I first unknowingly heard organist Reuben Wilson in a sample. The song was “Memory lane (Sittin’ in da park)” performed by rapper Nas, son of cornetist Olu Dara. Wilson’s mellow organ groove undergirds the tune whose themes center on the realities of living in post-Regan era New York fraught with poverty, poetry and drug related violence.
But wait… Where did this sound come from?
Reuben Wilson was born in Oklahoma in 1935, but moved to Pasadena, Calif., in his early youth. He began teaching himself to play piano, which would take a back seat to his passion for boxing. At 17, he moved to LA and married his first wife, a lounge singer. Through her, he began meeting more musicians and performing professionally in 1968.
His debut album, On Broadway, would be released from Blue Note Records featuring the talents of tenor saxophonist Trevor Lawrence, guitarist Malcom Riddick and drummer Tommy Derrick.
At Blue Note, Wilson would join an illustrious group of music makers, including organists like Lonnie Smith, Jack McDuff and Milt Jackson. Wilson would go on to make four more albums for Blue Note records, receiving little, if any, critical acclaim.
In 1971, Wilson would travel to Groove Merchant Records to make three albums, including 1972’s The Sweet Life featuring this sleeper of a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues.” The steady funk guitar laid down by Lloyd Davis makes a firm platform for some of Wilson’s tastier licks.
In 1973, Wilson would record again, covering songs from popular band War with the Cisco Kid, and one from “gentle genius” Curtis Mayfield — 1972’s quintessential tune “Superfly.”
Wilson would spend most of the '70s, and honestly the rest of his career, playing funk, jazz, soul and touching on pop here and there. He was also a sideman for artists that, included saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, guitarists Grant Green and Melvin Sparks.
Wilson’s next musical adventure as a bandleader came in 1975 on Cadet Records. The album would echo seemingly immortal sentiments from Black music. As Billie Holiday tells us, “god bless the child that’s got his own.” As Reuben Wilson tells us, “got to get your own, cause they sure ain’t gon give you none.”
Fourteen years later in 1989, a young rapper named MC Duke would sample Wilson for his own tune, “Gotta get your own,” carrying the banner for Black self-sufficiency into yet another decade.
There’s even a little known record called “Boogaloo to Beastie Boys” released in 2004. Reuben Wilson plays some of your favorite Beastie Boys tunes including, “Brass Monkey,” “Intergalatic,” and “Sabotage.” These tunes feature saxophonist Andrew Beals, Doug Munro on guitar and drummer LaFrae Olivia Sci.
In this fashion, new fans would find and prize the work of Wilson, making many of his records collectors’ items and his sample’s must-haves for some of rap’s top voices.
Wilson remained an active musician late into his 70s until developing dementia. He died of lung cancer in Harlem, New York, May 26, 2023. He was 88 years old.
I’m grateful for the work of musicians like Reuben Wilson, grateful for his continuing legacy and grateful that Nas started me off on a wild musical rabbit hole.
