O.V. Wright - The Complete Backbeat and ABC Recordings

I'm finding it hard to believe that it has been 5 years since I posted this! You can't call yourself a Soul fan if you don't have this! by Bill Pollak (Originally published in MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide, Gary Graff, Josh Freedom du Lac, and Jim McFarlin (eds.); Visible Ink Press (Detroit, MI): 1998.) Born Overton Vertis Wright, October 9, 1939, in Leno, TN. Died November 16, 1980, in Mobile, AL. "Let's not mince words: O.V. Wright was the greatest deep-soul singer ever. By the time he cut his first secular recording, "That's How Strong My Love Is" for Goldwax Records of Memphis, Tennessee (1964), Wright was already a well-known and successful gospel singer, having sung and recorded with gospel groups such as the Spirit of Memphis Quartet and the Sunset Travelers. Wright is by no means the only artist to abandon the sanctuary of the church in search of the rewards and temptations of the secular world. The pop recordings of Sam Cooke, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, and Johnnie Taylor all make overt or oblique reference to the trauma of this self-imposed exile. But in the work of no other artist, with the possible exception of Green, does this exile play so central a role. Wright's recordings are unmistakably the work of a spiritually troubled man. As if to underscore the gravity of his choice, Wright's secular recordings, more than those of any of his peers, cleave faithfully to the style, structure, and most importantly the feeling and fervor of the deepest and most heartfelt gospel music. The presence of this theme in all of his strongest performances--"You're Gonna Make Me Cry," "Eight Men, Four Women," "Everybody Knows (The River Song)," "Born All Over," "Heartaches, Heartaches," "Memory Blues"--give them a timeless universality that places them on a par with the hymns of Mahalia Jackson, the blues of Robert Johnson, or the country music of Hank Williams. There were two distinct periods in Wright's 15-year secular career, delineated by the demise of his first record label, Back Beat, which had been owned and operated by the don of Houston rhythm and blues, Don Robey. Midway in his career, Wright migrated to Hi Records, where his longtime producer Willie Mitchell was the principal talent director. (Somehow he fails to mention that Wright went to prison for narcotics, his label was sold to ABC and Don Robey died so his hold on OV was gone. ABC was not interested in him when he was released from prison so he was a free agent picked up by old friend Willie Mitchell who was now producer and AR guy for Hi Records! Surprising in what is otherwise a nice piece.) Few artists in any medium exhibit so huge a gap between artistic quality and commercial success as O.V. Wright. Wright's two most successful records, "You're Gonna Make Me Cry" and "Eight Men, Four Women," came early in his career at Back Beat, and neither recording received any airplay outside the circumscribed world of 1960s R&B radio. In fact, R&B radio in the late 1960s, the heyday of southern gospel-inflected soul music, is the only radio format during the years spanned by Wright's career in which it is possible to imagine Wright's chilling statements from the spiritual void finding a home. Wright is an artist whose reputation is destined to grow with the historical perspective afforded by time. Willie Mitchell's production values and house musicians (the Hi Rhythm Section, among others) were essential elements in the brilliance of Wright's recordings. Mitchell had achieved great commercial and artistic success helping Al Green craft a new kind of Memphis soul music in the 1970s. Undoubtedly motivated by the desire to help Wright achieve more of the success and recognition that he so deserved, Mitchell attempted to adapt this softer, more melodic sound to Wright's recordings during Wright's later period at Hi Records. That this sound was not entirely suited to Wright's unique gifts provides one explanation for the relative superiority of the Back Beat recordings. Another factor is that, by all accounts, the O.V. Wright who recorded for Hi was deteriorating from a drug habit that ultimately claimed his life. A comparison of the photographs from the BackBeat albums and the later Hi albums provides stark evidence of his physical deterioration. He died in an ambulance, en route to the hospital, at the age of 41, consumed by the music that haunted him and the life that went with it."

Willie Mabon - I'm The Fixer

 Willie Mabon (October 24, 1925 – April 19, 1985)

Born Willie James Mabon, and brought up in Hollywood, Memphis, Tennessee, he had become known as a singer and pianist by the time he moved to Chicago in 1942. He formed a group, the Blues Rockers, and in 1949 began recording for the Aristocrat label, and then Chess.

His biggest success came in 1952 when his debut solo release, "I Don't Know", topped the Billboard R&B chart for eight weeks. It was one of the most popular releases of its era, becoming Chess's biggest hit in the period before Chuck Berry's and Bo Diddley's success. It also became one of the first R&B hit records to be covered by a leading white artist, Tennessee Ernie Ford. Mabon's original was played on Alan Freed's early radio shows and also sold well to white audiences, crossing over markets at the start of the rock and roll era.

Mabon returned to the top R&B slot in 1953 with "I'm Mad", and had another hit in 1954 with the Mel London song "Poison Ivy". However, his career failed to maintain its momentum, and record releases in the late 1950s on a variety of record labels were largely unsuccessful. Releases in the 1960s included "I'm The Fixer" and "Got To Have Some".

After a 1972 move to Paris, Mabon toured and recorded in Europe as part of promoter Jim Simpson's American Blues Legends tour, recording The Comeback for Simpson's Big Bear Records label, and his 1977 album on Ornament Records. He also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In April 1985, after a long illness, Mabon died in Paris.

Spencer Wiggins - The Complete Goldwax Singles

A reposting has been requested!

"Spencer Wiggins (Memphis, Tennessee 1942) is an American soul - and gospel singer. He is an exponent of the so-called deep southern soul and is considered one of the best kept secrets of soul music."

Wiggins was born in Memphis, Tennessee, where he grew up encouraged by his parents to engage with music, especially gospel; his mother sang in the choir of the Baptist Church where she attended services. He lived in the same area as singers James Carr and Bobby Bland. While at Booker T. Washington High School, he formed a gospel group with his brother Percy and sister Maxine and, on leaving school, formed an R&B group, the Four Stars, that included his brother Percy and David Porter, later to become a leading songwriter and record producer.

