Native Harrow’s new album Divided Kind is released everywhere on 13th September on Different Time Records/Kartel Music Group. Accompanied on record and now in the annals of Why I Love, Native Harrow’s multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Stephen Harms joins his band mate Devin Tuel in using the WIL platform to express his admiration for a fellow musician.
This second features from the duo, sees us joined by Stephen who comes on board to tell us about Wilton Felder – “The 70s session bassist who has most inspired my playing.”
I began my musical life as a fifth-grade trombonist, up in the frozen musical hotbed of Manhattan, MT (pop. 1,000), with my first public performance a trombone-euphonium duet of When The Saints Go Marchin’ In. Trombonist Wayne Henderson became an early musical hero of mine, and his group The Crusaders (they were called The Jazz Crusaders pre-1971) was a mainstay in our home, with a sound that ranged from hard bop and soul jazz to jazz-funk and R&B. I knew (and still know) many of their nearly 50 records front-to-back and their melding of styles, and the ability to play both heady hard bop changes and more groove-oriented popular music (and Beatles covers!) with the same group was a massive influence on my conceptual approach to what I would want out of my own ensemble, first in groups I co-led in my twenties and later with Native Harrow. The Crusaders’ ability to confidently and effectively traverse wide chasms in genre and style became hard-wired into my musical being as a nonnegotiable attribute for any ensemble I would choose to spend time in.
It feels like I have always been aware of Wilton Felder the saxophonist, co-founder of my beloved Crusaders, and his deep, melodic tenor sound (a tone I tried to emulate during my two years of saxophone training). He is considered one of the great Texas Tenors and his sound and style on the horn is just that, soulful, gritty, wide as the Texas sky. To me, his playing always sounded like dark, smoked Texas-style barbecue brisket. An early Jazz Crusaders cut that I’ve always loved is Turkish Black, with Wilton in the right speaker and Wayne Henderson panned left. Wilton’s solo jumps out at 1:41 and he has so much grit in his phrasing at one point that it sounds like he is distorting or modulating the horn, a dark fuzzy tremolo sound that I’m trying to reach even now when I’m cutting a solo on one of my Gretsch guitars.
As I increasingly turned my attention away from the trombone and jazz towards electric bass and rock n’ roll, I developed a fuller sense of the music I loved and would later draw inspiration from in my band. Some of these artists include: Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Dusty Springfield, Seals & Crofts, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Minnie Riperton, Shuggie Otis, Steely Dan, Bobby Womack, Michael Franks, Grant Green, Harry Nilsson, Donovan, and Jimmy Smith, among many others. The connective thread among this list of acts (that represent Native Harrow’s influences as well as any short list could) is, of course, the bassist Wilton Felder.
Here’s Donald Byrd’s The Emperor:
The version of Wilton Felder that has had the greatest impact on me as a musician is not the saxophonist, but his alter ego: the ultimate (and my favorite!) 70s session electric bassist whose bassline on The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back completely rewired my brain and changed what I play on the instrument more than any other piece of music. For me, I Want You Back, specifically the bassline, isn’t a guilty pleasure, but rather the most pure and visceral expression of unfiltered joy that has ever been recorded in pop music. Like almost everyone, I originally assumed that this highly melodic, bouncy, pop-music altering bassline was James Jamerson. Once I discovered it was Wilton, I spent years on a deep dive through his exhaustive catalog as a bassist, discovering and rediscovering some of my favorite music along the way, and connecting the dots of a career that spans almost everything that interests me about playing bass and making pop music. Some of my favorite Wilton Felder bass performances include: Edith And The Kingpin” off of Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, The Emperor off of Donald Byrd’s Ethiopian Knights, and Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love by Love Unlimited from their album From A Girl’s Point Of View We Give To You… Love Unlimited.
I feel a sort of kinship with Wilton Felder in the sense that, in my band Native Harrow, I am often called to split my time playing bass with other instruments, especially guitar and Rhodes. Because we make our records with just the two of us, playing and layering everything, I often find myself, especially on our tours, trying to determine which instrument is most needed to accompany Devin on stage. In our music, we cover a wide stretch of terrain, from soft-rock, folk-rock, and psychedelic art pop, to RnB, Gospel ballads, and jazz-rock. Possibly more than any other instrumentalist, Wilton Felder has influenced how I play bass in Native Harrow, and the music he recorded powerfully informs the songs we write and the soundworlds we inhabit.
Thanks to Stephen for his insight on the influence of a fellow bass player..
Here’s Native Harrow on Follow Me Round
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