Keyboardist/arranger/producer/recording artist Dexter Wansel can be heard throughout the catalog of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records. In 1975, Wansel met Gamble & Huff when he was a member of a band called Yellow Sunshine, which also boasted guitarist Roland Chambers who would later become a part of MFSB, the house band for Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International Records. Becoming a part of the staff creative collective, Wansel began arranging, playing keyboards, and writing songs for the label's acts including the O'Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, and the Intruders, among others.
His skills can be heard on non-PIR sides like Jermaine Jackson's "Where Are You Now" from his gold LP Let's Get Serious and "Tonight" from Junior's Acquired Taste LP. His frequent songwriting partners were Cynthia Biggs, Bunny Sigler, and T. Life. A synth pioneer, Wansel's first LP arranging assignment was several tracks on Carl Carlton's 1975 LP, I Wanna Be With You, produced by Bunny Sigler. A Biggs/Wansel song, "The Sweetest Pain," a duet between Wansel and Jean Carn, originally a 1979 single from Wansel's Time Is Slipping Away LP, was a popular radio-aired LP from Loose Ends' Zagora LP.
Wansel's own charting LPs were Life on Mars from summer 1976 (includes two tracks with Instant Funk, "Life on Mars" and You Can Be What You Wanna Be"), What the World Is Coming To, Voyager (with its great space-age oriented graphics) from spring 1978, and Time Is Slipping Away from 1979. Several tracks from his LPs were radio-aired LP tracks (the lushly orchestrated Theme From the Planets," the spacy, funky "Disco Lights") During the '90s, Wansel continued to work with the reactivated Philadelphia International Records and occasionally toured.
Tnx for the add.
'Life on mars' is an absolute masterpiece, but also the other on PIR are 'must have' albums, like those great collaborations with many artists released under their own name (Jones Girls, Jean Carn etc).
It is very exciting to watch your performance on the 'Jean Carn & Friends' DVD for Expansion.
A great respect and admiration for your music and career.
Monsieur Dexter Wansel,
You one of the great producer of the late seventies and eigthy's. I have most of your amazing work on vinyl we are very pleased to be your friend.
Momo from Big Cheese records Paris
Hey Dexter Wa.. I just fought you on www.MySpaceShowDown.com! You should check it out, guess who won! You will have to click on the link to find out hahah! It's pretty sweet and you can fight your other friends too to see who is more popular.
Hi Dexter,
my fave track of your is Life on Mars...what a wicked track that is and way ahead of the times, still sounds fresh today,
good work and all the best,
Ian