In the early 1960s, he began singing in clubs in Memphis, where he was discovered by Quinton Claunch, head of Goldwax Records. In 1964 Wiggins recorded his first single, "Lover's Crime", produced by Claunch, for the label, though his early recordings were licensed for release through the sub-label Bandstand USA. The recording was followed by eight further singles, but none became a hit. His recordings for Goldwax included "Uptight Good Woman", written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and "I Never Loved A Woman (The Way I Love You)", recorded at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals with guitar by Duane Allman.

In 1969, after Goldwax collapsed, Wiggins went on to Fame Records, where he recorded two more singles, including "Double Lovin'", which reached no.44 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1970. However, other singles for Fame, and for the Pama and Vivid Sound labels, were unsuccessful.

In 1973 Wiggins left Memphis, married, and moved to Miami, Florida, where he became active in the Baptist church and in gospel music. He became a deacon and choir director at the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami, and worked with a number of gospel choirs. He has since released gospel recordings, including Keys To The Kingdom released by Tavette Records in 2003.

The Japanese label Vivid Sound released a compilation of Wiggins' singles from Goldwax, and in 2006 the Kent label issued another compilation. Due to copyright issues, however, this compilation contains fewer songs than the Japanese release. The album was widely acclaimed and led to Wiggins being seen as one of the greatest unknown soul singers.

Rosco Gordon - Just A Little Bit

Rosco Gordon (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002) was an American, Memphis blues and rhythm & blues, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1952, number 1, rhythm & blues hit single, "Booted", and two number 2 singles, "No More Doggin'" (1952 RPM 350) and "Just a Little Bit" (1960 Vee-Jay 332).
Born on Florida Street, in Memphis, Tennessee, Gordon was one of the "Beale Streeters", a group of musicians in 1949 that also featured Johnny Ace, B.B. King, and Bobby "Blue" Bland a.o., who helped to develop the style known as Memphis Blues. Gordon used a style of piano playing known as 'The Rosco Rhythm', he placed the accent on the off beats, and although other influential rhythm & blues pianists such as Professor Longhair (on "Willie Mae" among other songs) recorded in the same off beat style before him, through his influence on the Jamaican pianist, Theophilus Beckford ("Easy Snappin'"), Gordon was cited as the foundation of Jamaican ska, bluebeat and reggae music.
Rosco Gordon made a number of his early recordings for Sam Phillips at Sun Records.
"Booted" (1952) gave his career a sound start, and was followed by "No More Doggin'" the same year. Sam Phillips later sold the master tape of "Booted" to two competing record labels, Chess and RPM, both of whom released it as a single as he had done with some early Howlin' Wolf songs. The RPM release reached #1 on the Billboard R&B record chart. Chess and the Bihari Brothers later settled the conflict with the Biharis getting exclusive rights to Gordon and Chess signing Wolf to an exclusive contract.
In 1960, Gordon released his last charting single "Just a Little Bit", which was both an R&B and pop hit. However there were no further hits despite Gordon's youth, talent and exuberant and oddball personality. In 1962, he gave up the music industry and moved to Queens, New York with his new wife where he purchased a partnership in a laundry business. Following his wife's death in 1984, he returned to performing in the New York area.
In 2002, he was invited by filmmaker Richard Pearce to be featured as part of a documentary film about several blues musicians returning to Memphis for a special tribute to Sam Phillips in conjunction with the May 2002 W. C. Handy Awards. Called The Road To Memphis, the documentary aired on PBS television. Six weeks after filming finished, Gordon died of a heart attack at his apartment in Rego Park, Queens. He was 74 years old. He was interred in the Rosedale Cemetery in Linden, New Jersey.

Collectors Album - C.J.'s Roots of Chicago Blues

This is a repost of my 2012 post, I've redone the rip at least once since then.

 LOOK CLOSELY my friends, it does not get much rarer than this! (unless of course you are talking volumes 2 & 3) Three records were ever published on Blue Flame, this one, a Volume 2, and a Volume 3! My friend Cliff bought this in the mid 70's prior to leaving Chicago; the record is still in good shape! (Blue Flame was a independent Chicago Blues weekly) A copy of Vol. 2 was posted in 2012 @ 'Don't Ask Me... Blog. To date I only know of the existence of a third volume through comments elsewhere.


"Little Mack Simmons (January 25, 1933 — October 24, 2000) was an African American, Chicago blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.
Malcolm Simmons was born in Twist, Arkansas. In his youth he befriended James Cotton, and they grew up learning to play the harmonica. Simmons relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of 18 and worked on the railroad. At this time Simmons made his stage debut with Robert Nighthawk.

In 1954 he moved again to Chicago, put together his own backing band, and had a five year residency at Cadillac Baby's. He commenced recording in 1959, issuing records on a number of labels including Chess.

 

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Simmons recorded several more obscure singles, often simply billed as Little Mack (or Mac). Simmons went on to provide the opportunity for others talents to be seen. He owned and managed Chicago's Zodiac Lounge from the mid to late 1960s. In addition, he owned a recording studio and recorded on his own labels, PM Records and Simmons Records. Simmons left the music industry at that time for the ministry, and was rarely heard in 30 years, notwithstanding an album he recorded in 1975 in Paris, France.

His return to blues music arrived with High & Lonesome (1995), which was an early success for St. George Records, an independent record label. Simmons' energetic style, accompanied by Studebaker John, belied his years. Come Back to Me Baby (1996), with featured sidemen John Primer, Willie Kent and Jake Dawson (guitarist) was also well received.
Simmons died in October 2000, of colon cancer, in his adopted hometown of Chicago, at the age of 67."

