Wendell Logan: Oberlin's Own Jazzman

Seeing students succeed is his greatest satisfaction

by Betty Gabrielli

Wendell Logan isn't mentioned in Ken Burns' recent jazz documentary, but perhaps he should be.

Professor of African-American music and chair of the jazz studies department, Logan -- who has been at Oberlin since 1973, a year after jazz was incorporated into the curriculum -- is a nationally recognized composer and exponent of both jazz and art music.

He has received numerous composing awards and grants from the country's most prestigious organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

His vita is impressive, but what makes Logan a vital presence in contemporary music can't be gleaned from a vita. You have to go to former students, many of whom have gone on to become leading American jazz composers, performers, and music educators. Start with Cathy Elliott '79, a New York composer and arranger who also does some vocal work.

"Wendell literally changed my life," she said. "I was a composition student – not in his department at all – and when I needed more guidance he offered it. He gave me arranging lessons. He also hipped me to great women and black composers. He allowed me to sing with the jazz ensemble, which I really knew nothing about then.

"When we worked, he pushed us to do our best. He would never let us slack off. Kind of like a dad, really. He was always there for us with guidance, personal as well as musical. So many talented people working today studied or worked with Wendell. Whenever we meet, we start telling Wendell stories, which invariably end with, ‘Where would we be if he hadn't crossed our paths?'"

Michael Philip Mossman '82 echoed Elliott's sentiments. "When we speak of Wendell, we often refer to him in tones of reverence. Just knowing someone was really listening made all the difference in the world."

Logan is "the quintessentially American composer," according to Mossman, a noted composer and arranger as well as director of the jazz studies program at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (part of the City University of New York system).

"While based on the finest compositional traditions in a Western sense, his music is just bursting with human content. It speaks to people and is meant for them. It also says many things that Wendell says in words when you talk with him: his take on America, world culture, history -- what is painful, ironic, funny, and beautiful -- it's all there in the music," Mossman said.

The success of his former students, and seeing them develop, is Logan's great personal satisfaction. Teaching them also stokes his own creativity.

"They often present me with ways of looking at things that I hadn't considered," he said. "I've learned never to underestimate anyone – there are always surprises."

When Logan holds auditions, he looks for "that other whole, which is kind of intangible. Desire, motivation -- they can carry students a long way." As they did him.

"I grew up in Thomson, Georgia. My father was a musician and there were instruments all around the house, so you just grabbed one and started playing. Did my father and I play together? Oh, yeah!

"I began to put sounds together for the sheer joy of it long before I began to work as a composer. When I was 11 years old, I just knew that's what I wanted to do," he said.

He's still composing today. A piece for his six-year-old granddaughter, Kawren, is one of his most recent works.

"It's called 'Little One' and was inspired by her birth. It's part of my Gullah Island Suite that we performed at Cleveland's Severance Hall in February."

Reflecting on his career, Logan said simply, "I've been blessed."