JSngry

Bill Monbouquette Tracy Stallard Roman Mejias Sonny Jackson Jack Baldschun Joey Jay Sibby Sisti Bob Buhl

Michael Ray, yes. Hannibal is another example. From TSU to The Discpiles Of Soul to...Hannibal. Fred Wesley is an example. Big, fat, nothing-held-back sound. Marching band experience. Examples abound.

As for the marching banc influence, all you gotta do is listen to, say, early Kool & The Gang, or any band of that type, and then listen to the Grambling marching band (or any band of that type). The sound and approach is identical - fill the horns up with sound and blast it out. Get the power, feel the power, and then play the power. It's a thing, ya' know? A lot of the soul-revue bands of the 60s & 70s were formed by college students who played in those marching bands (and there were a lot that never went beyond local/regional status. A lot.). The horn players in those bands had already had marching band experience, and not just in college. The Grambling/etc. model was the norm for African-American high school marching bands in segragation-era Amercia. So it's not like these horn players had been playing one way at school and then changed their whole approach when they started playing clubs and stuff. If you research the lineage of all those soul-revue bands (and my research is mostly anecdotal, although if you read enough, you can find ample backup), you'll find that even the ones that didn't begin as college-buddy affairs more often than not contained horn players who came up through the African-American college/high school marching band experience. I definitely believe it's a factor that's long gone unnoticed, by and large. Now, as for the soul-revue bands themself, I'va had more than a little experience playing in them. I gotta get ready for work now, so there's no time for extended commentary, but let me just tell you that it was invaluable training in a lot of ways.

Nope.

Little Joe Blue was a prince of a man. A BB clone he might well have been, but I think it was less a matter of intentional "copying" than it was just finding that King's style worked really well for him, so he went with it. It worked. But yeah, the cat never had really high $ gigs locally (he'd get out of town festival gigs as a single, which I certainly didn't begrudge him), but he was always more than fair, and respectful of his musicians in a way that was not always common on the "chitlin' circuit". The money was always right (and prompt), conditions were always the best that any venue could offer, and the guy was genuinely friendly. I remember one night, he schooled me on how to tell if the house had had a good night. Watch the bartenders, he said, watch what they pour and who it goes to, and how often. Then he gave me an exact breakdown on wholesale prices of liquor, profit per bottle, how to tell when a customer was getting comped on drinks, just on and on. This cat had it down to a science. Then there was the time he paid me to do transcriptions of the horn charts off of his Dirty Work Going On album for us to use on his local shows (I guess the originals stayed w/the record company). I quoted him a price in line with the circuit, and he immediately said, "Charge me what you would charge if you weren't in my band. You're in this business for the same reason I am - to make money for your family. So don't ever sell your work cheaper than you can get for it." So I quoted him the price, and he didn't hesitate. Paid on time, and in cash, no receipt requested. Contrast that to all the cats who would want the same thing done as "a favor", or give you the line about how they were "just a poor brother trying to get ahead" (true enough often enough, but what goes up your nose, could go towards some charts, dig?) or who would hire a horn section, not have any charts, and then wait it out, knowing full well that somebody at some point was going to have enough and put something down, just because. Don't dare ask them for anything, because, of course, they didn't ask you to do it, and hey, people gonna come out to hear them, not your horn parts, so let's keep it real, hey... Yeah, Little Joe Blue was a helluva man. Much love here. May he rest in peace.

