Dexter Wansel (born August 22, 1950) – First Light In The Morning (1977)

The musical genius Wansel wrote and produced this epic jazz-funk opening cut for his second album, released on Philadelphia International Records.

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The singer/songwriter, keyboardist, arranger and producer Dexter Wansel is a multi-talented musical genius.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Wansel’s step-uncle was the legendary WHAT and WDAS DJ George Woods. Starting when he was nine years old, Wansel worked as a errand boy backstage at the Uptown Theater from 1959-63. He helped Woods put on his famous R&B revues, featuring ten acts on one bill, and Freedom Shows that raised money for the Civil Rights Movement. Wansel and his high school friend Stanley Clarke played in bands together as teenagers.

After serving in the Army, Wansel went to work at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios as a synthesizer programmer in 1970. Two years later, he started submitting songs to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff at their new label Philadelphia International Records (PIR). He also began playing keyboards with the label’s house band MFSB, and joined a group called Yellow Sunshine along with fellow MFSB members Roland and Karl Chambers.

While playing with Yellow Sunshine, Wansel met Bunny Sigler, who invited him to tour with the group that later became Instant Funk. He met another up-and-coming musical prodigy, Theodore Life aka T Life, who was one of the group’s guitarists, and the two became friends. They formed a company called Mills and Mills, which stood for Millions and Millions, and together discovered Evelyn “Champagne” King. As Wansel recalled in 2019:

“We shared an office together at PIR and the King family would come in to clean the offices. We both heard Evelyn singing whilst she was wiping down the piano and both of us liked her voice. I did the rhythm chart of “Shame” and “The Show Is Over.” John Fitch had a tape of the track so John was the producer. T Life, Instant Funk, and I went to the studio and cut the rhythm tracks for “Shame” and “The Show Is Over” which I co-wrote.”

All of Wansel’s tracks were turned down at PIR until 1974, when his song “Billy’s Back Home” was accepted for Billy Paul’s album Got My Head on Straight (1975). According to Wansel in 2015:

“Billy Paul was a wonderful friend and mentor. After leaving Yellow Sunshine I wrote songs trying to get them established on recording artists. Billy Paul and Kenny Gamble liked this song that I wrote for Billy. It was the first song I got to produce at Philly International Records.”

That same year in 1974, Wansel was signed to an artist/writer/producer deal at PIR, and later served as the label’s A&R Director from 1978-80. His solo debut album was the stone cold space funk classic Life On Mars (1976), in which he explored the otherworldly ideas and sounds that fascinated him. One of its gems was “One Million Miles from the Ground,” which featured Wansel on lead vocals along with Barbara Ingram, one of the Sweethearts of Sigma who sang backing vocals on nearly every LP released on PIR.

Wansel recalled in 2012 that “One Million Miles from the Ground” was originally written in 1973 and was one of his songs that had initially been rejected by Gamble and Huff. “I subsequently used all of those refused songs in one way or another,” he said. “However, those songs that weren't picked up by other artists, you can hear on my albums. This is one!” He memorably performed the track live on a Philadelphia music show in 1976.

For his second album What The World Is Coming To, released in 1977, Wansel wrote and produced the epic jazz-funk opening cut “First Light In The Morning.” It was arranged by the prolific Philly arranger Jack Faith and featured Darryl Brown on drums, plus members of MFSB on its strings and horns. The LP also included his funky, #25 disco hit “Disco Lights,” which he wrote, produced, arranged, and played all the instruments on himself. “Just gimme some red, and some green, and some orange!”

The album reached #45 on the R&B albums chart, and peaked even higher on the jazz charts at #24.

Further info:

“Time Is The Teacher: The Endlessly Sampled Space Groove of Dexter Wansel,” interview by Danny Schwartz, Vinyl Me, Please, June 13, 2018.

“Fitzroy Speaks With Dexter Wansel,” interview, The Soul Survivors Magazine, Issue #85, December 2019 / Janaury 2020.

#soul #funk #jazz #PIR #MFSB #DexterWansel