Click here for a video of the interaction between Joe Wilder and the Foster family during the concert at Rutgers University on 9 November 2010.
FOSTER FAMILY REUNION WITH TRUMPETER JOE WILDER
When trumpeter and NEA Jazz Master Joe Wilder, who turns 89 in February, gave a concert at the Institute of Jazz Studies in November 2010, he was reunited with a Newark family who had opened their home to him nearly 70 years earlier. In 1942, Wilder, then 19, joined the Les Hite orchestra and left his native Philadelphia for the first time on tour with the band. One of the stops was Newark where, to save money, the band members split up and stayed in private homes. Joe and two of his fellow musicians stayed in Dorothy Foster's home at 141 Monmouth Street in Newark and remembered the family's hospitality. This past November Dorothy, now 96, and her daughter Gail Johnson read about Wilder’s concert and came to the Dana Library for the event. During a Q&A with the audience, the Fosters, who are lifelong jazz fans recounted their experiences with Joe and the other Les Hite orchestra members, and Wilder recalled the great hospitality shown to him by the Newark family. A few days later, the Fosters returned to IJS where they shared their reminiscences of growing up in Newark and its vibrant jazz history.
The audio tracks at the left provide some of the history of jazz in Newark during the 1940s in the words of Gail Johnson.
The photo below was taken in the 1940s in New York showing the Fosters with Joe Wilder.
Gail Foster Johnson talks about this picture in one of the audio clips at the left.
Above, L to R: Les Hites, unknown, Joe Wilder, Janet Foster
Hope Brown Petrona, Stompy, Dorothy Foster Tulford
Below: An old photo of the Fosters shows Les Hites' Band from the 1940s.
Joe Wilder, with trumpet, is seen in the back row, center.
The photo below was taken at the Institute Of Jazz Studies during the follow-up visit by the Foster family in November 2010.
Above: L to R, seated: Diane Foster, Gail Foster Johnson, Dorothy Foster Tulford
standing: Ed Berger, Justin Cau, Tad Hershorn, Judith Tick, Robert Nahory
Rutgers University
Newark, NJ
