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Untitled

Joe Lee Wilson

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The Ladies Fort, 6/73 – 21:40
  • Joe Lee Wilson – vocals
  • Rashied Ali - congas
  • Monty Waters - sax
  • Ronnie Boykins – bass
  • Earl Cross - trumpet
  • Art Lewis - drummer

Joe Lee Wilson’s voice is one of the most powerful instruments on Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues and Cry of My People. But, as Rashied Ali notes below in an excerpt from an online interview, while Wilson was a powerful artist, he never received his due.

"Joe Lee was another, unheralded, misunderstood, and just one of those guys who never got recognized in his time," Rashied tells me. "He had the experience and the knowledge and the influences; a total jazz singer. Joe Lee had all that; he still has all that. I still think he's one of the top jazz singers in the world, but he's still one of those secrets. One of those singers who really never got an even break. He also had a loft on Bond Street called Ladies' Fort.” Interview by Steve Koenig (February 2001) http://www.furious.com/Perfect/rashiedalisurvival.html

Monty Waters performed with Billy Higgins, Sam Rivers, Chet Baker, Pharoah Sanders, and Elvin Jones. He lives in Germany and continues to compose and perform in Europe.

Ronnie Boykins was a member of the Melodic Art-tet with Ahmed Abdullah, Roger Blank, and Charles Brackeen and played with Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Marion Brown, Sarah Vaughan, and many others.