Smokey Johnson - It Ain't My Fault

We have lost another great one!

"Joseph "Smokey" Johnson (born November 14, 1936, New Orleans, died October 6, 2015, New Orleans)
 is an American drummer. He is one of the musicians, session players, and songwriters who have served as the backbone for New Orleans' output of jazz, funk, blues, soul, and R&B music.

Johnson served as the drummer for Fats Domino in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1961, Johnson and Wardell Quezergue worked together on the session for Earl King's proto-funk classic, "Trick Bag", produced by Dave Bartholomew.

Soon thereafter, Johnson went with Quezergue and childhood friend Joe Jones, and several other New Orleans artists (including Johnny Adams, Earl King and Esquerita) to audition for Motown in Detroit, where they recorded numerous demo sessions. (Jones had conned everyone into believing the were going to record, rather than audition, see story) Earl King once remarked that at least part of the reason why they got in the door was Motown's fascination with Smokey Johnson, who could do more on a trap set by himself than any two of the label's session drummers. Although Motown ended up not signing any of the New Orleans artists, Johnson offered to remain on staff while the other New Orleans artists were dispatched.

Johnson remained in Detroit for several months before deciding to return home; but his influence on the Motown sound was profound, as the other drummers studied his techniques, incorporating them into countless hit sessions.

In 1963 and 1964, Dave Bartholomew enlisted Johnson for his last two Imperial big band albums, giving Johnson the spotlight on the tune, "Portrait Of A Drummer", from New Orleans House Party.

In 1964, about a year after Nola Records was formed in New Orleans, Quezergue a partner in the label as well as principal producer/arranger, invited Johnson to be the drummer for label's house band. After a few months, Johnson and Quezergue wound up writing and recording what has become a New Orleans Mardi Gras standard called "It Ain't My Fault". Deftly arranged, "It Ain't My Fault" is a fascinating early example of both Johnson and Quezergue incorporating Second Line syncopation into pop music. The arranger's device of starting off with just the drummer's relaxed but intricate percussive work (plus somebody hitting what sounds like a glass bottle) quickly pulls the listener into the song, even before the simple musical hook, played by just the guitar and piano. George Davis runs the guitar riffs on the first side with that recognizable style made famous several years later on Robert Parker's "Barefootin'".

While the lighthearted, hard to resist "It Ain't My Fault" was enjoyed locally in New Orleans, it did not have a national impact at the time, it set the stage for many more uniquely funked up grooves to follow, and over time has become a Mardi Gras favorite and a part of the brass band repertoire.
Johnson stopped playing drums after suffering a stroke in 1993.

Johnson was forced to leave his home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. Johnson is now a resident of Musicians' Village, a Habitat for Humanity project in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans." wiki

Smokey passed away yesterday, may he Rest In Peace.

Remembering Eddie Bo (expanded)

This is numba three of my July re-run requests. The request was from my home-boy pmac and he will be happy to know that the request resulted in my reworking my Edwin Bocage files and expanding this post to 56 tracks of music from this unique and pioneering funk master. There are now two collections of Eddie' s music here. The first set were all released in Eddie's name but you will see that on the second set the songs aren't always in his name; he recorded under numerous alias' and also produced and played with many other artists. His signature sound, however, is always in clear evidence on all of these tracks. Neither of these sets completely corresponds to these covers, there is much more here than that and many tracks have been replaced with better copies than those used on the released discs!

original post: On March 18th New Orleans lost another of our treasures as R & B pioneer, Funk originator and New Orleans piano giant Mr. Eddie Bo passed away. Eddie was a sweet man whom I had the good fortune to get to know when his girl friend and then infant daughter used to be my neighbors. Eddie was always good-natured and friendly and would stop to chat when I was on the porch. I last saw him on the Fairgrounds for Jazz Fest and he made a point of stopping to say hello and impressing the hell out of my friends; always a gentleman was Eddie.

The following is quoted with permission from the very hip site 'Funky 16 Corners'.

"Eddie Bo (Edwin Bocage to his mama) is one of the most important – and least known – of the great funksters of the 60’s and 70’s. His recording career, stretching from the mid-50’s on started out in New Orleans R&B like ‘Twinkle Toes’ and ‘Check Mr. Popeye’ and moved on, in the mid-60’s to some of the grooviest soul and funk made in New Orleans, or anywhere else for that matter. While he made plenty of his own records – among them the mighty and legendary ‘Hook & Sling Pts 1&2" which was a minor national hit in 1969 – he was also a major producer, arranger and collaborator on scores of other records. His importance to the New Orleans scene can not be overestimated. The fact that he wasn’t better known nationally is a crime, and probably due in large part to the fact that most of his records were made for small independent labels like Scram, Seven B, and Bo Sound. Some of his best stuff did see national distribution but with the exception of ‘Hook & Sling" and "Check Your Bucket" not many got anywhere near the charts outside of the Big Easy. To put it in perspective, where James Brown is the Charlie Parker of funk, , Eddie Bo is the music’s Thelonious Monk, working with a strange, sometimes unfamiliar palette of sounds and rhythms, which reveal their beauty and complexity a little more with every listen. Much of this palette is common to New Orleans funk and soul: the drums of the Wild Indian tribes and the "second line", the soulful piano of players like Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey Piano Smith, Fats Domino and Bo himself, and the spice of the wild and unique mix of cultures that has been in New Orleans for hundreds of years. It doesn’t hurt that Bo had drummers like James Black and Smokey Johnson creating the beats on his records." (from Funky 16 Corners with permission, thank you Laurence)