Shiloh Baptist Church praise and worship leader Joseph Campbell can find music anywhere.
“Even when I’m on vacation, If I stay at a hotel that’s connected to a convention center, if you go to these ballrooms there’s always a grand piano sitting back somewhere,” Campbell said. “I’ll sit there all night and just play. It’s calming, soothing.”
Music means a lot to him.
“They say music is a universal language,” he said. “Everybody from any race, any denomination can benefit from music. You can hear songs, and songs bring back memories.”
He said his father played piano and bass guitar and taught the family to sing. His mother directed the massive church choir in Kansas City, Missouri.
Campbell recalled pulling out his mother’s pots and pans and beating on them with spoons. He played saxophone in junior high.
The family came to Muskogee in 1995 because his father was called to lead a church.
Campbell recalled bouncing back and forth between Kansas City and Muskogee for several years after high school. He returned to Muskogee to stay in 2001 so he can help his parents.
He works at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center as an advance medical support assistant. He said his main job is to help outsource patients to community services if they cannot find help at the VA.
Campbell also plays gospel music with the band, Instrumental.
In addition, he has branched into theater. He recently did music for and acted in “Church Hurt,” a drama at Dean’s Chapel Baptist Church.
“It’s exciting to be someone other than yourself and see how you’d encompass that person,” Campbell said.
An unconventional
way to learn music
Singing helped Joseph Campbell teach himself to play piano when he was 18.
He said he needed to learn keyboards because his church had no drummer, guitar player or piano player.
“It was just voices singing,” he said, adding that he realized that the vocalists needed accompaniment.
“I felt I would render my service, just to learn to play to fill the service,” he said. “I began to sing out the parts I knew were in the music and then I mimicked it on the piano,” he said.
He explained that each song has a basic chord consisting of soprano, alto and tenor parts.
“Then you have what you’d call your bass line, it’s that low part that you hear,” he said. “So, I would sing out what the sopranos altos and tenors would sing, and I would pick out the bass line to coincide with the chords.”
Campbell said he also would listen to other types of music.
“I knew what to hear for, which chords to hear for,” he said. “You hear the transition, and I would slowly play the tape and pick out the part, find the bass line and find my chords.”
Campbell has taught himself to play piano, drums, saxophone and bass guitar.
Majoring in
music ministry
Campbell said his band, Instrumental, has been together for about five years.
“I played for a different church at one point in time,” he said. “Braylon Dedmon, a saxophone player, goes to a different church. “My friend, Mike Ragsdale, was going to a separate church. Alphaeus Washington. All of us were in different churches, but we were playing together so much, we were like ‘why don’t we come together and play together.'”
He said the group would go to a church service “and everybody else was invited.”
Campbell said they called themselves Instrumental “because we want to be instrumental in our community and our state, to the music world.”
He said the band’s slogan is “we minor in music, but we major in ministry.”
The group backed up musicians at the recent Muskogee Gospel Music Festival and plays mostly Christian music. But Campbell said they also have played for gatherings, family reunions and dances.
Finding ways to
relax with basketball
As often as he can, Campbell winds down by playing basketball.
He said he always was into basketball, but never made any school teams.
“I wanted to when I came here,” he said. “But because I was so involved with music and church when I first moved to Oklahoma, didn’t get a chance to do basketball.”
Campbell did play defensive tackle with the Muskogee High School Roughers in 1995.
He said his son, an MHS sophomore, is a starter with the Roughers basketball team. They like playing in the First United Methodist Church gym.
“I try to find time with him,” Campbell said. “When he goes to try to play somewhere, there’s an open gym. Of course, I’m not as young as I used to be. But I’ll go out there and try to do what I can.”
Campbell said his son is young and fast.
“He thinks he’s stronger,” Campbell said. “But he’s not stronger, and he’s not wiser. As far as the athleticism, these young people are so athletic. I’d like to be able to keep up, but my body says otherwise.”
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?
“My dad came down here to pastor a church. My previous pastor had passed. My dad came and he was overseeing the church down here.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?
“I like that it is a family-oriented town. I get asked all the time, ‘You don’t miss going back to Kansas City?’ I go down there a lot, I went there for Thanksgiving for their lights. I just like the family atmosphere here. It’s a smaller town. I feel it’s more personable. You can ride down the street and see somebody waving. In Kansas City, everybody’s so busy, I don’t think you have the opportunity to actually talk to the person sitting next to you. Muskogee’s like an intimate place.”
WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?
“Evolving with the times. Muskogee is an older city. I think just trying to come into that new age, updating some things here in Muskogee to make it more accessible for those who are already here, to make it more visible for the young generation coming up — having things for them to do, things to be involved in. The arts is one of them because that’s one thing we don’t have much. We have band, but outside of band, we don’t have anything music-wise for our youth.”
WHAT PERSON IN MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?
“Mostly my parents, Sedell and Yolanda Campbell. I think I’m a hybrid of the both of them. Dad is active, I always call him Kookie. He’s always smiling, forever joking around. That playful side I get from my dad. My mom is just super quiet, super sweet. Her attitude is so mild and tempered. That’s how I find myself.”
WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?
“One year, they honored me. The community got together and had a celebration for me at St. Mark’s Baptist Church. They had a service and different musicians I played for come in, different people from my past to come and have words. It was nice to be honored.”
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
“It’s pretty much music. When I get off work, it’s a rehearsal. It’s something involving my band, Instrumental. I’m constantly playing. I try to play basketball as much as possible, but that doesn’t happen.”
HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 25 WORDS OR LESS?
“Small place that I’ve come to grow and love.”
MEET Joseph Campbell
AGE: 41.
HOMETOWN: Kansas City, Missouri.
EDUCATION: Muskogee High School, class of 1997.
PROFESSION: Advance medical support assistant at Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center.
FAMILY: Two children, Joseph and Christian.
CHURCH: Shiloh Missionary Baptist.
HOBBIES: Music, playing basketball, cooking, any sports such as tennis and golf. Taking nature hikes, traveling seeing different places.
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