Thursday, June 24, 2010

Dominique-René de Lerma: Wendell Logan '...was a far more significant composer than most of us realize.'


[Wendell Logan (Photo in The New York Times, Courtesy of Oberlin College]

We received word of the passing of Wendell Logan from Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor of Music at Lawrence University Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin as well as principal advisor to AfriClassical.com and its companion blog AfriClassical:

“You will very soon be receiving news, probably from many sources, that Oberlin professor Wendell Logan has died. I had the challenge of finishing a semester with a weekend’s notice of Wendell’s Black music class a few years ago when he had emergency surgery. That gave me the opportunity to see not only the deep respect his highly motivated students had for him, but a very real and deep devotion for him as a man. I am to prepare a revision of my article on him for the second edition of The new Grove dictionary of American music but I have to hold off on this for a bit and let the news sink in. Yes, he headed the jazz program at Oberlin, but he was a far more significant composer than most of us realize.”
Dominique






Comment by email:
Dominique De Lerma's summation of Wendell Logan is hauntingly true: Wendell was grossly underrated as a man and as a musician. His Spirit has enriched us far beyond measure... Regina Harris Baiocchi

No comments: