Wilfred Harlan May

Wilfred Harlan May's CD entitled Let Them Know is moving rhythm and blues, soul, and jazz, with strong vocals, great musicians, and solid writing and production. The CD features recordings with the original groove master for The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, the legendary rhythm and blues drummer Clyde Stubblefield. The CD also features jazz saxophonist Warren Hill, Memphis jazz keyboard great Arnie Smith, jazz keyboard phenom Hans Zermuelen, keyboardist and producer Lee Curreri, and many more inspiring musicians.

Wilfred's solo acoustic guitar and vocal CD entitled An Open Window is compelling acoustic soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz, with strong vocals and great writing.

Both CDs have been released by his independent developmental label and music web site HarlanMay.com and his privately owned, New York based publishing company Woosic Music Publications (BMI), with distribution through online record stores and over 2400 physical CD stores in America and worldwide. Digital downloads are available on the Internet from digital music distributors.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Wilfred developed an interest in songwriting as a result of singing in gospel choirs. He also found inspiration listening to R&B and blues on the radio. Memphis, Tennessee was a music mecca when his family moved there. Influential artists, such as Otis Redding, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, and The Bar-Kays were based in Memphis. While a student there, Wilfred played bass in bands with jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum and funk drummer Blair Cunningham, who would later join the famed British rock band The Pretenders. Together, under the band name Knights Unlimited, they won third place in the Mid-South Fair Youth Talent Contest sponsored by The Memphis Press Scimitar.

Wilfred attended Melrose High School in Memphis where he played electric bass with the school band. He was a member of The Beulah Baptist Church choir, under the direction of Erlene Holmes; a member of the United Youth Christian Choir of Memphis, under the direction of Catherine Johnson; and a member of the Memphis State University Soul Cast, under the direction of Erma Clanton. Wilfred also studied voice formally in Memphis with Dorcas Perkins and Ann Reiner, and gigged professionally as an electric bassist with Body Heat, a local Memphis based R&B club band.

Wilfred studied double bass, jazz theory, and jazz improvisation with renowned jazz and classical bassist Professor Richard Davis and bassist Peter Dominguez, and performed as a bassist and vocalist in ensembles directed by Professor Davis while studying engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wilfred was voted best vocalist and electric bassist by The Mad City Music Sheet's annual poll of regional musicians and fans while working with local bands under the pseudonym Woo May. Wilfred opened for the Grammy Award winning female vocal group The Pointer Sisters at Headliners in Madison, while performing as an electric bassist and vocalist with Native Copper, a local Madison area R&B dance band.

Wilfred founded Woosic Music, Ltd. in Madison to fund his independent recording projects, and was Public Relations Director for Midwest Recorders Studios in Milwaukee. Working as a vocalist and electric bassist with popular Madison based R&B dance band Mill Street Foundation, Wilfred performed at Summerfest, Milwaukee's world-class festival and celebration of Music.

Functioning as CEO, Wilfred incorporated Woosic Music in Beverly Hills, California in 1988, after moving to La Jolla where he worked as a test engineer and laboratory manager for General Dynamics Electronics Division in San Diego.

Performing as a solo acoustic guitarist and vocalist, Wilfred had the privilege of being ask to open before multi-faceted, award winning entertainer, recording artist and vocalist extraordinaire Carl Anderson, at the Educational Cultural Complex Theater in San Diego, where he also played electric bass in Anderson's backup band.

In Los Angeles, Wilfred served on the Board of Directors for the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice Beach and was part of a Ford Foundation retreat on business management. As Head Researcher for Ferde Grofe Films/Aviation Library in Marina Del Rey, Wilfred researched material for the production of film documentaries at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and obtained music licenses from publishers on the company's behalf.

Wilfred performed as a solo acoustic guitarist and vocalist at small clubs and coffee houses in Los Angeles, opening occasionally for the Celtic rock and roll band The Young Dubliners.

In 1991 Wilfred joined The Platters, featuring Franchesca Robi, daughter of original founding member Paul Robi. Wilfred toured as a vocalist, and was the point of contact for all business related to the act in Canada, Indonesia, and The United States.

While working as a studio musician in Los Angeles, Wilfred had the honor of being asked by producer Lee Curreri to play classical guitar on the recording of "Turning" by Lisbeth Scott from her 1993 album release Sirens. He also gigged as the lead vocalist and electric bassist with Los Angeles based west coast acid jazz band Four Letter Word, which in an incarnation featured Rick Latham, drummer for rock legend Edgar Winter.

Wilfred coauthored Most Common Mistakes Seen By A Service Bureau in the publishing guide Print Pizzazz: Desktop Publishing for The Rest of Us, and was recruited in Los Angeles in 1999 by Universal Music Group as Production Manager of their Global-e Division in New York. He is a vocalist in the Universal Studios/DiC Entertainment children's animated feature Monster Mash: It's a Graveyard Smash!

Wilfred's electric bass, acoustic guitar, and vocal styles are influenced by great musicians, such as the electric bass innovators Larry Graham, Verdine White, and Stanley Clarke; the awesome bands Sly and The Family Stone and Earth Wind and Fire; the great Richie Haven; the creativity and vocal styles of the unforgettable Nat King Cole and the incomparable Al Jarreau; the artistry of acoustic jazz guitarist Earl Klugh; the soul of electric jazz guitarist George Benson; the spirit of Stevie Wonder; and the genius of Quincy Jones. And, though a native born Texan, Wilfred was heavily influenced by the rich musical tradition that is The Memphis Sound.

Wilfred Harlan May is an artist and prolific songwriter. His music is being described as pure "smooth soul".