Detroit’s Wendell Harrison is an award-winning saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. WithPhil Ranelinhe co-founded theTribein 1971. Their acclaimed albums included 1972’sMessage from the Tribeand Harrison’s 1973 classicAn Evening with the Devil. Harrison founded the Wen-Ha and Rebirth labels.Dreams of a Love Supremeappeared in 1980. 1993’sSomething for Popswas recorded withHarold McKinney.Carl Craigproduced 2009’sTribe: Rebirth. In 2021, Harrison’s lost 1975 albumFarewell to the Welfaresaw release . Current effortGet Up Off Your Kneesthe following year. Harrison joinedRanelin,Adrian Younge, andAli Shaheed Muhammadand recordedPhil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison JID016.

Wendell Harrison was born in Detroit in 1942. He began studying clarinet at age seven. He attended Northwestern High School, and his classmates included trumpeterLonnie Hillyer, drummerRoy Brooks, and saxophonistCharles McPherson. Harrison began formal jazz studies during the mid- to late ’50s with pianist and composerBarry Harrisat the Detroit Conservatory of Music (now called the Center for Creative Studies). During the latter part of the decade, he played early sessions for Motown and backedMarvin Gaye, as well asAretha Franklinfor Columbia.

This is the Tribe Records co-founders lost album, recorded in 1975, rumored to exist no more. Mastered from the original tapes and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff Chairman Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. This is the individual release of the same mastering as the edition for the Now-Again Records & Vinyl Me Please, Anthology boxset, The Story of Tribe Records. via Label

Label:Now Again Records, Tribe
Format:Vinyl, LP, Album, Remastered, Stereo
Released:2022
Genre:Jazz, Funk / Soul
Style:Space-Age, Jazz-Funk

File under: Soul-Jazz / Jazz-Funk