Joe Lee Wilson and Secrets from the Sun

Look into eternity

In my earliest days in music I came across Archie Shepp’s record The Cry Of My People. I heard a singer sing Come Sunday. I was immediately stunned and my soul somehow sent me the message-what the singer was doing here was the path to follow. All I knew was his name, Joe Lee Wilson, and there was a small picture inside the album. Shortly after this in Nyack, NY where I was living, I was working the night shift at an A&P supermarket and was able to get WKCR from Columbia University on my radio. There was that voice again one night, but now he was in a musical environment of a storm, with wind and rain just swirling around him. He sang in his huge voice “IT FEELS LIKE A HURRICANE……IT FEELS LIKE A HURRICANE!” It was Joe Lee. I rushed and threw a cassette in to record it, over whatever was on the tape, I didn’t care. I marked the tape “Joe Lee Wilson Hurricane.” As my own musical journey took me to NYC I was always trying to find out more about Joe Lee, but couldn’t find out much besides his work with Archie. When I joined the downtown scene in 1999 I was on the right track, but still in search mode. Somehow in 2002 I came across a flyer that said Joe Lee Wilson was doing a vocal workshop at a library in New Jersey..could it be? I took 3 buses and attended. I wasn’t trying to sing then, but this was my chance to meet Joe Lee. I stayed low-key during the workshop where we all had to write and sing our own blues. Afterwards I told him I was a musician and something about how much soul he had lol, he gave me a big hug and I got to hang out with him. He gave me his card and said he lived in the UK. I gave his card to William Parker as I was in the Little Huey Orchestra then. I then found a copy of what is now still my favorite Joe Lee Wilson record, Secrets from the Sun. One of my desert island, top 5 records, I continue to listen to it while I paint.

Before I delve into Joe Lee’s story and work I implore folks to pause to hear and see Joe sing Why did you come into my Life? in 1970, the year I was born. Here, he transcends the song as he often did, by singing so strongly that the music is more about LIFE force than the lyrics.

Joe Lee Wilson (12/22/1935-7/17/2011) was born in Bristow, Oklahoma. He grew up on a farm and recalled Black cowboys and rodeos. He was proud of his Creek Indian identity. In High School in Los Angeles, he encountered the great Eddie Jefferson who was a mentor of sorts. On scholarship he studied opera at the Los Angeles Conservatory of music for a year. His first professional job was with Fletcher Henderson saxophone player Roscoe Weathers. He sat in more than once with Sarah Vaughan on the West Coast in 1958. He found success and a good vibe in Mexico through 1959. Singer Ernestine Anderson heard him in 1960 in Mexico and got him to make the move to NYC. During the 60’s Joe Lee collaborated with Jackie McLean, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Murray, Pharoah Sanders, Lee Morgan, and met Amiri Baraka. Both Miles Davis and Art Blakey wanted to work with him. He recorded with Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Dorham, I’m still searching for these tracks. Incredibly, In 1968, Wilson tied with Sly and the Family Stone for first prize on NBC's show Talent Search, and won a record deal with Columbia, but the company never released his albums. Joe said they didn’t have the words to categorize him. Some of the Columbia pressings are out there on Discogs and Ebay. In the early 70’s Joe Lee got into the free jazz scene. It is well known that he opened the 100-seat Ladies’ Fort in a basement on 2 Bond Street in NoHo. Here he led the Joe Lee Wilson Plus Five, featuring guitarist Ryo Kawasaki and alto sax player Monty Waters. At the Ladies' Fort he featured mainstream musicians including Count Basie, Frank Foster, and Eddie Jefferson, as well as free players such as Earl Cross, Monty Waters, Hakim Jami and Benny Wilson, and beyond..

Photo: Jim Eigo

It was definitely all about the music:

“Since we were turned down for a grant, we pay the musicians by giving them two-thirds of the receipts we take in at the door. The other third goes for the rent. Which is two months behind.”

-Joe Lee Wilson in 1977 (NYT) (sounds familiar)

In 1974 Joe Lee met UN translator Jill Christopher at the Tin Palace and in 1977, they got married and moved to Europe.

Val Wilmer crossed paths with Joe Lee around this time:

“In 1977 Joe moved into my flat in Balham, south London. Within half an hour he had discovered the betting shop and within a day thrust a large sum of money into my hands – my "share" of his winnings. He cooked, washed clothes and did the ironing, then when Jill arrived, they raided the butcher's for lamb chops and goat, and he cooked up enough to last us a week.

It was a period of racial tension, with the National Front marching in Lewisham. I failed to persuade my visitors to join the protest, but when I returned from the demo injured and bleeding – hit over the head while taking photographs – they were dismayed. Nursing my headache in a darkened room, I groaned at the sound of distant hammering. Then Joe Lee appeared, towel full of crushed ice in hand, and proceeded to wrap it gently around my head. They left London to move into Jill's house in Kemptown, East Sussex, where Joe became a much-loved Brighton figure.”

Joe Lee kept singing, recording, and touring for the rest of his life from this home base. At some point he was touring with pianist Reggie Moore, possibly for the State Department. They performed in Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, and Cyprus. In 1987 he played the now defunct Babylon Festival in Baghdad, during the Iran-Iraq war. Jill Wilson recalled "They had asked Madonna to go, but she was too scared, so they asked Joe Lee and he was thrilled." In 2010, despite having undergone heart surgery, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame where he gave his last public performance. He died at his Brighton home in the UK on July 17, 2011 aged 75.