Homesick James (May 3, 1914 – December 13, 2006) was an American blues musician. He most notably played slide guitar, and recorded covers of "Stones In My Passway" and "Homesick". James worked with his cousin, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He was born in Somerville, Tennessee, United States, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. Little is known about his early life. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller and Big Joe Williams, among others, and to have been acquainted with Robert Johnson. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to have bought James his first guitar, and to have taught him how to play slide. However, some of these claims are unconfirmed.

By the mid 1930s he was based in Chicago, and working with Horace Henderson's band at the Circle Inn, and with pianist Jimmy Walker at the Square Deal Club. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were in 1952 for Chance Records, recording the tracks "Lonesome Ole Train" and "Homesick" which gave him his stage name. During the late 1940s and 1950s he worked with both Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), and with Elmore James, and in the early 1950s he worked in bands including Baby Face Leroy Foster, Snooky Pryor, Floyd Jones, and Lazy Bill Lucas. He was a longtime member of Elmore James' band from 1955 to 1963, contributing to such tracks as "Dust My Broom," "The Sky Is Crying," and "Roll and Tumble." Elmore James is said to have died on Homesick's couch, while the latter frantically searched for the former's heart pills.

As a solo performer, he recorded for the Colt and USA labels in 1962, including a cover version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". Homesick James's slide guitar style, not as refined as Elmore James', traces back to Johnson's. He also recorded a 1964 album for Prestige Records, Blues On the South Side (Prestige OBCCD 529-2), including another of his best-known covers, "Stones In My Passway", and some tracks for Vanguard that are available on the compilation album Chicago: The Blues Today. One of his own songs, "Gotta Move" (also on Blues On the South Side) was covered (as "Got To Move") both by Elmore James and Fleetwood Mac."

Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 - December 17, 1975) was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer. Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 (although some sources say 1917). He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20. He moved to Chicago in 1942.

He became a full-time musician around 1957 but remained unknown outside of the Chicago area where he played small clubs in the black neighborhoods and also at the open-air Maxwell Street Market. He was known for his electrified slide guitar playing roughly styled after that of Elmore James, his cheap Japanese Teisco guitars, and his raucous boogie beats. He was also famed among guitar players for having six fingers on his left hand.

After hearing Taylor with his band, the HouseRockers (Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums) in 1970 at Florence's Lounge on Chicago's South Side, Bruce Iglauer - at the time a shipping clerk for Delmark Records - tried to get him signed by his employer.  Having no success getting Delmark to sign Taylor, Iglauer formed a small record label with a $2500 inheritance and recorded Taylor's debut album, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, on his fledgling Alligator Records in 1971. It was the first release on Alligator, now a major blues label. It was recorded in a studio in just two nights. Iglauer began managing and booking the band, which toured nationwide and performed with Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton. The band became particularly popular in the Boston area, where Taylor inspired a young protégé named George Thorogood. A live album Live At Joe's Place documented a Boston appearance from 1972.

Their second release, Natural Boogie, was recorded in late 1973, and led to greater acclaim and touring. In 1975, Taylor and his band toured Australia and New Zealand with Freddie King and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His third Alligator album, Beware of the Dog, was recorded live in 1974 but was only released after his death. More posthumous releases occurred as well, including Genuine Houserocking Music and Release the Hound, on the Alligator label as well as some bootleg live recordings.

Taylor died of lung cancer in 1975, and was buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Taylor was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.

Shirley Brown 1977

Just so everyone understands that we are not abandoning our core mission, but instead, expanding our horizons. 

 "Brown was born in West Memphis, but was raised in Madison, Illinois, where she started singing in church at the age of nine. Early experience singing gospel gave her a powerful but expressive voice likened to that of Aretha Franklin. Albert King discovered her when she was aged 14, singing in the Harlem Club in Brooklyn, Illinois. Young Shirley went on the road with King for nine years. While King made sure she had a tutor, Brown often cut her classes to work with the band.

By 1972, Shirley was living in East St. Louis, Illinois, where she made her first record for the Abet label called, "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love Built on a Strong Foundation". Bandleader Oliver Sain produced the record; Sain worked with King on his first hit record ten years earlier. By 1974, King recommended Brown to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had been one of the label's stars for some time.

Her 1974 hit, "Woman to Woman" spent two weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart and climbed to #22 in the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies by December 1974, and was awarded a gold disc. It was to prove to be Stax's final major hit record (the song was later covered by Barbara Mandrell in 1978 and became a top-five country hit).

A moderately successful debut album, Woman to Woman, was released by Stax on their Truth label, but by 1975, the company was struggling financially and also facing litigation. A follow-up single, "It Ain't No Fun" was only a moderate success, and Stax closed soon afterwards.

Her signing to Arista Records in 1977 resulted in the album Shirley Brown, produced by the former Stax owner Jim Stewart and writer-producer Bettye Crutcher, who provided most of the songs. These included "Blessed Is The Woman" which reached #14 R&B (#102 pop).

Brown continued to record for several labels since then, including Fantasy, on the re-formed Stax label, and Sound Town. She has been with the Mississippi based blues and soul label, Malaco Records since 1989. She remains a popular live performer, mainly in southern states of the US, without having found the recording success of her earlier years."

Booker T. Laury - Complete Recorded Works (flac)

 Booker T. Laury (September 2, 1914 – September 23, 1995) was an American boogie-woogie, blues, gospel and jazz pianist and singer. Over his lengthy career, Laury worked with various musicians including Memphis Slim and Mose Vinson. He appeared in two films, but did not record his debut album until he was almost eighty years of age.

