Dexter Wansel
Encyclopedia
Dexter Gilman Wansel is an American keyboardist
, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff
at Philadelphia International Records
. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine. He has worked with Phyllis Hyman
, The Jacksons
, MFSB
, Teddy Pendergrass
, Patti Labelle
, Grover Washington Jr. and Lou Rawls
amongst many others. He also wrote The Jones Girls
1981 soul music song "Nights over Egypt" and Patti Labelle
's 1984 #1 R&B
hit, "If Only You Knew
", with Cynthia Biggs. His "Theme from the Planets" has been sampled and was featured on the breakbeat
compilation album, Ultimate Breaks and Beats
.
Whilst Wansel was relatively unknown outside the U.S., many have suggested that his influence on pop music, as both a producer and performer in the mid 1970s, led to the development of new age soul and jazz funk. His most successful album was Life On Mars, released on the Philadelphia International record label in 1976. Wansel played keyboards, Derek Graves played bass guitar whilst a session singer, Terri Wells, was on vocals. The remaining sound was filled in by Dexter's rhythm section called The Planets
featuring Darryl Brown, Calvin Harris, Bobby Malach, Al Harrison and the aforementioned Graves.
During the second half of the 1970s, space travel and sci-fi were important themes in the ambient U.S. culture and therefore in funk, jazz, and jazz funk, and were reflected in in Dexter's titles and music. Listening to other tracks on the album, like "Stargazer", "Theme from the Planets" and "Rings of Saturn", it can be seen that a space theme runs through his music. His "Funk Attack" on the 1979 album Time is Slipping Away and "I'll Never Forget (My Favorite Disco)" have stood the test of time. Instrumental arrangements appeared on his album Voyager (1978). In addition to this he presented a disco theme with "Disco Lights" from the album What The World is Coming To (1977); and jazz funk such as "Latin Love" on Voyager; or "Ode Infinitum" on What The World Is Coming To.
Wansel has produced and recorded many soul ballads including the Time is Slipping Away title track, "New Beginning" on that same album, "The Sweetest Pain" (which was sampled by The Solid Doctor for his trip hop
track "Lights On The Vibe", by DJ Cam
for his track "Dieu Reconnaîtra Les Siens", and by Global Communication
for their track "The Way") and "You Can Be What You Wanna Be" from 1976. He also co-wrote and produced the Pieces of a Dream
track, "Warm Weather". The track "Rings of saturn" was sampled by Dela for his track "Long Life" featuring Talib Kweli.
He entered the record chart with "Sweetest Pain" in 1979, and "Solutions" a year earlier. He also made a reggae track called "Going Back to Kingston Town" in 1977.
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff
Gamble and Huff
Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff are an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International record label...
at Philadelphia International Records
Philadelphia International Records
Philadelphia International Records is a record label founded by writer-producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff in 1971. It was famous for showcasing the sub-genre of Philadelphia soul music and released a string of worldwide hits during the decade.-History:...
. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine. He has worked with Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Linda Hyman was an American soul singer and actress.-Early years:Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the St. Clair Village, the South Hills section of Pittsburgh...
, The Jacksons
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...
, MFSB
MFSB
MFSB was a pool of more than thirty studio musicians based at Philadelphia’s famed Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bell, and backed up such groups as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the O’Jays, the Stylistics, the...
, Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...
, Patti Labelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
, Grover Washington Jr. and Lou Rawls
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...
amongst many others. He also wrote The Jones Girls
The Jones Girls
The Jones Girls were an R&B trio of sisters from Detroit, Michigan. They first recorded for GM Records in 1968, then recorded for Philadelphia International Records with Gamble & Huff.-History:...
1981 soul music song "Nights over Egypt" and Patti Labelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
's 1984 #1 R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
hit, "If Only You Knew
If Only You Knew
If Only You Knew was a single written and produced primarily by Dexter Wansel and Cynthia Biggs for American singer Patti LaBelle's sixth solo album, I'm in Love Again. It was released as the album's official first single in 1983, spending four weeks at number one on the U.S...
