(March 15th 1928 - August 4th 2019)

Born in New York City in March of 1928, Robert Sage Wilber was introduced to jazz at a young age by music loving parents. After his family's move to Scarsdale, New York in 1935, Robert began formal musical tutelage under the instruction of clarinetist Willard Briggs. As a high school student he developed an interest in traditional jazz artist of the 1920's & '30's and began studying the styles of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Frank Teschemacher.

Bob Wilber moved back to New York City in 1945 where he formed his own band the "Wildcats" with pianist Dick Wellstood and trombonist Ed Hubble. They would soon become the first well known group of East Coast musicians to begin playing the revived jazz of the 1920's. During the late 1940's and early 1950's Bob would perform and record with lengthy string of legendary jazz musicians including Muggsy Spanier, Baby Dodds, Danny Barker, Bud Freeman, Pee Wee Russell, George Wettling, Jimmy McPartland, Wild Bill Davison, James P. Johnson, and perhaps most importantly Sidney Bechet. After he was first introduced to Bechet in 1944, by mutual friend and clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow, Wilber began to study both clarinet and soprano saxophone under him in the spring of 1945 and even lived with him for several months. Bob Wilber would become a renowned Bechet stylist before inevitably developing his own highly accomplished style and establishing himself as a celebrated recording artist. Bob Wilber died on August 4th 2019 at the age of ninety-one.