Lawrence Laury was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up with his lifelong friend, Memphis Slim. At the age of six, after helping his mother play the family's pump organ, Laury learned to play the keyboards. His barrelhouse playing style, which he developed alongside Slim, was based on the influence gained from regular Memphis performers Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Speckled Red. In the early 1930s, and in the company of the younger Mose Vinson, Slim and Laury began playing in local clubs.

In 1935, Sykes suggested to Laury and Slim that they relocated to Chicago, with a view of obtaining a recording contract. Slim took up the advice, but Laury decided to remain in Memphis, where he played in gambling houses and clubs for decades. Laury had a large hand-width, which enabled him to span ten keys. His playing dexterity was such that, after losing one finger on his left hand following an accident with a circular saw in the 1950s, he was still able to play well. Based around Memphis' Beale Street, as that area started to degenerate, Laury traveled around Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Despite differing fortunes, the friendship with Slim did not diminish over the years, up to Slim's death in 1988.

In the 1989 Dennis Quaid film, Great Balls of Fire!, the plot had a young Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart, look into a juke joint to see Laury playing "Big Legged Woman". This attention led to Laury having the opportunity to record later in his life.

Laury appeared in the 1991 documentary film, Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads. In the film, Laury played "Memphis Blues" in his own living room.

Laury finally recorded his debut album in his late seventies. In 1993, Bullseye Blues Records issued Nothin' But the Blues, which simply incorporated Laury's voice and piano playing his own compositions. The following year, Wolf Records released a live album, containing concert recordings made in 1987.

Booker T. Laury died of cancer, in September 1995 in Memphis, at the age of 81. He has a brass note on Beale's Walk of Fame.

The Best Of The Fairfield Four

The Fairfield Four is an American gospel group that has existed for over 90 years. They started as a trio in Nashville, Tennessee's Fairfield Baptist Church in 1921. They were designated as National Heritage Fellows in 1989 by the National Endowment for the Arts. The group won the 1998 Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. As a quintet, they featured briefly in the motion picture O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

The group gained more popular recognition after appearing on John Fogerty's 1997 album Blue Moon Swamp, singing on the track "A Hundred and Ten in the Shade". They also undertook live appearances with Fogerty.

During the 1940s, the Fairfield Four were among the top-ranked gospel quartets, along with the Dixie Hummingbirds, Five Blind Boys, and Soul Stirrers. Originally a gospel duet created in the early '20s by the pastor of Fairfield Baptist Church in Nashville to occupy his sons, Harry and Rufus Carrethers, they became a gospel trio with the addition of John Battle. The group was transformed into a jubilee quartet by the '30s and began the first of numerous personnel changes. They recorded for RCA Victor and Columbia during the decade and were known for their reinterpretations of standard hymns, featuring bright, close baritone and tenor harmonies. When the Fairfield Four sang, they utilized the full extent of their voices, moving easily from deep, rolling basslines to the staccato upper peaks of the tenor range, all executed with precise, intricate harmonies and ever-shifting leads.

the Fairfield Four reached their broadest audience when the Sunway Vitamin Company sponsored a nationally broadcast radio show for them daily at 6:45 a.m. on WLAC, Nashville. At the same time, they also continued touring; it was a grueling schedule, especially with the drive to Nashville, and often the group would be missing a member or two on the show. In 1942, the quartet recorded for the Library of Congress, but by 1950, it all became too much. Coupled with some financial trouble and a dwindling radio audience, the Fairfield Four broke up, though one member, Reverend Sam McCrary, used the group name to perform with other quartets. In 1980, the Fairfield Four from the '40s was reunited for a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, by Black gospel specialist Doug Seroff. In 1989, they were designated as National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment for the Arts. They continue to perform, though the original members are either deceased or retired.

The Dixie Nightingales

Before there was Ollie & the Nightingales, there were the Dixie Nightingales.

One of the most successful Southern gospel groups of the late '50s and early '60s, the Dixie Nightingales served as a training ground for future Temptations vocalist David Ruffin (1941-1991). The group, which featured the lead vocals of Ollie Hoskins, was heard every Saturday morning on Memphis radio station WDIA. As they were reaching the peak of their popularity, the Dixie Nightingales experienced a drastic change in 1962. Signing with the Stax label, they shifted their focus to R&B and re-christened themselves Ollie & the Nightingales. They disbanded shortly afterwards. Although he maintained a low profile for more than four decades, Hoskins mounted a serious comeback in the mid-'90s. Signing with Ecko in 1995, he released three impressive singles -- "I'll Drink Your Water, Baby," "Tell Me What You Want Me to Do," and "Make It Sweet" -- before succumbing to a heart attack resulting from complications of pneumonia, in October 1997. The son of a minister, Ruffin had toured with Mahalia Jackson at the age of six. After leaving the Dixie Nightingales, he went on to be a founding member of the Temptations, singing lead on such classics as "My Girl" and "I Wish It Would Rain." He had a Top Ten solo hit with "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" in 1969. He died from a drug overdose in 1991.

Ollie & The Nightingales

Contributed by my local buddy Paul -- this group was originally a Gospel group called The Dixie Nightingales. At one time the group included David Ruffin who would go on to help found the Temptations. I've got some of their Gospel on tap for Sunday.

"This Memphis group included some excellent vocalists, although they didn't enjoy as much success as some other Stax artists. Ollie Nightingale (born Ollie Hoskins), Quincy Clifton Billops, Jr., Nelson Lesure, Bill Davis, and Rochester Neal were the original members. Billops had been in the Mad Lads. Their biggest single was "I Got a Sure Thing" in 1968, which made the R&B Top 20. It was also their lone hit. Nightingale left in 1970 and was replaced by Sir Mack Rice. Neal, Billops, and Davis became the Ovations in 1972."

