Derf Reklaw

Derf Reklaw was a multi-faceted, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, vocalist, dancer, playwright, poet and inventor.

Derf was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and is considered one of the most multi-talented individuals on the planet. At four years old he was a child actor performing in religious plays at the Shield House and workshop plays at the South Side Boys Club on 39th Street and Michigan Avenue.  An extremely bright young boy he was dubbed "Mr. Encyclopedia" by his classmates and friends. He appeared on the front page of the Chicago Defender newspaper with boxing great Archie Moore at 4 years old.

When Derf was ten he used to beat on his mother's metal kitchen cabinets so much that his cousin, a professional dancer, gave him a pair of bongos.  On his 11th birthday, Derf's brother Delano bought a record called "Hammond Gone Cha Cha" by organist Jackie Davis and within two weeks Derf had memorized the entire bongo parts on the record.  At that point, Derf knew he could play that instrument but his desire was to play the saxophone.  Derf's brother Mack heard jazz giant James Moody play flute and this prompted Mack to purchase a flute and take lessons.  Mack was drafted into the army a nd when his stint was over he never took up the flute again and gave a 13 year old Derf his flute.   Derf took flute lessons from Mr. John Garnet Hauser Jr. and 8 months later Derf was playing in Mr. Hauser's classical orchestra. Hauser's orchestra performed on Sundays at the Abraham Lincoln Center on Oakwood Boulevard.  One Sunday the great Sonny Stitt played with the orchestra.

In High School, Derf won a junior achievement award with his slogan "Keep the Scene Clean" which later was seen all over town on billboards and posters.  At sixteen Derf created a dance called "The Woodbine Twine" and he and some his friends danced for WVON DJ Herb Kent the "Kool Gent" at St. Bernard's on the Southside on Fridays and St. Phillip's on the Westside on Sundays. A few months later Alvin Cash of the Step Brothers recorded the song "Twine Time" and this record launched Alvin Cash's career for Alvin went on the Ed Sullivan show and Dick Clark's American Bandstand doing a watered down version of the "Twine". The Twine was a Midwest urban dance craze for about two years.

When Derf was twenty he started a band called the "Black Spirits" and this band of mainly African drummers with Derf on flute played for many activist rallies and conferences with speakers such as: Dick Gregory, Jesse Jackson, Lawerence Landry, and poets Don L.

Lee, Sonia Sanchez and Carolyn Rogers.  In the fall of 1967 Phil Cohran opened the AFFRO-ARTS theater and invited the "African Look" revue to perform at the theater for a special New Year's Eve celebration. The "Black Spirits" were the drummers for the "African Look" revue and impressed Phil Cohran so much that he hired the Black Spirits to play with his band on a show Phil called "The War of the Worlds. After a two-week run of the War of the Worlds, Phil asked Derf to join his band the Artistic Heritage Ensemble. This was March of 1968 and Derf joined Phil Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble at 21 years of age, his first professional job. Two months later Derf was in a Chess Records recording studio playing an African drum on the first Afro-Sheen commercial with Minnie Ripperton. Later on that year Derf worked with Phil Cohran's group in shows with Sammy Davis Jr. and musicals with Oscar Brown Jr. Phil Cohran left the AFFRO-ARTS theater in the fall of 1968 to teach at Malcolm X College and the musicians remained at the theater to keep the idea of cultivating the creative arts in the community. Most of the band members at that time: Charles Handy, Pete Cosey, Master Henry Gibson, Don Myrick and Louis Satterfield were studio musicians at Chess Records and along with Maurice White and Fred Humphries (Ramananda) performed around the Chicago club circuit as Chuck Handy and the Pharaohs. At Pete Cosey's suggestion, the AAFRO-ARTS-theater band became the legendary Pharaohs.  Charles Handy asked Derf to be a part of the Pharaohs and Derf came aboard.  Before Phil Cohran left the theater, he taught Derf a valuable lesson in polyrhythms and polymeters and that concept has helped in making Derf one of the most rhythmic, creative and groove conga players and percussionist in the world.