jazz from Peter Gunn (1959), features ten songs from Henry Mancini ("Peter Gunn") TV score in melodic and swinging fashion with a quartet. He was also a regular sideman with such musicians as NEA Jazz Masters Hank Jones, Gil Evans and Benny Goodman. He became a favourite with vocalists and played for Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, Eileen Farrell, Tony Bennett, etc.
Wilder earned a BM degree in 1953, studying classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music with Joseph Alessi, where he was also principal trumpet with the school's symphony orchestra under conductor Jonel Perlea. In the 1960s, he performed on several occasions with the New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostelanetz and Pierre Boulez and played lead for the Symphony of the New World 1965-1971.
He appeared on The Cosby Show episode "Play It Again, Russell" (1986) and played the trumpet in the Malcolm X Orchestra in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). Since 1991 he returned as a leader and recorded three albums for Evening Star. He died May 9, 2014, in New York City, of congestive heart failure.
Alan Rubin (1943–2011), also known as Mr Fabulous, was an American musician who played trumpet, flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet.
Rubin was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was a member of the Saturday Night Live Band, with whom he played at the Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games. As a member of The Blues Brothers, he portrayed Mr Fabulous in the 1980 film, the 1998 sequel and was a member of the touring band.
Rubin played with an array of artists, such as Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington, Blood Sweat and Tears, Gil Evans, Eumir Deodato, Sting, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Frankie Valli, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, B B King, Miles Davis, Yoko Ono, Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and Dr John.
Rubin died from lung cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.