Joe Lee Wilson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joe Lee Wilson (born December 22, 1935 - July 17, 2011 ) was an American jazz singer .

Live and act

Joe Lee Wilson has African American and Native American roots. He grew up on his parents' farm near Bristow (Oklahoma) . His early influences included the singing of Louis Jordan , which he heard on the radio, eventually Nat King Cole and Dinah Washington . When he was 15, he moved to Los Angeles , where his aunt lived. There he met the jazz singer Eddie Jefferson . After briefly studying singing at Los Angeles City College, he began performing in the Santa Monica club scene . He had his first engagements with Fletcher Henderson's saxophonist Roscoe Weathers. From 1959 he worked in Mexico, where he appeared with the singer Ernestine Anderson , who gave him contacts in New York. There he came across the free jazz and avant-garde scene around Archie Shepp , Amiri Baraka and Sunny Murray , and he also worked with Sonny Rollins , Lee Morgan , Miles Davis , Pharoah Sanders and Jackie McLean . In 1968 he got a recording deal with Columbia Records , but the label didn't release any of his recordings. In the 1970s he rented a building on Bond Street near Sam Rivers ' Rivbea Loft and created The Ladies' Fort as a venue , as well as an association of the existing lofts and organized a regular music festival. The Ladies' Fort closed in 1979.

Wilson's best-known recordings with Shepp included the albums Things Have Got to Change (1971) and Attica Blues (1972). In the same year a live radio show was recorded ( Livin 'High Off Nickels and Dimes ) at Columbia University ; In 1975 he had a hit on New York radio stations with Jazz Ain't Nothing But Soul .

In 1977 he married the Englishwoman Jill Christopher and moved to Europe, where he occasionally worked with pianists Bobby Few , Billy Gault and Kirk Lightsey , who also worked on his album Feelin 'Good ( Candid Records ). In 2004 the album Ballads for Trane with Gianni Basso and Riccardo Arrighini followed , which was reminiscent of the collaboration between Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane . In 2010 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame .

Discographic notes

  • 1974: Livin 'High Off Nickels & Dimes (Oblivion Records)
  • 1976: Shout For Trane (Whynot Records)
  • 1977: Secrets from the Sun (Sun Records)
  • 2008: Ballads for Trane ( Philology )
  • 2008: I Believe (Philology)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Obituary in The Guardian
  2. ^ Obituary in The Times
personal data
SURNAME Wilson, Joe Lee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1935
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 2011