The Wendell Harrison Interview
What was your childhood like growing up in Detroit on the outskirts of the Second World War? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the clarinet/sax, and was this something that was relevant around your household when you were young?
Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, I was the only child raised by a working middle-class black family. My maternal mother and father got a divorce when I was born in 1942. My Mother remarried in 1948 and my maternal father, Walter Harrison, got a job at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, teaching sociology. He had a PhD from Cornell University. My mother, Ossalee Lockett, worked as a school teacher in the Detroit public school system. She had earned a masters' degree in education from Wilberforce University. Over the years, she went into the Real Estate business. My step-father, James Lockett, was a factory worker and also helped my mother with managing houses. My grandfather, a medical doctor, was the one who suggested piano lessons for me to develop my concentration because as a young child I had an abundance of unharnessed energy, and it was hard for me to focus. Therefore, I began piano lessons at five years old and played up until the age of 8 years of age, when my piano teacher suggested the clarinet to play in the school band. My grandfather purchased a silver metal clarinet, which I concentrated on, trying to make a sound without squeaking. I learned to read music and performed in elementary, middle and high school and played a lot of classical and popular band arrangements. I did not like playing at first, but, I mastered the squeaks and I developed a decent clarinet tone. As I became a more efficient reader, I got the first clarinet chair in school. In 1956, I attended Northwestern High school where I met students playing Be-Bop Jazz, who changed my perspective on music.
Who were some of your earliest influences? When did you realize you wanted to pursue a life and career in music? How did you initially meet your longtime friend and band/label mate, Phil Ranelin, and what was the initial chemistry like between you guys at the very beginning of the Tribe days?
I met musicians and young students such as alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, trumpet player Lonnie Hilyard, piano player Harry Whitaker, bassist James Jamison, drummer Roy Brooks, trombone and bassist James Hankins. All of the above began to become formable musicians in the world of jazz. These students were influenced by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and other be-bop musicians of that time period. They began to show me how to play as well as encouraged me to play an alto saxophone. In the tenth grade, I asked my mother to purchase an alto saxophone, which she did. However, she got me a newspaper route and a supermarket job working as a stock boy. The ideal was that I was to pay her back for the instrument. I began practicing the saxophone and learning tunes my friends would show me, as well as listening to jazz recordings by great bebop musicians. Playing jazz, I noticed my environment changed. I started meeting other jazz musicians outside my high school.
Also, I was introduced by Lonnie Hilyard to the greatest bebop teacher and performer in the world, Barry Harris. Barry took an interest in me and started giving me lessons on how to improvise. He also encouraged me to listen to Sonny Rollins. At that time, I had purchased a tenor saxophone. Playing the tenor saxophone attracted a lot of engagements; I played for dances, high school parties, proms, and private birthday parties and weddings. As I progressed, I began performing with older musicians such as Marvin Gay in Detroit, and sometimes they would take me out of town. Also, I started recording for Motown when I was around 15 and 16 years of age. I graduated when was 16 years old and played around Michigan and Ohio for a couple of years. I also enrolled in college, but I dropped out of college and re-located in New York when I became 19 years old. Some of the jazz musicians in New York heard about me playing bebop and knowing how to read music. When I arrived there, one of my first big gigs was with guitarist, Grant Green. In addition, I worked and recorded with many artists, including Hank Crawford, Sun Ra, Jack McDuff. I met Phil Ranelin when I was on tour with Hank Crawford around 1963 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He went out to see the band at the Pink Poodle Jazz Club. When I moved back to Detroit in 1970, Phil had been working with Motown and relocated to Detroit three years prior, performing in the area.
You guys single-handedly established an incredible period not only in Detroit's already rich music culture, but in the vast world of jazz! Tell me about the process of writing and recording your legendary debut, “Message From The Tribe” in 1972.
