Benjamin F. Wright Jr. is a hugely talented, formally trained musician who learned his trade in Chicago. He was born on July 11th, 1946, in Greenville, Mississippi. He demonstrated his musical talent at Coleman High School, performing as a drum major in the marching band and singing Doo-Wop in a group he and his friends set up. He also played timpani in the school orchestra and sang in his school and church choirs. When he heard Handel’s “Messiah”, he realised that music could be complex and powerful, and that put him on the road to a career in music. He started writing music, transcribing songs that he heard and then arranging them, for him and his friends to sing and play. He grew up in an area where Blues music was predominant and he took every opportunity he could to listen to musicians playing, to talk to them and to join in the performance, if they let him!
Soon after Wright left school, he joined the touring band of Rhythm and Blues singer Ted Taylor. During the tour, he played piano and sang backup vocals and saw at first-hand how the music was organised and arranged. Later he toured with major performers, including James Brown, Otis Redding, Billy Stewart, and Gladys Knight & the Pips. What a fantastic apprenticeship!
Then in the mid-sixties came a stint in the United States Air Force, which gave him the opportunity to pursue further musical studies via a correspondence course with the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Around this time Wright met Fats Ford, a trumpet player who played with Duke Ellington, who introduced Benjamin to the great Jazz icon. The freedom and creativity of Jazz was added to Benjamin Wright’s inspiration, as he continued to develop his career by working with Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces.
Benjamin Wright had a good ear; he heard the detail in whatever music he listened to. But he also had a determination to make the most of his musical ability by listening to a wide range of music and learning to play a variety of instruments. He wanted to learn how music worked and he wanted to play as often as he could. The ideal was to become a session musician, and that chance soon came along. Wright was invited to play with Pieces of Peace in Chicago. Benjamin joined the new group as keyboardist, as they moved to Twinight Records to work with Syl Johnson as the label’s session band.
Pieces of Peace recorded an excellent album in 1972 at United Technique Recording Studio, produced by Benjamin Wright and Willie Woods, which was due for release on the Scarab label, but the band broke up and the album disappeared until many years later. The masters of the Pieces of Peace’s only album were unearthed by DJ Shadow and Quannum Records in 2007 and finally released. The album features a love ballad “I Still Care” and a Bar-Kays-inspired strut “Flunky for Your Love”. The best tracks are those with extended jams, such as “Pollution”, with its funky rhythm, false stops and clever interplay of organ and horns. “Peace and Blessings” showcases African-style percussion and “Yesterday’s Visions”, just under eleven minutes long, owes a debt to Isaac Hayes. All these tracks show the high level of skill of the members of the group and their virtuosity.
In addition to playing with Pieces of Peace, Benjamin worked as a copyist and arranger. Unsurprisingly, given the opportunities for furthering his musical education that the Windy City offered, he also attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Benjamin enjoyed working as a copyist for several local arrangers and producers, such as Charles Stepney, Donny Hathaway, Gene Barge and Richard Evans. He must have worked extremely fast, as the work came pouring in from Chess Records, Brunswick Records, Curtom Records and Mercury Records. Benjamin has described this time, in his own inimitable way, in an interview with Jeff ‘Chairman’ Mao: “So I was a copyist, man, I was making it that way and I was just learning, learning, learning. So, all of a sudden, I started arranging. I didn’t have the big record artist like everybody has had. I was dealing with the local stuff, but it was piling up. Oh my God! I was as busy as a one-legged man in a kicking contest.”
One of his last roles in Chicago was as musical director for The Dells, which involved being on the road, supervising all the vocal performances, organising all the parts for all the instruments and conducting the horns and strings. A musical director makes everything happen as it should. Benjamin was in his element. Sadly, Pieces of Peace disbanded in 1972, and Chicago began to lose its appeal, as the music industry started to switch its focus to the West Coast. Berry Gordy Jr. completed the move to Los Angeles for Motown Records that same year. Three years later Benjamin Wright also moved to Los Angeles, to enter the defining phase of his career.
Benjamin Wright Jr.
Photo: Courtesy of Randy Fuchs (ArtistRelations.com)