Bobby Womack - The American Singles 1967-1976

For those of you who may have the album versions of these songs, you will need these as well as most of them seem to be different, if only in the mix in some cases -- for those who don't have either, I will do some sort of mega-post on the albums too as they also include songs never released as singles The story is so huge, it requires multiple chapters.

continued......."Womack worked at Chips Moman's American Studios in Memphis and played on recordings by Joe Tex and The Box Tops. Womack played guitar on several of Aretha Franklin's albums, including Lady Soul, but not on the hit song, "Chain of Fools", as erroneously reported. His work as a songwriter caught the eye of music executives after Wilson Pickett took a liking to some of the songs and insisted on recording them. Among those songs included the hits, "I'm a Midnight Mover" and "I'm in Love".

In 1968, he signed with Minit Records and recorded his first solo album, Fly Me to the Moon, where he scored his first major hit with a cover of The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'". In 1969, Womack forged a partnership with Gábor Szabó and with Szabó, penned the instrumental, "Breezin'", later a hit for George Benson. Womack also worked with rock musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Janis Joplin, contributing vocals and guitar work on The Family Stone's accomplished album, There's a Riot Goin' On, and penning the ballad "Trust Me", for Joplin on her album, Pearl. Womack was one of the last people to speak to Joplin before her death in October 1970.

After two more albums with Minit, Bobby switched labels, signing with United Artists where he changed his attire and his musical direction with the album, Communication. The album bolstered his first top 40 hit, "That's the Way I Feel About Cha", which peaked at number two R&B and number twenty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1972.
1972-1985: Solo success

Following Communication, Womack's profile was raised with two more albums, released in 1972. The first of which was Understanding, noted for the album track, "I Can Understand It", later covered by the funk band New Birth and a three-sibling lineup of Bobby's old group, the Valentinos, and two hit singles, "Woman's Gotta Have It" and "Harry Hippie", the latter song was written for Womack by Jim Ford in a country version, in which Womack re-arranged in an R&B version. "Harry Hippie" later became Womack's first to be certified gold. Contrary to popular belief, the song was not about Womack's brother Harry. "Woman's Gotta Have It" became Womack's first to hit number-one on the R&B charts.

Another hit album released after Understanding was the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film, Across 110th Street. The title track became popular during its initial 1972 release and later would be played during the closing scene of the film, Jackie Brown, years later. In 1973, Womack released another hit album, Facts of Life, and had a top 40 hit with "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out", an older song Sam Cooke had done years before.

In 1974, Womack released his most successful single during this period with a remake of his first hit single, "Lookin' for a Love". Bobby's solo version of the song became even more successful than the original with the Valentinos', becoming his second number-one hit on the R&B chart and peaking at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his only hit to reach that high on the pop chart. The song was featured on the album, Lookin' for a Love Again and featured the minor charted "You're Welcome, Stop on By", later covered by Rufus & Chaka Khan. Womack's career began stalling after Womack suffered from the tragic news of his brother Harry's death. Womack continued to record albums with United Artists through 1975 and 1976 but with less success than previous albums. In 1975, Womack collaborated with Rolling Stones member Ronnie Wood, on Wood's second solo album, Now Look."

Jimmy Lewis - It's Getting Harder

Jimmy Lewis was born in 1939 in Nashville, Tennessee. He recorded a dozen singles in the 1960's, including a duet with Ray Charles, but he soon found that his compositional skills were much more in demand. Based in Los Angeles, he continued composing for Ray Charles and other artists. In the 80's he wrote many of Z.Z. Hill's best songs for Mississippi's Malaco Records. He reunited with Ray Charles again in the 90's.

It was also in the 90's that Lewis began his stint as primary writer, arranger and producer for Peggy Scott-Adams. His easy-going style meshed perfectly with Scott-Adams' hard-hitting style, and the collaboration resulted in a string of Southern Soul hits that as much as any other song-producing team defined the sound of Southern Soul from the mid-nineties into the new millennium.

As a musical entrepreneur, Lewis has been a human dynamo. Besides writing, arranging and producing Scott-Adams and other artists for his Miss Butch label, Lewis has cranked out solo Jimmy Lewis CD's regularly through the 90's and 00's.

Despite limited "pipes," Lewis has won over chitlin' circuit deejays and fans by composing colorful, culturally "incorrect" portraits of real life, and novelty songs enriched with modern-day folklore. Today he's regarded as perhaps the foremost storyteller in contemporary Southern Soul rhythm and blues. Daddy B Nice

Sam & Dave - The Definitive Soul Collection

 I've been reading an excellent history of Stax records which lead me to dig out this Rhino set. From the book I've learned that Sam and Dave were never really a Stax act, they were always signed to Atlantic and only 'on loan' to Stax. This became another of the deep wounds Stax suffered when they split from Atlantic subsequent to the sale of that label to Warner Brothers.

The distribution agreement between Stax and Atlantic had been a handshake deal between Jim Stewart and Jerry Wexler until 1965. During the period when Stax had just discovered their breakout star in Otis Redding and Wexler was bringing his new singer Wilson Pickett to Memphis, it was decided to finally formalize and put to print the deal which had been in place for years. Stewart viewed this as a move to protect Stax's interests against any upheavals at the larger label and his main goal was to include a 'key man' clause that let him escape the deal should Wexler's position change. Wexler brought the contract with him when he brought Pickett to Stax and after checking that the base terms were unchanged and the key man clause was included, Stewart and, allegedly, Wexler both signed the contract without actually reading the entire 13 page document. Are you hearing some ominous chords in the background?

The first Pickett session produced Midnight Hour amongst other hits and shortly thereafter, Wexler sent his newly signed duo Sam & Dave to Memphis, much to their dismay as both had assumed that they would be in the big New York studios. It took a few sessions to convince them they were in the right place after all.

