Potpourri

Eddie C. Campbell

Chicago blues singer and guitarist Eddie C. Campbell suffered a heart attack and stroke while touring in Germany. He is back home in Chicago, but faces expensive rehabilitation therapy before he can play again. There will be a 74^th birthday party and benefit for him at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago on May 31. Among those scheduled to appear are Eddy Clearwater, Billy Boy Arnold, Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues, Eddie Shaw and many others.

Deaths

Cleotha Staples, a member of the family soul and gospel vocal group, the Staple Singers, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease on February 21 at the age of 78. The group consisted of Roebuck “Pops” Staples, his son Purvis, and his daughters Cleotha, Yvonne and Mavis (the lead singer). They had 18 songs reach the R&B charts, including three #1 songs—“I'll Take You There,” “If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)” and “Let's Do It Again.” The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. In this 1973 video, Cleo is on the left.

Soul singer Jewel Akens, whose only hit, “The Birds and the Bees,” reached #5 on the R&B charts in 1965, died of complications from back surgery on March 1. He was 79. Prior to becoming a single artist, he was a member of several West Coast vocal groups, including the Medallions (on Dootone) and the Four Dots (on Freedom). Terry Evans was a member of the backup group on “The Birds and the Bees.”

Sol Rabinowitz, the owner of the New York '50s independent R&B label Baton Records died on March 16 at the age of 88 in North Carolina. His first record was “A Thousand Stars,” by the Rivileers. Also recording for Baton were the vocal groups the Hearts and the Fidelitys, saxophonists Buddy Tate and Noble “Thin Man Watts,” and singers Ann Cole and Marie Knight.

Bobbie Smith, the silky smooth lead tenor of the Spinners, died of pneumonia on March 16 at the age of 76. The Spinners formed in Detroit in the late '50s, and were named for those fancy chrome hubcaps that were popular at the time. They were managed by Gwen Gordy and recorded for her husband Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi label. After the Moonglows disbanded, Fuqua went into record production. Here's their first hit, from 1961.

When Berry Gordy acquired Fuqua's record labels, the Spinners were added to the Motown stable, where they spent most of the '60s but charted only four times. Their career finally took off in the '70s when they moved to Atlantic. All told, 34 of their songs reached the R&B charts, six of them reaching #1 (“I'll Be Around,” “Could It Be I'm Falling in Love?,” “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” “A Mighty Love,” “They Just Can't Stop It (The Games People Play),” and “Rubberband Man.”)

During their prime years, the Spinners lineup consisted of Bobbie Smith, tenor; Philippe Wynne, tenor; Billy Henderson, tenor; Henry Fambrough, baritone; and Pervis Jackson, bass. Here's a clip from 1972 that's typical Spinners. Notice how, near the end, Smith hands off the lead to Wynne, who takes the song out in a gospel style.

They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. They have been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not yet inducted. Considering the quality, longevity and commercial success of their recordings, this is a serious injustice—but not surprising, given the Hall's apparent bias against vocal groups.

Floyd “Buddy” McCrae, the last surviving member of the Chords, died at a nursing home in the Bronx on March 19. He was about 80. The Chords recorded one of the first R&B songs to cross over to the pop charts, “Sh-Boom!” Released on Atlantic's Cat subsidiary, it reached #2 on the R&B charts in July 1954. Unfortunately, it was covered by a Canadian group, the Crew Cuts, whose version dominated the pop charts.

The Chords were Carl Feaster, lead tenor; Jimmy Keyes, first tenor; Buddy McCrae, second tenor; Claude Feaster, baritone; and William “Ricky” Edwards, bass. They had three other releases on Cat, one on Vik and one on Atlantic. Some of these were released as by the Chordcats and the Sh-Booms. All are excellent.

Finally, I'm sad to report that the great soul singer and songwriter George Jackson died of cancer on April 14 at his home in Mississippi at the age of 68. Jackson was discovered by Ike Turner and first recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio in New Orleans in 1963 He released about 20 records for almost as many different labels. He only charted once, with “Aretha, Sing One For Me,” in 1972. He was also a member of the vocal group the Ovations.

He is best known as a prolific and brilliant songwriter. He was the staff writer for Fame Records in the late '60s and early '70s. When Fame closed up shop, he assumed the same role at Malaco Records. Among his more popular songs were “One Bad Apple” (recorded by the Osmonds), “Old Time Rock and Roll” (Bob Seger), and “Down Home Blues” (Z. Z. Hill). His songs were also recorded by James Brown, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton, Otis Clay, and Ike and Tina Turner, among many others.

It has recently been discovered that George Jackson left behind a rich legacy of unreleased sides in the vaults of the Fame studios. Most of them were demos of songs that were intended to be recorded by other artists, but they show how underrated he was as a vocalist. Kent (Ace) Records in England is gradually releasing these sides on a series of CDs.

Happy Birthday

Today is the birthday of Duke Ellington. He was born in 1899 and died in 1974. The soloists on “Raincheck,” recorded in December 1941, are Juan Tizol, trombone, Ben Webster, tenor sax, Ray Nance, trumpet, and Billy Strayhorn, piano.

Also tenor sax man Big Jay McNeely (born in 1927), Carl Gardner (1928), lead singer of the Coasters, and Chicago blues man Otis Rush (1934).

You may also be interested in reading:

Jimmy Dawkins (1926-2013)

R&B Vocal Group Deaths

Lasting Fame

The Soundies #10

Here's a mid-'50s performance by blues singer and boogie woogie pianist Amos Milburn, "Bad, Bad Whiskey," recorded at the same time as last week's video by Joe Turner. The intro is by Willie Bryant. Several of Milburn's hits were about the perils of alcohol consumption. Of his soundies, this has the best video and sound quality.

However, you might also want to take a peek at "Down the Road Apiece," which has a more interesting piano solo.

The Soundies #9

In the mid '50s, several soundies compilations were released featuring jazz and R&B artists. They went by names like Soundies Cavalcade and Rhythm and Blues Revue, and many of them featured the same videos packaged in different combinations. Here's blues shouter Big Joe Turner singing his biggest hit, "Shake, Rattle and Roll." He is backed by Paul Williams and his Band. That's baritone sax man Williams seated to Turner's immediate left. The tenor sax solo is by Noble "Thin Man" Watts. I can't identify the pianist. The introduction is by Harlem comedian Willie Bryant.

This is an expurgated version of the song. The missing verse is:
     Wearin' those dresses, the sun comes shinin' through (x2)
     I can't believe my eyes, all of this belongs to you?

It's pretty tame stuff, but it was the excuse for radio stations not to play Joe's original version, leaving most of the sales to a cover version by Bill Haley and the Comets.  Ironically, a more salacious verse made it past the censors, not only on this video but also on the Haley record.
     I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store (x2)
     I could look at you 'til you ain't no child no more

Maybe they didn't get it.

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?

April 15 is baseball's Jackie Robinson day, the 66th anniversary of his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the first time a black man played major league baseball. African-Americans were understandably proud of Robinson's accomplishments, and two years later, the popular R&B band leader Buddy Johnson wrote and recorded "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" It reached #13 on the R&B charts in August 1949. The vocal is by Buddy and the band, and the tenor sax solo is probably by Purvis Henson.

There was a cover version by Count Basie and his Orchestra with vocal by Taps Miller. It is slower than Johnson's version and the instrumental break is markedly inferior. Fortunately, Johnson's original outsold Basie's cover by a country mile.

The lyrics also reference other black ballplayers Satchel Paige, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. Doby of the Cleveland Indians was the second black ballplayer. Tenor sax man Freddie Mitchell paid tribute to him with an instrumental, "Doby's Boogie," also in 1949. In 1954, the Treniers recorded "Say Hey," a song about Willie Mays. The title refers to the typical way he greeted friends.

Update (1/23):  "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" is on the soundtrack of the new Robinson biopic 42, but you have to sit through the final credits in order to hear it. It's the Count Basie version.

Jimmy Dawkins (1936-2013)

Jimmy Dawkins, one of the last of the '60s generation of bluesmen from the West Side of Chicago, died on Wednesday, April 10 of an unannounced illness at age 76.

Jimmy Dawkins was born in Tchula, Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast, on October 24, 1936. He taught himself to play the guitar, and migrated to Chicago in 1955. While working as a laborer, he gradually became part of the West Side blues scene, first as a sideman, then as a leader. His big break came in 1969, when his friend Magic Sam introduced him to Bob Koester of Delmark records. The resulting album, Fast Fingers, was a critical success and won the Grand Prix du Disque—best album of the year—from the Hot Club de France. Here's a selection, “It Serves Me Right to Suffer.”

Dawkins was known more for his guitar playing than his singing. In fact, on his second Delmark album, All For Business, he let Andrew “Big Voice” Odom do most of the vocals. This song, "Welfare Line," is from his third Delmark album, Blisterstring.

His nickname, “Fast Fingers,” was not particularly appropriate. He was known for his brooding lyrics and his intense, stinging, and aggressive style of playing. His songs sometimes dealt with social and political concerns. On stage, he was quiet and businesslike, never flashy. Like many blues musicians, he was popular in Europe and Japan and toured internationally. Here's a 52-minute clip from the Skopje (Macedonia) Jazz Festival in 1991. The songs are familiar standards. Alternatively, you can type in “Dawkins” and “Skopje” at You Tube and pick your favorite song(s).

In all, Jimmy Dawkins recorded about 21 albums for a variety of labels. His 1992 Earwig release, Kant Sheck Dees Bluze, is usually regarded as the best of his post-Delmark CDs. (His use of phonetic spelling was a form of protest against the establishment.) Here's a 1997 Dawkins release, “Me, My Gitar and the Blues.”

During his later years, Dawkins started his own record label, Leric, and worked accompanying, producing and promoting upcoming musicians such as Nora Jean Wallace and Taildragger. Some one these performances are available on the 2010 Delmark CD The Leric Story. 

With the recent death of Magic Slim and now Jimmy Dawkins, very few of the second generation of Chicago bluesmen are still around. Magic Sam, Luther Allison, Junior Wells and Carey Bell have all passed away. Otis Rush and Eddie C. Campbell are unable to perform due to illness. That leaves Buddy Guy and Eddy Clearwater as the main representatives of this cohort who are still performing regularly.

Eddie C. Campbell

As you may know, West Side bluesman suffered a heart attack and stroke while on tour in Germany. He is paralyzed on his right side. To the best of my knowledge, he is still marooned in Germany, and family and friends are soliciting donations to bring him home. More information is available at this website.

The Soundies #8

Before he was a pop crooner, Nat "King" Cole was the leader of the King Cole Trio, a jazz group known as much for their instrumental skills as Cole's vocals. Here they are doing "Route 66," which was a hit in 1946. The other group members were Oscar Moore, guitar and Johnny Miller, bass. The unknown conga player wasn't a regular member of the group.

CD Review: Various Artists, Newport Jazz Gala

Recommended.

Each year on the Friday night before the Newport Jazz Festival, producer George Wein hosts an all-star show, the Newport Festival Foundation Gala, at a downtown Newport location, which serves as a fund-raiser for the festival. Last August, Wein recorded the Gala live, and with the help of contributors, released it on Artist Share. There are nine cuts by various combinations of eleven performers. So far, they have not released any selections on the internet.

The show begins and ends fairly traditionally. It opens with Dianne Reeves singing a beautiful ballad, “I'm in Love Again,” with busy but tasteful accompaniment by pianist Peter Martin. It ends with a jam session. These are the only two tracks in which rhythm instruments anchor the performance. The intervening pieces have in common the fact that the musicians are working largely without a net.

On “Three's Free,” as the title implies, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, clarinetist Anat Cohen and pianist Jason Moran, weave in, out and around one another, bouncing ideas back and forth as they go. “Aurora” features Rudresh Mahanthappa playing an Indian tune on alto sax, along with computerized sound effects that definitely captured my dog's attention. The piece sounds to me like a cityscape.

My choice for the highlight of the album is guitarist Lionel Loueke playing and singing in traditional African style, with solid rhythmic support from Moran. Loueke is from Benin. I'm not sure in what language he's singing, but despite the title (“Merci”), it's not French. The song opens and closes with Bobby McFerrin-style vocalese.

Steve Wilson on alto sax and drummer Lewis Nash deconstruct two familiar tunes in a medley of Fats Waller's “Jitterbug Waltz” and Thelonious Monk's “Evidence.” In a pleasant surprise, Nash gets almost as much solo time as Wilson.

The next two pieces explore the possibilities of jazz harp—not the harmonica, but the big instrument with the many strings. The man behind this difficult instrument is Columbian Edmar Castaneda. He solos on “Entre Cuerdas,” which begins like a semi-classical piece, but evolves into a rhythmic exercise in which he plays bass and mandolin-like sounds, both alternately and simultaneously. On “Double Portion,” we get a taste of what a jazz harp solo sounds like, as he and Wilson improvise off a simple descending line.

A major crowd-pleaser is Cohen and guitarist Bill Frisell playing Lennon and McCartney's “Come Together.” After a long intro, they stick pretty close to the tune, but it's beautifully played.

Finally, as noted, the festivities end with a traditional blowing session to the tune of “Blue Monk.” The ensemble playing is raggedy—maybe deliberately so—followed by bluesy solos by Wilson, Jensen, Frisell, Moran and Nash. Moran best catches the spirit of the tune with his beautifully-constructed contribution.

It's doubtful that you'll be impressed with all nine of these selections, but you're bound to find a couple that you like.

Tracks: I'm in Love Again; Three's Free; Aurora; Merci; Jitterbug Waltz/Evidence; Entre Cuerdas; Double Portion; Come Together; Blue Monk. (59 min.)

Personnel: Ingrid Jensen, trumpet (2 tracks); Steve Wilson, alto saxophone (3 tracks); Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto sax and computer (1 track); Anat Cohen, clarinet (2 tracks); Bill Frisell, guitar (2 tracks); Lionel Loueke, guitar and vocal (1 track); Edmar Castaneda, harp (2 tracks); Jason Moran, piano (3 tracks); Peter Martin, piano (1 track); Lewis Nash, drums (2 tracks); Dianne Reeves, vocal (1 track).

The Soundies #7

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a big fan of vocal groups. The Delta Rhythm Boys were one of the most popular groups of the '40s, straddling the line between jazz and pop music. This soundie is a lip sync of their 1941 Decca version of "Take the 'A' Train." (They re-recorded it for RCA Victor in 1947.)  It features a bass lead by Lee Gaines, who also wrote these lyrics to the Billy Strayhorn tune.  The other group members at the time were Clinton Holland, tenor; Traverse Crawford, tenor; and Harry Lewis, bass.  Their pianist Rene DeKnight was also considered a member of the group but doesn't participate in this scene.

Phil Spector: Actual Innocence?

I was never a big fan of Phil Spector's music, although I ultimately came to appreciate his work with the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner. I was aware of Spector's reputation for egotism and erratic behavior long before he was charged with the murder of Lana Clarkson. I usually skip over newspaper reports of celebrity trials. For all these reasons, I didn't pay much attention to the Spector trials as they occurred. Since he had the best legal representation money could buy, I assumed he was guilty. But after seeing writer-director David Mamet's fictionalized reconstruction of his first trial, Phil Spector, and the documentary on which it was partially based, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, directed by Vikram Jayanti, I'm beginning to take seriously the possibility that he is actually innocent of the murder.

As you may know, actress Lana Clarkson was shot in the mouth with one of Spector's pistols while seated in his living room. After the fatal shot, Spector emerged from the room holding the gun and, according to his chauffeur, said, “I think I just killed someone.” At issue is whether Ms. Clarkson shot herself or whether Spector shot her.

I consider myself a member of the Sherlock Holmes school of criminal investigation. The physical evidence is by far the most important consideration. Eyewitness testimony can be biased or simply mistaken. Speculation about motives or states of mind is hopelessly subjective. Evidence of the defendant's past behavior is often irrelevant to the present case. What matters are the physical traces of behavior that can be preserved and analyzed. There are several problems with the case against Spector:

• First and foremost is the lack of blood on Spector's clothing. For Spector to have shot her, he must have been standing within two feet of her. When someone is shot in the mouth, a large volume of blood and brain tissue is expelled through the open mouth, totally saturating anything in its path. Yet Spector's white sport coat (and the rest of his clothing) is totally free of blood with the exception of what appear to be a couple of fingerprints, which could have occurred (by his account) after he picked up the gun. The prosecution seems to have had no convincing explanation for this lack of blood. It has been speculated that Ms. Clarkson was holding her hands in front of her face to ward off his attack, but if you place your hands in this defensive position, you'll see that there is plenty of opportunity for blood to escape around and between your hands and fingers.
  
  
• The angle of entry of the bullet is inconsistent with the prosecution case. The path of the bullet is slightly upward, which is consistent with the possibility that she shot herself. If Spector had been standing in front of her, as the prosecution claims, the path of the bullet would have been downward. I suppose he could have been kneeling, but no one is claiming that.
  
  
• The defense has offered a plausible explanation of the physical evidence which suggests that she shot herself by accident while she was drunk and fooling around with the gun. Spector claims that he entered the room, saw her with the gun in her mouth, and shouted something like, “What the hell are you doing? Stop!" According to Mamet, the defense tested several participants, having them hold a similar gun in their mouths and startling them using the same language. In the majority of cases, they pulled the trigger while removing the guns from their mouths. Removing a gun from your mouth is an awkward movement. Try it and you'll see how your finger could accidentally press against the trigger as you pull the gun away from your face.
  
  

• Spector claims that the chauffeur misunderstood him and that what he actually said was, “I think I'd better call someone.” The chauffeur was a Brazilian immigrant whose command of English was not that good. Admittedly, if he didn't shoot her, picking up the gun was a stupid thing for Spector to do, but it could be attributed to the shock of what (he claims) he just witnessed.

Mamet's argument is that most of the jurors ignored the physical evidence because they didn't like Spector, largely due pretrial publicity and his unusual appearance. Their dislike was exacerbated by the judge's controversial decision to allow five women to testify that Spector had previously threatened them with guns if they did not comply with his sexual advances. This was justified on the grounds that it established a pattern of behavior on Spector's part, but it is obviously weak evidence of his guilt in the Clarkson case. Mamet's screenplay also claims that his lawyer, Linda Kenney Baden, planned to have him tell his side of the story, rehearsed his testimony, but then changed her mind since his response to cross-examination was unpredictable. The documentary doesn't shed light on her legal strategy, since Spector was interviewed before the first trial.

The first trial ended in a hung jury. Two jurors held out for acquittal. This encouraged the prosecution to retry him. I'm not sure what happened during the second trial, but it seems likely that he had a less competent defense attorney. He was convicted and is serving a sentence of 19 years to life. In 19 years, he will be 88.

If you decide to watch one of these films, I actually recommend Mamet's account—on HBO this month—in spite of the fact that Al Pacino portrays Spector as more eccentric than he actually was, at least during Jayanti's interview. Here's a “Making of” feature.

The Jayanti documentary is primarily about his past life and contributions to popular music. It is available in full on You Tube.

Post Script

Does anyone remember the late, great Johnny Ace? He was a popular rhythm and blues singer who shot and killed himself on Christmas Day, 1954, while backstage at a theatre in Houston. Based on the testimony of witnesses, the most plausible explanation is that he was drunk and accidentally shot himself with a handgun he didn't realize was loaded.