Tribe records was a collective of artists and musicians who produced our productions, as well as participated in searching for new distribution outlets. Some of the other artists and producers were Phil Ranelin, Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney, and Doug Hammond, just to name a few. Everybody was working on distribution outlets; we had an aggregate of 15 distributors, some independent and some were corporate entities. The recordings “Message From The Tribe” and “An Evening With The Devil” were recorded all in one session in 1971. The music on these releases was performed live at the Detroit Institute of the Arts venue earlier that year. Phil Ranelin wrote three tunes on side A of “The Message From The Tribe” — “What We Need”, “Angela’s Dilemma” and “How Do We End This Madness”. I composed three songs for side B of “The Message From The Tribe” — “Wife”, “Merciful” and “Beneficent”. I composed all the music on the “An Evening With The Devil” album. These compositions were a reflection and snapshot of the times we were experiencing. Living in urban Detroit, social-economics and politics were driving us. The composition of these productions were issues that concerned Black people of that time and are still valid today.
What was the ultimate vision and overall approach that you guys had in mind for this album, and would you mind giving some background to songs that are featured on the album, like “How Do We End All This Madness”, “Where Am I”, and “What We Need”?
Phil Ranelin’s “How Do We End This Madness” reflects on the industrial culture in the mid-west. The auto plants, steel mills and other manufacturers are responsible for air pollution in our inner cities, which is damaging our health, such as causing cancer and various respiratory diseases. The UAW sometimes does not represent the best interest of the employees in terms of salaries and benefits. “What We Need” is a song voicing our concerns about public schools teaching American history that relates to Black America and teaching trade skills to the youth. “Where Am I” was written when I relocated to California to kick a drug habit. I enrolled in the Synanon Rehabilitation organization where I met great artists such as Art Pepper and Esther Phillips and many others. I also got to record with Esther and The Synanon Choir for Columbia Records, Prince Of Peace. I had a heroin drug habit for four years and was rejuvenating while contemplating my career as a jazz musician.
The label would go on to release a number of incredible works over the decades, but I’d love to focus more on your sincerely epic and prolific solo career with titles like “Dreams Of A Love Supreme”, “Organic Dream”, “Birth Of A Fossil” and countless others. Tell me about those early works and how you approached these albums with such cosmic integrity and fearless expression!
In 1980, I met my second wife, Pamela Wise-Harrison, from Steubenville, Ohio. I was trying to reach a broader jazz audience. I met Pamela in a recording studio recording her original compositions. Her tunes were very interesting to me. They had R&B grooves with jazz cadences. In other words, funky grooves with jazz harmonies or like fusion. At the time, I was into post-bop and avant-garde. She told me that her father was a jazz bassist, which to me explained who she was as an artist. We got together and started recording and performing, and she and I began writing songs and formed a partnership musically and spiritually. This relationship led to composing songs on several of my albums, which made my sound more commercial. We started performing with other artists, such as Leon Thomas, Eddie Harris, Woody Shaw and many others. Also, she helped me to organize a non-profit organization with a 501c3 status to solicit funds from foundations to produce tours, record and distribute jazz products. Eventually, we got married in 1995 and, in all, we have been together over forty-three years, from 1980 to the present. I also produced several albums for her.
Jumping ahead to the highly anticipated release of “Tribe 2000”, tell me about the legend of this archived work that was recorded almost 2 and a half decades ago and how it came to see the light of day all these years later. What does the rest of your year look like and is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
“The Tribe 2000” features compositions written by Phil Ranelin, which came from tapes recorded in the 90’s and early 2000. "He Is The One We All Knew" is a new version that has a funky Latin touch. The first version Phil wrote is a fast-up tempo composition that was recorded in the 70s, and it is on my album, "Farewell To The Welfare". "Third Encounter", was written and recorded in the 80s and recorded in 1990 or early 2000. Phil is a very prolific composer and trombonist, who has exceptional talent and has released many recordings over the years. This year is beginning to come to an end. On November 15th, I will be performing with my band, Tribe, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the Jazz Club, The Blue Llama. Also, I will teach a jazz studies class for the Detroit Jazz Foundation in Detroit twice a week. Next year I plan to organize a tour including Europe, Japan and Australia as well as release more jazz recordings.