The rest of 1965 through 1966 and most of 1967 things went well for both labels, despite the difficult blowup over Pickett's second visit to Stax when he behaved so badly that Stewart told Wexler to never bring him to Stax again. Wexler ended up taking Wilson to Muscle Shoals and, unfortunately for Stax, he took his next star Aretha there as well. Otis Redding and Sam & Dave were, however, enjoying great success so while there were some bad feelings in the pot, overall things were still cooking for both labels.

In December of 1967 Redding took a break from a period of furious writing and recording to do a small tour to fulfill some obligations, but was expected back at Stax the following week to continue the roll he was on. After a show in Cleveland, Ohio Otis and his new teenage band the Bar-kays were flying to Milwaukee in Redding's new plane. He had just bought a larger one so that the band could fly with him. The plane crashed into a small lake near Milwaukee, only one of the Bar-kays survived.

While all of Stax was still reeling from the loss of Otis and the group of talented teenagers who had nearly grown up in their studios, news came that Atlantic was being purchased by Warner Brothers. Stewart felt reasonably secure with his key man clause, so when Atlantic/Warner came up with a low-ball offer to acquire Stax as well, he refused and invoked the clause to gain Stax's freedom. It was near the end of those negotiations that Wexler dropped twin bombs that put Stax's future in doubt. First he informed them that Atlantic was taking Sam & Dave back (now they had lost their two biggest acts) and it was also revealed that Atlantic's lawyers had buried two clauses in the distribution agreement that gave Atlantic ownership of the masters to every record they had ever distributed for Stax, even retroactive to the deal; essentially the entire catalog of the label. Stax had done all the work, spent all their own money on the recordings and Wexler's shyster lawyers had stolen all of it.

To this day Wexler claims to have known nothing about the clauses and says that both he and Ahmet Ertegun attempted to intercede in Stax's behalf and implore Warner Brothers to return the masters, but to no avail. Somehow their behavior in making the low-ball offer to acquire Stax gives lie to that claim as it seems clear that they knew of the clauses during the negotiations and didn't reveal the truth until Stewart refused their offer. It is one of the worst stories of corporate greed that has ever been perpetrated in the record industry.

Al King & Arthur K. Adams - Together

  Cliff found this Ace cd which pairs Al King, a West Coast blues guy whom he had been investigating, with Arthur K. Adams, a West Coast blues guy whom I had developed an interest in. Both these guys, like a Ray Agee or Jessie Belvin, are illustrative of the development of West Coast soul out of the uptown blues pioneered by T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson and Charles Brown.

Al King was born Alvin K. Smith in Monroe, Louisiana in 1926. Like many WWII vets he was cut loose in 1947 in the Southern California area. He first began working in the Los Angeles R&B scene, first with John Dolphin and later with Johnny Otis, but he eventually migrated north to Oakland where he hooked up with guitarist Johnny Heartsman and producer Bob Geddins.

These recordings find King back in L.A. singing in front of Maxwell Davis' band and recording for the Biharis at a time roughly concurrent with Albert King's run at Stax. I don't think there is much doubt that the first track, 'My Name Is Misery', shows some influences from Albert's 'Born Under A Bad Sign'.

You couldn't tell from this cover here, but while King is in his early 40's at the time of these tracks, Arthur K. Adams is nearly 20 years his junior. Adams was born in Medon, Tennessee in 1943, but by 1959 he was touring as a backup singer for Gene Allison who abandoned the teenager in Dallas, Tx. Adams worked his way up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth scene, gaining a good reputation both as a singer and guitarist; he was a mere 21 when he moved to Los Angeles in 1964. Within a couple years Adams found his way to Kent/Modern and the Biharis where his first project was as a rhythm filler on B.B. King's 'The Jungle'. That cover picture with the fellah in the hammock and the red guitar?...not B.B. at all, it's Adams!

While at Modern Adams was used to fill out some of their unfinished B.B. King tracks as well as contributing some killer guitar to sessions by Larry Davis and the above Al King tracks. Adams eventually became a first call session guy in the L.A. studios, contributing to hits by the Jackson Five, Quincy Jones and countless others. He also worked extensively in T.V. and movies (he is the guitarist behind Bonnie & Clyde) and as a frequent contributor to the Jazz Crusaders.

Memphis Slim - Rockin' This House (Chicago Blues Piano 1946-1954)

As promised; 64 tracks, 2/12 discs.

"Memphis Slim's birth name was John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), and he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. His father Peter Chatman sang, played piano and guitar, and operated juke joints, and it is now commonly believed that he took the name to honor his father when he first recorded for Okeh Records in 1940. Although he started performing under the name Memphis Slim later that same year, he continued to publish songs under the name Peter Chatman.

He spent most of the 1930s performing in honky-tonks, dance halls, and gambling joints in West Memphis, Arkansas, and southeast Missouri. He settled in Chicago in 1939, and began teaming with Big Bill Broonzy in clubs soon afterward. In 1940 and 1941 he recorded two songs for Bluebird Records that became part of his repertoire for decades, "Beer Drinking Woman," and "Grinder Man Blues." These were released under the name "Memphis Slim," given to him by Bluebird's producer, Lester Melrose. Slim became a regular session musician for Bluebird, and his piano talents supported established stars such as John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Washboard Sam, and Jazz Gillum. Many of Slim's recordings and performances until the mid-1940s were with guitarist and singer Broonzy, who had recruited Slim to be his piano player after Joshua Altheimer's death in 1940.

