Biography
A lifelong resident of Los Angeles, Dexter Story also records and performs under the alias Wondem. His talents span an unusually broad spectrum as a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, arranger, songwriter, producer, and ethnomusicologist. For years the international music community has regarded him as an elite sideman equally at home in soul, jazz, funk, rock, pop, and global folk idioms. His résumé includes multi-instrumental work with Sa-Ra Creative Partners, vocal appearances on albums by Kamasi Washington and Dwight Trible, product-management duties for Snoop Dogg and Mack 10, and production of Daymé Arocena’s 2017 album Cubafonia. Story co-founded the Life Force Trio and has viewed the industry from every vantage point. After devoting most of his career to other artists’ projects, he finally found space for his own music; the widely praised solo debut Seasons surfaced only after he reached his late forties. Extensive travels and study throughout the Horn of Africa yielded the album Wondem—now one of his stage identities—and the EP Wejene Aola, issued three years later on Soundway. As a vocalist Story moves fluidly between tenor and countertenor registers, shaping folk songs, gritty R&B, and spiritual jazz with equal expressiveness and technical command. Four years after Wondem’s release, the UCLA student in African studies and ethnomusicology delved still deeper into his African-rooted aesthetic on the 2019 full-length Bahir.
Named for saxophonist Dexter Gordon, Story grew up surrounded by music. He began formal lessons in theory, guitar, and piano while still young and was already leading Los Angeles bands and working club stages by age fourteen. After completing undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, where he shared stages with Wynton Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Ernie Watts, John Stubblefield, Slide Hampton, Jeff Narell, and Eric Reed, he entered the business side of music. He held marketing-director posts at Priority, Def Jam, and Bad Boy Records and served as talent buyer for the historic Los Angeles venue Temple Bar.
Story’s first documented recording credit came in 2004 as a backing vocalist on Dwight Trible’s Living Water. The following year, as a founding member of the Life Force Trio alongside Carlos Niño and Andres Renteria, he played multiple instruments, produced, and sang on selections from Trible’s Ninja Tune release Love Is the Answer. The trio’s own album Living Room appeared on Plug Research in 2006. Story also contributed to Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s 2007 album Fill the Heart Shaped Cup. He continues to collaborate regularly with Niño, both in the Life Force Trio and in the multi-generational ensemble Build an Ark, whose lineup also features Atwood-Ferguson, Trible, and trombonist Phil Ranelin. The trio has toured, performed, and recorded with Sa-Ra, Madlib, Mark de Clive-Lowe, AmmonContact, Rumer Willis, Kamasi Washington, Gaslamp Killer, Nick Rosen, and Kelis, among others.
In 2011 Story joined Todd Simons’ Ethio Cali ensemble as a drummer and later became its arranger; the experience deepened an affinity for Ethiopian music that had already been cultivated through decades of study across the continent’s folk, pop, funk, and jazz traditions. His solo debut, the spiritual-soul album Seasons, emerged in February 2013 on Kindred Spirits and featured guest vocalists Gaby Hernandez, Waberi, Jimetta Rose Smith, Nichelle Monroe, i_Ced, and Erik Rico.
Story then began composing daily songs that drew on East African and Caribbean motifs. After serving as music director for the 2014 Wattstax Revisited concert, he signed with Miles Cleret’s Soundway label and began a follow-up album with Niño as co-producer. The resulting Wondem, issued in late October 2015, filtered East African influences through a distinctly Californian sonic lens; its guests included Clive-Lowe, Atwood-Ferguson, Yared Teshale, Damon Aaron, drummer Te’Amir Sweeney, and others. International acclaim for the album prompted Story to adopt “Wondem” as an official recording and performing identity. He soon released the Wejene Aola single, which featured Washington on the title track and vocalist Nia Andrews on “Eastern Prayer,” followed two months later by the digital-only Wondem Remixed. In addition to his and Niño’s rework of “Lalibela,” the remix collection included contributions from Ras G Afrikan Space Program, Todd Simons, Te’Amir Sweeney, and Jeremy Sole. In 2017 Story produced Cubafonia for Cuban vocalist, composer, and arranger Daymé Arocena on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label; that same year he and Washington issued a cover of “Wejene Aola,” the 1970 Ethio-jazz classic originally recorded by Oromo singer Tlahoun Gèssèssè.
