Joe Bihari (1925-2013)

Joe Bihari, the youngest and last surviving Bihari brother, died in Los Angeles on November 28 at the age of 88. The Bihari brothers were the owners of Modern Records, one of the first and largest post-war rhythm and blues labels that recorded many of the early pioneers of the genre.

Joseph Bihari was the son of Hungarian immigrants. He was born in Memphis on May 30, 1925. His older brothers were Lester (1912-1983), Jules (1913-1984) and Saul (1918-1975). They also had four sisters. For reasons that are unclear, Joe spent much of his childhood in a Jewish children's home in New Orleans, where he formed his musical tastes. In the '40s, he moved to Los Angeles to join Jules and Saul, who were in the juke box business. They formed Modern Records out of frustration because they couldn't obtain enough R&B records to stock their juke boxes. Their first artist was boogie woogie pianist and ballad singer Hadda Brooks.

They released records on Modern and four affiliate labels, RPM, Flair, Meteor and later, Kent. Lester operated Meteor from his home in Memphis, while the other three brothers worked primarily out of Watts in Los Angeles. Their best-known artist was B. B. King, who recorded for them from 1950 to 1962, with 35 songs that made the R&B charts. Some of the others they recorded included John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ike Turner, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lowell Fulson, Floyd Dixon, Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy McCracklin, Etta James, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Jesse Belvin, and vocal groups too numerous to mention. The company went bankrupt in the mid '60s, and in the '80s, their catalog was sold to Ace Records in the U. K., which has been gradually releasing the songs on CD.

In the '50s, Joe specialized in discovering and recording new talent in the Memphis area, with the help of his young talent scout, Ike Turner. Although B. B. King first recorded for Bullet in 1949, his first hit, “Three O'Clock Blues,” was recorded by Joe Bihari in a Memphis YMCA in 1951 with Turner on piano.

According to an often told story, Bihari and Turner were harrassed by a the police for attempting to record black artists in Clarksdale, MS. “What do you think we fought the Civil War for?” one of the officers asked, to which Bihari replied, “You lost!”

“I don't think you have to be a genius to record blues,” Bihari said in an interview, “All you have to do is stick a microphone out there and let them play.” Nevertheless, the brothers took more than their share of the royalties, either by buying the songs for a flat fee, or by surreptitiously adding their names as co-authors. In their now well-known code, Joe was Joe Josea, Saul was Sam Ling, and Jules was Jules Taub.

To quote B. B. King: “The company I was with knew a lot of things they didn't tell me, that I didn't learn about until later. . . . Some of the songs I wrote, they added a name when I copyrighted it. . . . There was no such thing as Ling and Josea. That way, the company could claim half of your song."

Some of the Biharis' greatest recordings came from the many vocal groups in the LA area. Here's one of my favorites, the Jacks (also known as the Cadets) doing “How Soon,” backed with “So Wrong.” The lead singer on both sides is Willie Davis.

After leaving the music business, Joe Bihari was involved in motorcycle racing along with his friend, actor Steve McQueen. The Bihari brothers were inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006.

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