Composer Wendell Logan

Professor of African-American Music Wendell Logan, the chair--and architect--of Oberlin's jazz studies program, has a dozen or so ASCAP awards to his credit, a handful from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He was a fellow at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio Italy and he is a recipient of the coveted Cleveland Arts Prize in Music. After composing more than 200 works that have received performances on three continents, world premieres should be old hat to him by now. But his Doxology Opera: The Doxy Canticles, which received its world premiere, in Chicago, this February, is slightly different.

Logan has not attempted anything like the large, operatic work before. Co-presented by the Center for Black Music Research and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, it is billed as "a music theater piece in one act," although Logan prefers to think of it in its structural terms of five scenes. The project also marks the first time he's worked with librettist Paul Carter Harrison.

Based on historic events in the South, The Doxy Canticles invokes a young woman's search for spiritual balance in the world. The project has preoccupied Logan since 1995. "The music," he says, "represents a synthesis of my musical influences--long meter hymns and chants of the African-American church, jazz, blues, and the Euro-American 'classical' tradition."

The work featured internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Bonita Hyman, soprano Elizabeth Norman, a 12-woman chorus and the CBMR New Black Music Repertory Ensemble, conducted by artistic director Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Its commissioning was made possible by a grant from the Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.

Logan says one of his favorite aspects of composing is "completing a work and having it played." In that sense, February might qualify as his favorite month. February also marks the performance of Logan's Gullah Island Suite, which will be performed by the Oberlin Jazz Faculty Octet in Severance Hall's Reinberger Chamber Hall on Sunday, February 25, at 7 PM. The performance is part of the Cleveland Musical Arts Society's "Jazz Showcase."

Inspiration for the suite, originally commissioned by Cuyahoga County Community College for its renowned Tri-C Jazz Festival, comes, says Logan, from his visits with the Gullah people of Southeast Georgia. Who are the Gullah people? "Descendents of West African exiles. I grew up around them," says Logan. "Their spirit as well as their music motivated me."

Logan's childhood holds many touchstones for the composer he would become. "I grew up in a musical environment and I knew, at a very early age, that I wanted to pursue music in my life." A portrait of the artist as a young boy shows him working with Tinker Toys and Erector Sets. "There was something about putting those pieces together, which is how I view composition--putting pieces together--that interested me in terms of composition."

He was also very fortunate to have had "a very supportive music theory teacher"--Mrs. Johnnie Lee. She suggested that he consider choosing composition as his musical path.

What inspired you to be a musician? What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?

The spirits came and got me. On discouraging days I know that things will always be better. "Bettah Days are Comin'" as the spiritual goes.

What is the most memorable performance you have ever seen and why?

There is no 'most memorable.' There are many, including the Moses Hogan Singers [earlier in February].

What is important in your creative process?

Time, a quiet environment, and inspiration.

If you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would it be? What would you perform?

Probably Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong. The blues, of course!

You play soprano saxophone. If you could master another instrument, what would it be?

I am still learning the soprano saxophone. After I learn to play it, I think that I will study piano.

If you could not be a musician, what other profession would you choose? What profession would you definitely NOT choose?

If I could not be a musician I would rather not exist. I would definitely not choose all the other professions.

What do you listen to for inspiration? In your free time?

I have no free time--listening for me is a learning process. I am always attempting to learn something about other musics and cultures.

What do you like to read?

E-mail messages laced with humor, poetry, biographies, and technical manuals. [Memo to the literal-minded; Logan is kidding about that last item.]

What are three words that describe you?

Fair, honest, compassionate.