", with Cynthia Biggs. His "Theme from the Planets" has been sampled and was featured on the breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
compilation album, Ultimate Breaks and Beats
Ultimate Breaks and Beats
Ultimate Breaks and Beats was a series of 25 compilation albums released from 1986 to 1991 by Street Beat Records...
.
Whilst Wansel was relatively unknown outside the U.S., many have suggested that his influence on pop music, as both a producer and performer in the mid 1970s, led to the development of new age soul and jazz funk. His most successful album was Life On Mars, released on the Philadelphia International record label in 1976. Wansel played keyboards, Derek Graves played bass guitar whilst a session singer, Terri Wells, was on vocals. The remaining sound was filled in by Dexter's rhythm section called The Planets
The Planets
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst...
featuring Darryl Brown, Calvin Harris, Bobby Malach, Al Harrison and the aforementioned Graves.
During the second half of the 1970s, space travel and sci-fi were important themes in the ambient U.S. culture and therefore in funk, jazz, and jazz funk, and were reflected in in Dexter's titles and music. Listening to other tracks on the album, like "Stargazer", "Theme from the Planets" and "Rings of Saturn", it can be seen that a space theme runs through his music. His "Funk Attack" on the 1979 album Time is Slipping Away and "I'll Never Forget (My Favorite Disco)" have stood the test of time. Instrumental arrangements appeared on his album Voyager (1978). In addition to this he presented a disco theme with "Disco Lights" from the album What The World is Coming To (1977); and jazz funk such as "Latin Love" on Voyager; or "Ode Infinitum" on What The World Is Coming To.
Wansel has produced and recorded many soul ballads including the Time is Slipping Away title track, "New Beginning" on that same album, "The Sweetest Pain" (which was sampled by The Solid Doctor for his trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
track "Lights On The Vibe", by DJ Cam
DJ Cam
DJ Cam is a French DJ. His tunes are almost entirely a hybrid of both hip-hop and jazz music, and is presented in an abstract manner. His first LP was Underground Vibes in 1994, and was revolutionary for its time, featuring familiar jazz samples and many vibe samples and heavy hip-hop influences...
for his track "Dieu Reconnaîtra Les Siens", and by Global Communication
Global Communication
Global Communication is an electronic music act, composed of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. Their debut LP, 76:14 is one of the most acclaimed albums from the ambient music genre and from 1990s electronic music in general....
for their track "The Way") and "You Can Be What You Wanna Be" from 1976. He also co-wrote and produced the Pieces of a Dream
Pieces of a Dream (band)
Pieces of a Dream is an American R&B/jazz group from Philadelphia. The group was formed in 1976 by bassist Cedric Napoleon, drummer Curtis Harmon, and keyboardist James Lloyd. At the time, the three were all teenagers...
track, "Warm Weather". The track "Rings of saturn" was sampled by Dela for his track "Long Life" featuring Talib Kweli.
He entered the record chart with "Sweetest Pain" in 1979, and "Solutions" a year earlier. He also made a reggae track called "Going Back to Kingston Town" in 1977.
