Bob Wilber RIP

[Ted O'Reilly]

I've note seen details yet, but it's on Wikipedia that he has died...   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Wilber

[Dan Gould]

https://syncopatedtimes.com/jazz-revival-clarinetist-bob-wilber-has-died/

this is Wiki's source.

With him gone that's probably my absolute last shot at finding the Bechet Society CD that Wilber led and and David Bubba Brooks guested on. 

RIP.

[HutchFan]

Sorry to hear this news.

R.I.P.

[JSngry]

RIP and so, so many thanks for doing this.

[Shrdlu]

Thanks for posting that article, Dan. What a wonderful career Bob had!

I remember Soprano Summit, with Kenny Davern. Kenny once made a humorous remark about Bob's curved soprano. I have played the straight model since 1965 and never saw a curved one live. (I was the only soprano saxophone player in all the places I lived in.) About three years ago, I saw a curved one in a store and had a go on it. I was a bit surprised to find that the angle on the main section (where all the keys are) was just about the same as on the straight horn, so there is no point in getting a curved one. Since about the early 80s, Selmer has offered a straight soprano with a slightly bent neck. Wayne Shorter uses that model. I am quite happy with my (completely) straight Selmer soprano.

Bob's departure is quite a loss. And, imagine all the stories he could have told. I hope there are interviews someplace.

[sidewinder]

Sad news - RIP. I remember hearing a lot of his stuff on the radio back in the 70s and 80s and have the feeling I saw him live - most likely one of those NYC Summer open air concerts in the 1990s, Lincoln Center I think.

’Soprano Summit’ - yes, they were very popular here, back in the day. Remember them touring with his wife, vocalist ‘Pug’ Horton.

Edited August 6, 2019 by sidewinder

[Big Beat Steve]

RIP, and thanks for pushing ahead a new track in contemporary jazz.

[HutchFan]

I only got to see Wilber once. It was in a dingy, below-ground nightclub in Paris, about 25 years ago.  It was just Wilber and Wild Bill Davis on organ.

They swung like crazy. 

 

4 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

RIP, and thanks for pushing ahead a new track in contemporary jazz.

???

Irony?

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by HutchFan

[Big Beat Steve]

13 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

???

Irony?

 

Not in the VERY least.

He was one of those who IMO showed that post-1960 there were quite valid ways of expanding and developing existing styles of jazz by creating stimulating new accents and contributing to the development of jazz without going all "free", "avantgarde", "fusion", "rock","post"-something and whatnot ... I for one do NOT see whatever I have heard of his recordings to be all Bechet copycat (or similar). He extended the idiom and was his own man. What he and his brothers in style did was one PART of the WIDE range of contemporary jazz as it developed in the decades onwards. Too bad for those who cannot see (or rather, hear) that.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[HutchFan]

15 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Not in the VERY least.

He was one of those who IMO showed that post-1960 there were quite valid ways of expanding and developing existing styles of jazz by creating stimulating new accents and contributing to the development of jazz without going all "free", "avantgarde", "fusion", "rock","post"-something and whatnot ... I for one do NOT see whatever I have heard of his recordings to be all Bechet copycat (or similar). He extended the idiom and was his own man. What he and his brothers in style did was one PART of the WIDE range of contemporary jazz as it developed in the decades onwards. Too bad for those who cannot see (or rather, hear) that.

Ah.  I see.

 

[JSngry]

the charts on that For Saxes Only were stylistically diverse (for the time, anyway), and it was with no little surprise that I began to learn that Wilber had been so pegged as a Bechet Revivalist or some such. Hearing his first recordings later on, ok, that made sense. But it was a retroactive sense that certainly had no bearing on the things I had already heard (and played along with) by him.

I do get that even as he evolved there was a "squarishness" about his playing that never fully went away. Oh well. That's just how he played.

Squares can have fun too, and a happy square is at least a little less dangerous than an angry hipster. When it comest time to actually get shit movin', I'll take the hip (with or without the -ster) over the square. But when it comes to just every day shit, living a bugout free lifestyle, the happy square is a not-unattractive option.

Anyway, Bob Wilber enabled me being able to play with Jerome Richardson and George Duvivier when I was 15, so, yeah, feeling some love for that here, eternally.

[Ken Dryden]

Bob Wilber played the Atlanta Jazz Party several times and did a record date in a studio with Kenny Davern which I also attended. Unfortunately, Davern got upset about something and went into a lengthy profane outburst that slowed things for a bit. The party host and producer, Phil Carroll, never said a thing about it, but when he booked Bob Wilber for future parties, he never again brought in Kenny Davern. 

This was the CD for the studio session:

[Peter Friedman]

Ted, thanks for posting this information on Bob Wilber's passing.

Back many years ago when my wife, my son and I were visiting John Norris in Toronto, Bob Wilber came over and had a meal with us. Erik our son was just beginning to take alto saxophone lessons. Bob told Erik that it would be beneficial for him to study clarinet first and then, if he so desired move over to alto sax.

Bob came to Toronto often, and also was regular at the Paradise Valley Jazz Party in Phoenix. We saw Bob live many times, and  even though my taste veered more toward bebop and hard bop, always enjoyed his playing on both curved soprano sax and clarinet. He had the ability to fit well with a broad variety of musician of different styles.

[Ted O'Reilly]

1 hour ago, Peter Friedman said:

 

Bob came to Toronto often

 

He did indeed, Peter and I got to know him quite well over the years, recording him as early as about 1972 when I recorded Bob as a member of the WGJB at Massey Hall.  That was quite a gang of veterans which as Big Beat Steve sort of remarked, were all still playing great (Vic Dickenson! Bud Freeman! Ralph Sutton! Gus Johnson! Billy Butterfield! and of course the leaders Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart!) and showing a kind of professionalism that was often lacking in those days...

Bob was an intelligent man and widely-experienced musician who really lived for jazz as he knew it (Bechet! for crying out loud!).  I was once told that he came from a well-to-do family and that he could afford to indulge himself in the kind of music he loved.  If that's so, he spent his largesse well...

[catesta]

RIP, Bob.

 

 

[Ted O'Reilly]

An obituary has finally made the New York Times...  https://nyti.ms/2ZO7sCa

[Justin V]

I'm only familiar with Wilber through his work on the excellent Bechet Mosaic Select, but it must've been incredible to be a young musician taken under Bechet's wing.  Thank you for the music, Mr. Wilber, and rest in peace.