Dexter Wansel

Dexter Wansel

Dexter Wansel is an American R&B and jazz-fusion artist from Bryn Mawr, United States, known as a singer, arranger, musician, composer, conductor, synthesist and A&R director. He is associated with jazz fusion, jazz-funk, R&B and soul, and is also linked to funk, disco, space-funk and sleazy listening.

Career

Wansel works across Philadelphia soul and jazz-fusion settings, and his playing and writing appear throughout the catalogue of Philadelphia International Records. He is heard on material by artists including the O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, the Intruders, the Jacksons, the Stylistics, the Jones Girls, Shirley Jones, Phyllis Hyman, Archie Bell and the Drells, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Patti LaBelle, Jean Carn, Jermaine Jackson and Junior.

He first gets arranging work on several tracks from Carl Carlton’s 1975 album I Wanna Be With You, produced by Bunny Sigler. In 1975 he meets Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff while he is a member of Yellow Sunshine, a group that also includes guitarist Roland Chambers, who later becomes part of MFSB.

After joining the staff creative collective around Philadelphia International Records, he arranges, plays keyboards and writes songs for the label’s artists. His frequent songwriting partners are Cynthia Biggs, Bunny Sigler and T. Life.

Songwriting and notable recordings

Among the songs associated with Wansel are “If Only You Knew”, co-written with Kenneth Gamble and Cynthia Biggs, which becomes a number one R&B hit for Patti LaBelle and appears on her gold album I’m in Love Again. LaBelle also records “Shoot Him on Sight”, a song Wansel intends for Jackson Browne, on The Spirit’s in It.

Other Wansel-associated songs include Jean Carn’s “I’m in Love Once Again”, “You Are All I Need”, “Where Did You Ever Go”, “Free Love” and “Give It Up”; Shirley Jones’ “Last Night I Needed Somebody” and “She Knew About Me”; The Jacksons’ “Keep on Dancin’”, “Living Together”, “Do What You Wanna Do” and “Jump for Joy”; The Stylistics’ “Hurry Up This Way Again”; The O’Jays’ “I Really Need You Now”; Phyllis Hyman’s “Living All Alone”; The Jones Girls’ “We’re a Melody”, “Nights Over Egypt”, “Love Don’t Ever Say Goodbye” and “Why You Wanna Do That to Me”; Archie Bell and the Drells’ “Old People”; and Evelyn “Champagne” King’s “Till I Come Off the Road” and “The Show Is Over”. Patrice Rushen also covers “Hurry Up This Way Again”.

“The Sweetest Pain”, a Biggs/Wansel duet performed by Wansel and Jean Carn, first appears on Wansel’s Time Is Slipping Away and later becomes a widely played album track for Loose Ends.

Albums and recordings

Wansel’s own charting albums are Life on Mars, What the World Is Coming To, Voyager and Time Is Slipping Away. Life on Mars includes two tracks with Instant Funk, “Life on Mars” and “You Can Be What You Wanna Be”. Voyager is noted for its space-age graphics. Tracks from his albums that receive radio play include the orchestrated “Theme From the Planets” and the spacey “Disco Lights”.

Other songs linked with his writing and arranging continue in singers’ repertoires, including “Together Once Again”, “One Million Miles From the Ground” and “Holdin’ On”. “Holdin’ On” is also a radio-played album track from Lawrence Hilton Jacobs’ self-titled album, produced by Lamont Dozier.

His work also appears on releases such as Grover Washington, Jr. Ultimate Collection, Heaven & Earth-That’s Love, Best of MFSB: Love Is the Message and Best of the Intruders.

Later activity

Wansel continues to work with the reactivated Philadelphia International Records during the 1990s and also tours occasionally. “Global Warming”, from the 1991 PIR/Zoo/BMG CD Universe Featuring Dexter Wansel, receives airplay on smooth jazz radio stations. In 2021 he signs a new record deal with Digital Jukebox Records.

Early life

As a child, Wansel works as a gofer at the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, collecting sandwiches and clothes for visiting performers including Stevie Wonder and Patti LaBelle. He later co-writes a number one R&B hit for LaBelle.