Personal life
Wansel is the father of Grammy-nominated music producer and songwriter, Pop Wansel and a U.S Army Veteran of the Vietnam War Era. (Taiwan) Most recently he has authored a fiction novel entitled, "Shortwave" which has been published and released.Studio albums
| Year | Album | Chart positions | Record label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
Jazz Albums | ||||
| 1976 | Life On Mars Life on Mars (album) -Reception:Released in 1976, this album would chart number 44 on the Billboard Soul Album Charts.-Track listing:All songs written by Dexter Wansel except where indicated#A Prophet Named K.G. 4:20#Life on Mars - 5:50#Together Once Again - 4:23... |
— | 44 | — | Philadelphia International Records Philadelphia International Records Philadelphia International Records is a record label founded by writer-producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff in 1971. It was famous for showcasing the sub-genre of Philadelphia soul music and released a string of worldwide hits during the decade.-History:... |
|
| 1977 | What The World Is Coming To What the World Is Coming To What The World Is Coming To is the second album by keyboardist and producer Dexter Wansel.-Track listing:All songs written by Dexter Wansel except where indicated#First Light Of The Morning 6:09... |
168 | 45 | 24 | ||
| 1978 | Voyager | 139 | 37 | — | ||
| 1979 | Time is Slipping Away | — | 58 | — | ||
| 2004 | Digital Groove World | — | — | — | Hotplanet Entertainment | |
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
Selected production discography
- The Jacksons - The JacksonsThe Jacksons (album)-Reception:Released in 1976 for Epic Records and Philadelphia International Records as a joint venture. The album was the band's first for CBS, following their seven-year tenure on Motown as "The Jackson 5"...
1976 - Lou RawlsLou RawlsLouis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...
- All Things in TimeAll Things in TimeRecorded at the legendary Sigma Sound Studios and produced by such PIR luminaries as Gamble & Huff, Bunny Sigler and Dexter Wansel, All Things in Time became an immediate success on the back of its celebrated lead single "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", which gave Rawls the biggest hit...
1976 - The Jacksons - Goin' Places 1977
- Lou Rawls - Unmistakably LouUnmistakably LouUnmistakably Lou is an album by American R&B singer Lou Rawls, released in 1977 on the Philadelphia International Records label. It was Rawls' second PIR album and performed respectably , although its sales fell well short of his PIR debut All Things in Time...
1977 - Lou Rawls - Let Me Be Good to YouLet Me Be Good to YouLet Me Be Good to You is a 1979 album by American R&B singer Lou Rawls, released on the Philadelphia International Records label. Production credits are split between Gamble & Huff, Thom Bell, Dexter Wansel and Jack Faith. Although full performance credits are not given on the album, it is known...
1979 - Teddy PendergrassTeddy PendergrassTheodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...
- TPTP (Teddy Pendergrass album)-Reception:On the album charts, it reached #14 on the US pop charts, and #3 on the US R&B charts. It spawned two top ten singles, "Can't We Try" and "Love T.K.O.".-Track listing:#"Is It Still Good to Ya?"...
1980 - Lou Rawls - Sit Down and Talk to MeSit Down and Talk to MeSit Down and Talk to Me is a 1980 album by American R&B singer Lou Rawls, released on the Philadelphia International Records label. All of PIR's major production names contributed to the album, resulting in a diverse set of tracks from dance to urban blues...
1980 - Patti LaBellePatti LaBellePatricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
- The Spirit's in ItThe Spirit's in ItThe Spirit's in It is a 1981 album released by singer Patti LaBelle. The album was her first release off Philadelphia International Records after coming off a four-year contract with Epic Records and four studio albums...
1981 - Patti LaBelle - I'm in Love AgainI'm in Love AgainI'm In Love Again is the sixth solo album released by singer Patti LaBelle in late 1983. Featuring the hits "If Only You Knew" and "Love, Need and Want You", this album is credited with reviving the singer's career after years of chart struggles on both the pop and R&B charts.-History:Patti LaBelle...
1983 - Patti LaBelle - PattiPatti (album)Patti is an album released by singer Patti LaBelle, her third and final release from the Philadelphia International Records label. The album was the final contractual release from PIR, giving her free rein to sign a new lengthier contract with MCA Records, the label she had signed to in 1984 to...
1983
External links
- [ Dexter Wansel biography at All Music.com]
- Dexter Wansel discography at Discogs.com
- Dexter Wansel on Philly Soul Classics
- http://www.createspace.com/Dexter Wansel Novel Entitled "Shortwave" at CreateSpace.com