Bob Wilber's Wildcats

 

Camp Meeting Blues

Oh Daddy!

Bob Wilber's Wildcats

New American Jazz 

In The New Orleans Tradition

Photo by Robert Parent

Rampart Album No. A-101

3 Disc - 78 RPM Set

From the inside cover: One of the most exciting and rewarding development in recent jazz history has been the emergence of young musicians who have chosen to play in the tradition of the New Orleans jazzmen. For many years, before the return to activity of such men as Bunk Johnson and Kid Cry, it appeared that New Orleans music would be forgotten except for a handful of phonograph records. Even after the veterans came back to play as wonderfully as ever, there seemed to be little likelihood that their music would still be played after their generation had passed. But their return stirred the emotions of a new generation, and today there are youngsters, some not even out of their teens doing their best to play in the same tradition.

The best-known, and probably best, of these groups is Bob Wilber's Wildcats, a band that set New York jam session and jazz concert crowds on their ears a few seasons ago. It grew up out of sessions in private homes in Scarsdale and Greenwich, in which teen-agers who had learned their jazz from records an jazz concerts in near-by New York were able to play together under conditions suitable for their tender years. These youngsters centrally played alongside such fine jazzmen as Sidney Bechet, Bunk Johnson and Art Hoses. Within a year of two, Wilber's Wildcats were good enough to rate recording for a major company with Sidney Bechet, the first time that a veteran jazzman had ever mad records with his protegés. Their Rampart records, the only time the full Wiler band has ever recorded, are simple testimony to their ability to stand up on their own.

This album, like the single records which have already appeared on the Rampart label, was recorded on the last day before the 1948 recording ban. The boys simply knocked off 12 sides from their repertoire, one after another. The titles in this set, without intending to be significant, reflect the variety of influences that have gone into the Wildcats' playing. Jelly Roll Morton is represented by his beautiful Frog-I-More Rag, which features an unusual and delightful passage played without the rhythm section; Richard M. Jones contributes Trouble In Mind; Once In A While derives from the Louis Armstrong Hot Five recording; Oh Daddy! is a bow to Bessie Smith; Camp Meeting Blues celebrates King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. On their own, the Wildcats have tossed in that starched-collar favorite of yesteryear, When You Wore A Tulip.

The band is no longer together – as this is written, Wilber is continuing a carte-blanche run of many months at the Savoy Cafe in Boston, and Dick Wellstood has just left Chicago to join him; Dennis Strong is playing in a Broadway show; Bob Mielke has returned to his native San Francisco and Jerry Blumberg is back in Baltimore; Charlie Traeger is studying at Columbia University and Johnny Glade is a Yale. But the records are right here for you to enjoy for always, just as the boys played to win their reputation as the op young band of the country.

Once In A While (R-9512)

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums

Cornet solo by Johnny Glasel

Camp Meeting Blues (R-9508)

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums

Trouble In Mind (R-9511)

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums

When You Wore A Tulip

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums

Cornet Solo by Jerry Blumberg

Frog-I-More Rag

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums

Cornet Solo by Johnny Glasel

Oh Daddy!

Recorded in New York - December 31, 1947

Johnny Glasel, Jerry Blumberg - Cornets

Bob Mielke - Trombone

Bob Wilber - Clarinet

Dick Wellstood - Piano

Charlie Traeger - Bass

Danny Strong - Drums