Next up, the music. First Joe Lee’s incredible work with Archie Shepp. Money Blues from Things have got to Change in 1971. I still put this one when I’m grinding and money is tight. Joe Lee soars above the ensemble here. Steam part 1 and Steam part 2 from Attica Blues, where he sings sssteam like the ssteam coming out of the pipe. From the album The Cry of My People- The Lady, for Billie Holiday. Joe Lee saw her in person in 1951. Lastly, on the same record Come Sunday, the piece that started it all for me. Joe Lee was at full spiritual power on these pieces. The higher he sings, the fuller resonance he attains. For me I have never heard a voice carry so much power. On these pieces, the material matches his, a perfect match.

Joe Lee Wilson was deeply impacted by the work of John Coltrane. In 1976 he released the album Shout for Trane and on Mode the band chants John Coltrane while Joe Lee leads them in tribute. Joe Lee was impacted by Trane’s scream expression on tenor and does a vocal version. In 1977 on the album Secrets from the Sun, Mode for Trane was recorded again with the same high intensity energy. The lyrics say it all..

There was this man

Brought new sounds

Paved the way to freedom

and wake up our minds

Now this man is gone

There hasn’t been one since

It’s a tribute..to the prince of peace

Alliance in a man

Bring us back home

Harmonize the music of mans soul

Do you remember the modes?

It ain’t just prophecy

It’s called truth and it will set you free!

Later on in 2004 Joe Lee recorded the album (disclaimer: Spotify was my only source, apologies) Ballads for Trane. Naima has a soaring profound ending as Joe Lee creates his own ending, different from the one most people know. He had a daughter named Naima, making it even more poignant. Mode for Trane appeared a third time in 1994 on a record Joe Lee made with Billy Gault. Joe Lee also had an arrangement of I Want to Talk About You that he recorded on The Shadow in 1988, and can be seen here live at the Lenox Lounge. Seeing him at the Lenox in Harlem is something, as I use to play there on a jam session run by Roy Campbell Jr. whom I wrote about in a previous Substack.

Joe Lee Wilson recorded 12 albums as a leader by my count, there are 3 missing on Wikipedia: Ballads for Trane, I Believe, and Somebody Cares. The only one I’ve yet to hear is his first one, The Great City in 1964, but I’ve got a lead. Several can only be heard by tracking down the CD or Vinyl. I’ve been writing about my favorite bright moments throughout the substack here. Additional for me is Crucificado from the album What Would it Be Without You. Deeper meaning here for me is the composer is my friend the great Dave Burrell.

Part of the reason I resonate so strongly with Joe Lee Wilson is his writing, which reveals his personal spirituality, which I feel is very similar to my relationship with the cosmic forces above. I feel a connection to higher vibrations through nature. On an album of duets with guitarist Jimmy Ponder titled Come and See, Joe Lee has a song called I Follow the Sun. He sings as if from the top of a mountain..

I follow the sun

I speak to the wind

I speak to the rain

In reaction to 9/11 he wrote a piece called Shadow of the Sun (at 1:44:00) This is from the same library where I met him! As dark as 9/11 was, it wasn’t enough to take away his joy in a way. The song is like a temporary shadow that will clear.

All of this leads me back to my favorite Joe Lee Wilson record Secrets From The Sun. For me this album is a full manifestation of his relationship with nature via the sun. Somehow all of this is related to his sound.

On Secrets from the Sun he sings..

Strange Love, from high above

She knows, when it’s time to love

On Dedicated to my Father he sings..

If we’ve lived before

You’ve walked through this door

Can you tell me why

We just live and die

Will he come again?

Try and find the Sun!

On Come and see he sings

Come and see

Sparrow singing jazz for me

Come and see

Look into eternity

Another aspect related to Joe Lee Wilson for me is the idea that horn players at the core should really try to sing with their instruments. Miles said his trumpet sound was his voice. Ornette, Marshall Allen, Odean Pope, even Roy Hargrove all said the same thing. So many horn players don’t sense or use this connection. About to turn 55, my horn playing is now completely focused on this. Matana Roberts helped me by asking us to all literally sing with our voices on Coin Coin chapter five. I’m deep into Elis Regina (with no understanding of Portuguese) and Indian classical vocalist Tripti Mukherjee. Joe Lee Wilson is the ultimate example of what the voice can be in the kind of free swing environments that I crave and thrive in, where I live. He has a singing voice bigger than all the famous singers I know, but he’s down with free jazz. When he’s singing standards or more straight he still takes a free approach in almost every way, even the lyrics. One of his truly transcendent moments is where he takes Somewhere over the Rainbow truly over and beyond the rainbow. The song is reinvented into something far beyond it’s original conception.

There’s a video online of moments from what’s listed as a Joe Lee Wilson celebration, his funeral or memorial service, that has profound moments.

Naima Wilson said Joe Lee told her always remember where you come from. Fight for your dream and don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it.

Jill Wilson read a traditional Indian poem that said:

When I’m dead, cry for me a little. Think of me sometimes, now and again as I was in life. While you live, let your thoughts be with the living.

Jessica Hynes said:

He didn’t have spirit, he was spirit

He didn’t love, he was love

He didn’t play music, he was music.

Joe Lee Wilson himself said:

“Years go by so quick it’s like minutes. Time is eternal. There’s only one day. One day is your life. Night, and Day.”

and lastly…

I am the blues

For the great Joe Lee Wilson