You probably don’t recognize his name, but you’ve heard his songs. Alec Wilder was a composer during the swing to bop era, and is best known for his two chestnuts, “I’ll Be Around” and “While We’re Young.” He lived during the time that jazz was trying to figure out what direction to take after the swing era. The two alternatives were toward classical a la the cerebral and complex arrangements of Eddie Sauter and Gunther Schuller or the more frenetic and rhythmic bebop sounds of Parker and Gillespie. Those of the classical sway tried to mix the sounds by “swinging the classics” at adding a backbeat to things like “Veste La Giubba” . Wilder went the other way by creating a style of chamber music that had classical harmonies and instrumentation, but with a jazz sensibility. These two discs feature his output from 1938-47 and show a direction that jazz could have gone if it had not been overwhelmed by the more visceral bebop.
The instrumentation usually consists of flute, clarinet, bassoon, oboe, bass clarinet along with harpsichord, bass and drums. The harpsichord makes the songs like “A Debutante’s Diary” and “Such a Tender Night” reminiscent of Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five recordings, and tongue in cheek titles such as “Neurotic Goldfish” and “The House Detective Registers” keep the mood from getting too self-important. To give an idea of how important this music’s direction was, no less than Frank Sinatra conducts the chamber group which includes Mitch Miller for a handful of the sessions. The various “Airs” for oboe, bassoon, flute and English horn have a pastoral beauty to them. There are episodes of swing, as on his own “Horn Belt Boogie,” “A Little White Samba,” and covers of “Blue Room,” but for the most part the tunes veer between contemplative and ruminating. The music is almost impossible to categorize, unless you go by Ellington’s standard which was “good, and the other kind.” This one, with panoramic beauty, is definitely the former. A truly unique collection that deserves attention.
Hep Jazz Records