Yea, I've heard some stories myself. One of the reasons that I never got to experience a live show like the one recorded here (other than the exceptional band) is that Johnnie Taylor in the 1980s often used to get seriously loaded before shows. At one show I attended, he could barely stand up. It took a lot of nerve too, as he was leading a soul revue that included Tyrone Davis, Clarence Carter, Latimore, and Denise LaSalle. A lot of people just walked out on JT. But that voice... Yeah, JT really fell in love with the pipe, up until he died. He proclaimed his "salvation" towards the end, but... The gig when I was offered it was mostly weekend hit-and-runs. You got paid $125 cash for each show, and you paid all expenses, including hotel & food. No per diem, not even a token. Cats would do a St. Louis/Chicago/Memphis hit & sleep on the bus and bring canned goods from home just to come home with something. And that bus...hardly a trip went by that it didn't break down, somtimes minor, sometimes major. It was not uncommon to be scheduled to return home on Sunday night & not get home until Tuesday morning. And while you were stranded, you were all the way on your own for room & food. JT actually bragged that he'd rather pay the IRS than give the money to his band. I actually accepted the gig when first called. Hell, I knew it was brutal, but it was JOHNNIE TAYLOR. But then LTB reminded me of the horror stories we'd both heard and asked me what we were going to do with our son when the bus broke down & I didn't get home on time, and reality struck. I called the road manager back and explained that I had spoken prematurely, that the offer was enticing, that JT was a great artist and that I'd love to make the gig, but that this was just not a good time. He kinda sniffed and said, "Oh, I see...you're a FAMILY MAN...cool, I can respect that..." CLICK. JT's gig was notorious, and not all Blues/R&B gigs at that level of exploitation. BB King's band actually has health insurance & a 401K plan in place. But the music is "rough" like it is for a good reason. For the most part, these men and women were/are tough people who came up tough, and their business is quite, shall we say, "old school". Nothing but love for all of the music and most of the people, but "fans" should know that as "glamorous" as it all seems, the reality is usually anything but. Still, there are true princes, true heroes. I worked locally/regionally with Little Joe Blue for a year or so, and let me tell you - that man is a hero of mine even to this day. Not a whole lot of money to be had, but there was dignity for everybody out the ass, and more than a few nights where I'd leave the bandstand with goosebumps. And a surething of a ride home.

Highlight - the ending pan of the audience applauding. There's this one chick who is just sitting there, not impressed. Her husband/boyfriend turns to her & says something to which she responds by suddenly flashing one of those sincerely insincere smiles that only a truly great woman can muster so thoroughly & effortlessly. The dude's probably thinking that she's been loving every second of it. A scenario no doubt repeated later in the evening...

Dude, that's the kind of smile that's as much of a warning as it is anything...

The airwaves are clearer at night, so intereference is less. Plus, if he was recording off a station that had a transmitter right there in the city, the signal would be quite good. When I was a kid, night time meant AM radio sleuthing. I used to listen regularly to WLS out of Chicago, KMOX out of St. Louis, WNOE out of New Orleans, KOA out of Denver, some stations out of Des Moines & Memphis, etc. etc. etc. Signals were strong when they weren't drifting (I think the amplitude modualtion meant that they'd be there for an hour or two, drift away, and then come back, but that's just speculation), and basically, if you were a "full powered" station for 24 hours and were anywhere in the South or Midwest, I could pick you up for at least a little while in East Texas. Anyways, in the late 60s, when AM radio was the voice of American Popular Music (and playlists were aything but standardized), all this regional access was a godsend for a kid like me who wanted more than the local dawn-to-dusk stations could offer. It was really cool.

No shit... Family vs music... not always as simple as family vs "career", not if the music is "uncommercial" and a true "sense of mission" is in place...choices must be made and inevitably something gets lost and somebody gets hurt no matter what the choice is....there are no "right" answers...the best you can hope for is minimal damage all around and goodness in the end...for both the music and the family... No easy choices...or are there?

Wow...

You know, you can't "learn" to be this much of a badass. You either are are you aren't. Jo Jones was. There was a lengthy interview with him in Modern Drummer about 25 years ago that still boggles my mind. Pure Truth. The man was a freakin' force of nature, simple as that. "Music" was just the vehicle.

Dan - check your email.

Bam-Bam Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini Freddie Cannon

Five reinforcement

For quite a while, Johnnie Taylor actually included Little Johnnie Taylor songs in his live show and presented them as his own. His logic was reportedly, "If the motherfucker's gonna use my name, I'm gonna use his songs". I know quite a few guys who did road work with JT (got called for the gig myself, but it was a week after our first child was born, and the logistics - especially the money vs. time ratio - just did not work out), and to call him a "colorful character" would be putting it mildly. Quite mildly...

C'mon y'all we're only 25 miles from home...

Yep. And I think you'd enjoy it. Carpe diem.

AM sound quality is very much dependent on proximity, signal strength, & lack of interference. It doesn't have to sound crappy.

Bob Crane Robin Roberts Sonny Til

A forwarding address would be useful then.

Eddie Heywood Gene Ammons Hugo Winterhalter

Dizzy Reece ain't dead: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...c=31935&hl=

Your bladder must be more user-friendly than mine... Maybe it's an old-folks thing. You wouldn't understand.

There's only one reason why I'm not rich - I don't have enough money to be considered "rich". Now, the reasons why I haven't gotten rich, that's another story, and no doubt fodder for a list such as this...