If Wondem offered a broad view of Story’s global creative outlook, its 2019 successor Bahir—again co-produced with Niño—refined and expanded that soundworld. The album assembled an international cast that included Los Angeles colleagues Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg, fellow Angeleno vocalist and violinist Sudan Archives (Brittney Parks), Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu, and singer Hamelmal Abate. Its program explored North Sudanese shaygiya dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somali soul, and contemporary global grooves, and Soundway released it in late winter 2019.
Named for saxophonist Dexter Gordon, Story grew up surrounded by music. He began formal lessons in theory, guitar, and piano while still young and was already leading Los Angeles bands and working club stages by age fourteen. After completing undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, where he shared stages with Wynton Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Ernie Watts, John Stubblefield, Slide Hampton, Jeff Narell, and Eric Reed, he entered the business side of music. He held marketing-director posts at Priority, Def Jam, and Bad Boy Records and served as talent buyer for the historic Los Angeles venue Temple Bar.
Story’s first documented recording credit came in 2004 as a backing vocalist on Dwight Trible’s Living Water. The following year, as a founding member of the Life Force Trio alongside Carlos Niño and Andres Renteria, he played multiple instruments, produced, and sang on selections from Trible’s Ninja Tune release Love Is the Answer. The trio’s own album Living Room appeared on Plug Research in 2006. Story also contributed to Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s 2007 album Fill the Heart Shaped Cup. He continues to collaborate regularly with Niño, both in the Life Force Trio and in the multi-generational ensemble Build an Ark, whose lineup also features Atwood-Ferguson, Trible, and trombonist Phil Ranelin. The trio has toured, performed, and recorded with Sa-Ra, Madlib, Mark de Clive-Lowe, AmmonContact, Rumer Willis, Kamasi Washington, Gaslamp Killer, Nick Rosen, and Kelis, among others.
In 2011 Story joined Todd Simons’ Ethio Cali ensemble as a drummer and later became its arranger; the experience deepened an affinity for Ethiopian music that had already been cultivated through decades of study across the continent’s folk, pop, funk, and jazz traditions. His solo debut, the spiritual-soul album Seasons, emerged in February 2013 on Kindred Spirits and featured guest vocalists Gaby Hernandez, Waberi, Jimetta Rose Smith, Nichelle Monroe, i_Ced, and Erik Rico.
Story then began composing daily songs that drew on East African and Caribbean motifs. After serving as music director for the 2014 Wattstax Revisited concert, he signed with Miles Cleret’s Soundway label and began a follow-up album with Niño as co-producer. The resulting Wondem, issued in late October 2015, filtered East African influences through a distinctly Californian sonic lens; its guests included Clive-Lowe, Atwood-Ferguson, Yared Teshale, Damon Aaron, drummer Te’Amir Sweeney, and others. International acclaim for the album prompted Story to adopt “Wondem” as an official recording and performing identity. He soon released the Wejene Aola single, which featured Washington on the title track and vocalist Nia Andrews on “Eastern Prayer,” followed two months later by the digital-only Wondem Remixed. In addition to his and Niño’s rework of “Lalibela,” the remix collection included contributions from Ras G Afrikan Space Program, Todd Simons, Te’Amir Sweeney, and Jeremy Sole. In 2017 Story produced Cubafonia for Cuban vocalist, composer, and arranger Daymé Arocena on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label; that same year he and Washington issued a cover of “Wejene Aola,” the 1970 Ethio-jazz classic originally recorded by Oromo singer Tlahoun Gèssèssè.
If Wondem offered a broad view of Story’s global creative outlook, its 2019 successor Bahir—again co-produced with Niño—refined and expanded that soundworld. The album assembled an international cast that included Los Angeles colleagues Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg, fellow Angeleno vocalist and violinist Sudan Archives (Brittney Parks), Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu, and singer Hamelmal Abate. Its program explored North Sudanese shaygiya dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somali soul, and contemporary global grooves, and Soundway released it in late winter 2019.
Albums
Singles