After World War II, Slim began leading bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump-blues, generally included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. With the decline of blues recording by the majors, Slim worked with the emerging independent labels. Starting in late 1945, he recorded with trios for the small Chicago-based label Hy-Tone. With a lineup of alto saxophone, tenor sax, piano, and string bass (Willie Dixon played the instrument on the first session), he signed with the Miracle label in the fall of 1946. One of the numbers recorded at the first session was the ebullient boogie "Rockin' the House," from which his band would take its name. Slim and the House Rockers recorded mainly for Miracle through 1949, enjoying commercial success. Among the songs they recorded were "Messin' Around" (which reached number one on the R&B charts in 1948 and "Harlem Bound." In 1947, the day after producing a concert by Slim, Broonzy, and Williamson at New York City's Town Hall, folklorist Alan Lomax brought the three musicians to the Decca studios and recorded with Slim's on vocal and piano. Lomax presented sections of this recording on BBC radio in the early 1950s as a documentary titled The Art of the Negro, and later released an expanded version as the LP Blues in the Mississippi Night. In 1949, Slim expanded his combo to a quintet by adding a drummer; the group was now spending most of its time on tour, leading to off-contract recording sessions for King in Cincinnati and Peacock in Houston.

One of Slim's 1947 recordings for Miracle, released in 1949, was originally titled "Nobody Loves Me". It has become famous as "Every Day I Have the Blues." The tune was recorded in 1950 by Lowell Fulson, and subsequently by a raft of artists including B. B. King, Elmore James, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Carlos Santana, John Mayer and Lou Rawls.[5] Joe Williams recorded it in 1952 for Checker; his remake from 1956 (included in Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings) was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.

Early in 1950, Miracle succumbed to financial troubles, but its owners regrouped to form the Premium label, and Slim remained on board until the successor company faltered in the summer of 1951. His February 1951 session for Premium saw two changes in the House Rockers' lineup: Slim started using two tenor saxophones instead of the alto and tenor combination, and he made a trial of adding guitarist Ike Perkins. His last session for Premium kept the two-tenor lineup but dispensed with the guitar. During his time with Premium, Slim first recorded his song "Mother Earth".

Slim made just one session for King, but the company bought his Hy-Tone sides in 1948 and acquired his Miracle masters after it failed in 1950. He was never a Chess artist, but Leonard Chess bought most of the Premium masters after the failure.

After a year with Mercury Records, Slim signed with United Records in Chicago; the A&R man, Lew Simpkins, knew him from Miracle and Premium. The timing was propitious, because he had just added Matt "Guitar" Murphy to his group. He remained with United through the end of 1954, when the company began to cut back on blues recording.

Slim's next steady relationship with a record company had to wait until 1958, when he was picked up by Vee-Jay. In 1959 his band, still featuring Matt "Guitar" Murphy, cut LP Memphis Slim at the Gate of the Horn, which featured a lineup of his best known songs, including "Mother Earth," "Gotta Find My Baby," "Rockin' the Blues," "Steppin' Out", and "Slim's Blues."

Slim first appeared outside the United States in 1960, touring with Willie Dixon, with whom he returned to Europe in 1962 as a featured artist in the first of the series of American Folk Festival concerts organized by Dixon and promoter Willie Dixon that brought many notable blues artists to Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. The duo released several albums together on Folkways Records, including, Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon at the Village Gate with Pete Seeger, in 1962. That same year, he moved permanently to Paris and his engaging personality and well-honed presentation of playing, singing, and storytelling about the blues secured his position as the most prominent blues artist for nearly three decades. He appeared on television in numerous European countries, acted in several French films and wrote the score for another, and performed regularly in Paris, throughout Europe, and on return visits to the United States. In the last years of his life, he teamed up with respected jazz drummer George Collier. The two toured Europe together and became friends. After Collier died in August 1987, Slim appeared in public very little.

Two years before his death, Slim was named a Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France. In addition, the U.S. Senate honored Slim with the title of Ambassador-at-Large of Good Will.

Memphis Slim died on February 24, 1988, of renal failure in Paris, France, at the age of 72. He is buried at Galilee Memorial Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee." wiki

Alberta Hunter - Amtrak Blues

Am I a sick puppy to follow Swamp Dogg with Alberta Hunter? Yeah, maybe, but I'm okay with it somehow.

 It is really hard to believe that no-one has ever written a movie around the life of Alberta Hunter; I mean, how could it fail to be riveting?!  Unkie Cliff calls this one an absolute essential and I couldn't agree more.

"Alberta Hunter was a pioneering African-American popular singer whose path crosses the streams of jazz, blues and pop music. While she made important contributions to all of these stylistic genres, she is claimed exclusively by no single mode of endeavor. Hunter recorded in six decades of the twentieth century, and enjoyed a career in music that outlasted most human lives.

Hunter was born in Memphis, and depending on which account you read, she either ran away from home or her family relocated to Chicago when she was 12-years-old. Her career began in the bawdy houses on the south side of Chicago, probably in 1911 or 1912, although she claimed 1909. Early on she married, but ultimately discovered she preferred women to men. In Chicago Hunter worked with legendary pianist Tony Jackson, was good friends with King Oliver's pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, and even sang in white clubs. But working in these violent, rough-and-tumble nighteries was dangerous business, and not long after an incident where Hunter's piano accompanist was killed by a stray bullet, she decided to try her talent in New York.

Not long after she arrived, Hunter made contact with the Harry Pace and his Black Swan Records concern. Hunter's initial records for Black Swan, made in May 1921, were the first blues vocals recorded by the company. Later, after Paramount acquired Black Swan, these sides were co-mingled with Hunter's newer Paramount recordings; her work from both labels dominated the early couplings in the Paramount 12000 Race series. Her recordings were also pressed up for labels like Puritan, Harmograph, and Silvertone under pseudonyms such as Josephine Beatty, Alberta Prime, Anna Jones, and even May Alix, the name of another (incidentally inferior) real live singer!

