Joe Lee Wilson: Livin' High off Nickels and Dimes

I don’t remember exactly where or when I picked up Joe Lee Wilson’s Livin’ High off Nickels and Dimes. It was sometime in the mid- to later 70’s, I’m sure. I knew about Wilson from reading about his involvement in the New York loft jazz scene and his Ladies’ Fort on Bond Street. Vocalists weren’t too prominent on the free jazz scene, so I suppose I was curious about how he fit in.

The first track, “The Theme/Aquarian Melody,” was a revelation. Wilson projects tremendous gusto as he shouts out the very of-their-time lyrics. I was much taken with the line “I must be free/we must be free.” The album was recorded in 1972, early enough in the Me Decade for those sentiments to still have some currency. Livin’ High off Nickels and Dimes wasn’t released until 1974, and by the time I was listening to it, the lyrics were poignant – it was great to hear someone talking about individual and collective freedom as a battle cry, but the war was over in more ways than one. Wilson gives it everything he’s got – at the end of the track, you can hear him go “Whew!”

The other tracks were just as good. Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ but Soul” was a big indie hit in NYC when the album came out, although according to the label’s co-founder, Oblivion Records didn’t have the wherewithal or experience to handle it – the small label record biz never changes. “It’s You or No One” is a beautiful ballad that shows Wilson’s roots in the Billy Eckstine/Earl Coleman/Johnny Hartman tradition of big-voiced baritones. “You Make Me Want to Dance” is a great high-energy whew-inducing closer. Horace Silver’s “Strollin’” and a heartfelt “God Bless the Child” round out the program. Sidemen Ray McKinley (piano), Bob Ralston (tenor), Stafford James (bass), and Napoleon Revels (drums) lend solid support, but it's Joe Lee's show.

My overall view of Livin’ High off Nickels and Dimes is that Wilson, with his terrific range and ability to imbue his singing with such passion and verve, was trying – and in my opinion succeeding – in creating a vocal style that paralleled the attempts by John Coltrane and others to reach an almost ecstatic transcendence of emotion that characterized the best “spiritual jazz” of the era.

Joe Lee Wilson is a shamefully neglected artist in this country. He left the U.S. in 1977 and has carved out a career in the UK and France, and what does that tell us about the American music scene? Thanks to the producer and owner of the master of Livin’ High off Nickels and Dimes, who owns the rights, you can hear this great music here. There’s more Wilson on CD, too (ignore the out-of-date allmusic bio that’s floating around on the Net). I own a couple that I hope to review soon, and his Shout for Trane has just been reissued on the Japanese Why Not label – the title alone has convinced me to pick that one up. Joe Lee Wilson, please come home!