Joe Lee Wilson, R.I.P.  

Word just arrived via writer Ashley Kahn (our friend, and former WKCR and NPR producer) that the great, underrated jazz vocalist Joe Lee Wilson has passed away at the age of 75. There’s a thoughtful, well reported obituary from Joe’s adopted country by John Fordham in The Guardian, which rightly headlines him as an “eloquent jazz vocalist who drew on the raw passion of the blues.” You might also check out a nice tribute from The New York Times’ Peter Keepnews.

Tom Pomposello and I did our best to remedy the “underrated” part of Joe’s legacy when Oblivion released “Livin’ High Off Nickels and Dimes” in 1974. The 1972 live radio session was legendary around WKCR, and though it wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, my great friend Nick Moy* persuaded me to spend some time with the tapes and immediately we came to the conclusion that Joe fit our criteria of a superior artist who needed some more visibility.

We eventually made a great hit in New York with the help of Van Jay at WRVR (“Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul”), but Oblivion was so unglued we actually didn’t know how to respond and we couldn’t supply the albums to meet the demand (it eventually bankrupted Oblivion; more on that in another post). It helped boost ticket sales for live performances at Joe’s Ladies’ Fort loft, so it wasn’t all in vain.

Ultimately, Livin’ High… was one of the records we were proudest to have released. 

Here’s a taste of Joe’s signature tune, his only radio hit, ”Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul.” 

You can listen and download the entire album, and read the original liner notes, here. If getting it for free doesn’t suit you, it’s available at all digital download stores.

Photograph by Sherry Brown/Tulsa World, 2010

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* Nick was KCR’s chief announcer and a classical show producer, but ironically, he was a much more educated jazz listener than I; during high school in New York City he’d been a dedicated Billy Taylor listener on WLIB, a station that supported the then contemporary jazz mainstream. I was relatively new to jazz, coming from the outer reaches of rock, but when the session was taped in the summer of 1972, I was still in the thrall of the avant-garde, giving short shrift to mainstream jazz vocalists.