Although some listeners accustomed to her voice on her post-1977 recordings have little or no use for these early waxes, Hunter contributed positively to some very important sessions. These include a 1923 Paramount date where she was accompanied by a white group, the Original Memphis Five, said to be the first session of its kind; the famous Red Onion Jazz Babies session for Gennett-Champion's New York studio with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet that produced "Cake Walking Babies from Home" and the vocal version of "Texas Moaner Blues"; many sessions backed by Fletcher Henderson's earliest orchestra, and some others where she was supported by Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, Lovie Austin, and Tommy Ladnier. Altogether, Hunter made more than 80 sides before 1930, most of them being made before 1925. A (rumored) rejected 1926 date for Vocalion teamed her with King Oliver, Lil Armstrong, and Johnny Dodds, but nothing concrete about this session has ever surfaced, and certainly no recordings of it.

During the '20s, Hunter also established herself as a songwriter of some significance; her song "Downhearted Blues" was covered by Bessie Smith on her first recording for Columbia -- it was a huge hit for Smith. Hunter was able to break easily into the black vaudeville circuit and by 1927 she was off to Europe for an extended stay which would keep her out of the U.S. for most of the depression. In London in 1934, Hunter made an extensive series of recordings with an orchestra led by Jack Jackson, some of these being straight-up pop records with no pretension of being blues or jazz. Returning to the U.S. in 1935, Hunter still found an audience waiting for her, but record dates were getting harder to come by. She made sessions with ARC, Bluebird, and Decca, but these generated no hits, and some weren't even released. Hunter ultimately wound up working for fly-by-night indies such as Regal and Juke Box in the '40s. Unfazed, Hunter worked the USO circuit during World War II and still had considerable drawing power in terms of personal appearances. There are those who insist that her recordings are nothing but a weak imitation of the real thing, and that it was Alberta Hunter the "live" performer that kept her fan base active during these years.

Hunter dropped out of show business for two decades starting in 1956 in favor of working as a licensed practical nurse at a hospital in the New York City area. She broke from this routine only once, in 1961, in order to make a justly celebrated album for Bluesville which reunited her with her old friends Lovie Austin and Lil Hardin Armstrong. None of her patients or co-workers at the hospital had any idea who she was or what a famous name she had been, and Hunter preferred it that way.

When Hunter retired from nursing in 1977, she was 81 and ready to go back on the road. By this time her voice was gritty, down and dirty, and her fans loved her for it. She made four albums for Columbia between 1977 and her death in 1984, including the extraordinary Amtrak Blues, and for many younger listeners these are the records by which Alberta Hunter is defined. Oddly, these same fans have little patience for her sweet and precious singing in the '20s, and relatively few outside of England would have much tolerance for her '30s work with Jack Jackson. Nonetheless, all of Hunter's recordings are interesting and wonderful in their own way.

Alberta Hunter was one of the earliest African-American singers, along with Sippie Wallace, to make the transition from the lowly brothels and sporting houses into the international spotlight. That she defies easy categorization attests to the astonishing fact that she was on the scene a little before the genres themselves were defined. Her longevity as a popular artist is equaled by only a few others, and she was successful in adapting her style to changes in popular taste, as well as along the lines of her own personal experiences."
Uncle Dave Lewis, AMG

Memphis Slim - At The Gate Of Horn

Since I've got him up at the head of the blog, I figured it was only right that I jump ahead and throw out a Memphis Slim post. I'm sure that Unkie Cliff has got a box set or two that will be more appropriate for a full biographical post (i.e. I'm coping an excuse for not doing it today)

"Only this disc's short length (34 minutes) qualifies as something worthy of complaint; otherwise, this is seminal blues piano, performed by a great player and singer, Memphis Slim. This 1959 session had everything: super piano solos, a strong lineup of horn players, clever, well-written and sung lyrics, and a seamless pace that kept things moving briskly from beginning to end. Other than Slim, instrumental honors go to guitarist Matt Murphy, a marvelous accompanist who was able to blend sophistication, technique, and earthiness into one dynamic package. Even at its bargain-basement length, At the Gate of Horn belongs in any blues fan's library."  Ron Wynn, AMG

Cripple Clarence Lofton

  Cripple Clarence Lofton (March 28, 1887 - January 9, 1957), born Albert Clemens in Kingsport, Tennessee, was a noted boogie-woogie pianist and singer.

Though Lofton was born with a limp (from which he derived his stage name), he actually started his career as a tap-dancer. Lofton moved on from tap-dancing into the blues idiom known as boogie-woogie and moved on to perform in Chicago, Illinois.

The trademark of Lofton's performances was his energetic stage-presence, where he danced and whistled in addition to singing. A conversant description of Lofton is provided in an excerpt from Boogie Woogie by William Russell:

    "No one can complain of Clarence's lack of variety or versatility. When he really gets going he's a three-ring circus. During one number, he plays, sings, whistles a chorus, and snaps his fingers with the technique of a Spanish dancer to give further percussive accompaniment to his blues. At times he turns sideways, almost with his back to the piano as he keeps pounding away at the keyboard and stomping his feet, meanwhile continuing to sing and shout at his audience or his drummer. Suddenly in the middle of a number he jumps up, his hands clasped in front of him, and walks around the piano stool, and then, unexpectedly, out booms a vocal break in a bass voice from somewhere. One second later, he has turned and is back at the keyboard, both hands flying at lightning- like pace. His actions and facial expressions are as intensely dramatic and exciting as his music."

With his distinctive performance style, Lofton found himself a mainstay in his genre: His first recording was in April 1935 for Vocalion Records with guitar accompaniment from Big Bill Broonzy. He later went on to own the Big Apple nightclub in Chicago and continued to record well into the late 1940s, when he retired.

Lofton lived in Chicago until he died from a blood clot in his brain in Cook County Hospital in 1957.

O.V. Wright - The Complete Recorded Works By The Boss Of Southern Soul for Backbeat/ABC, disc 3 - 5

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The weekend is here, and you know how we do at Chitlins!!  Enjoy the final three albums that complete this glorious boxset - all ripped with EAC to FLAC.