A Love Story, Revisited: Back to Birmingham

Cortez Greer - Testify



Back in 2006, I heaped praise on Rabbit Factory's excellent comp The Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill, Vol. 1, and I'll defer to that post for some background info on Hemphill and about Rabbit Factory's John Ciba. Since that disc was released, Rabbit Factory's profile has grown in soul circles, in no small part due to the Rabbit Factory soul revues that have been put on in New York, in Chicago and at the Ponderosa Stomp, to name a few locales, in which Roscoe Robinson, Ralph "Soul" Jackson, Hermon Hitson, Wiley & The Checkmates and others sock soul power before appreciative audiences. Now the second volume of The Birmingham Sound is out, and I'm glad to say that I hold it in the same high esteem as the first. The CD carries over the '70s Southern soul vibe of the first, and the liner notes manage to provide more insight into Hemphill's life and work - dig a reminisce by Hemphill's daughter about her short foray as a recording artist - and profile the artists, some of whom also appeared on the first set. This CD is a "must-buy" for serious soul fans, and I encourage you to get it from Dusty Groove America or any other retailer of rare soul CDs.

Today's selection features the late Cortez Greer, who is described in the liner notes as a Delta baggage handler by day and as a knockout nightclub performer at night. Greer has an appealing gruff baritone, and it's put to good use on the rocking "Testify," which includes good background support by a femme chorus and a churchy coda.

POSTSCRIPT - Your ever-lovin' Stepfather of Soul is honored to have received an acknowledgment in the liner notes of this fine CD. Thanks to John and Rabbit Factory for putting out such great material!

RIP Jerry Wexler

I was offline last night and this morning, so I've just learned that the legendary R&B record man Jerry Wexler has passed away. Red Kelly covered everything that I could say about Wexler and much more over at The B-Side, so I'll defer to his post. Rather than feature particular tunes that Wexler had a hand in, I'll simply advise you to put on some classic Aretha or some '50s Ray Charles and just soak it in. RIP Jerry.

Soul Is Green!

Tommy Tate - Revelations

Tommy Tate is yet another one of those immensely-talented artists who was never able to catapault into the big time despite having immense talent and fine recordings for OKeh, Stax (as the lead singer of the post-Ollie Hoskins Nightingales) and for Ko Ko. His tenure for the latter label in the '70s resulted in a handful of singles, all of which, along with other tracks, have fortunately been anthologized, first by P-Vine and, most recently, by Kent.

"Revelations" finds Tate tackling environmental woes with that raspy voice of his over a stepping Southern soul groove that sounds a bit more like 1972 than its 1976 release year. "He's burning fumes from gasoline; he knows too much, you can't tell him anything," Tate laments about mankind. "Tell me why he can't tell me how high is the sky?" Powerful stuff.

Wiley's Deep Soul

Wiley & The Checkmates - All-the-Way Wrong

Today's post features an act that appeared in my "Promo Day" podcast of a few months back. Wiley & The Checkmates and their label, Rabbit Factory, were profiled by my man Red Kelly over at The A-Side for Vinyl Record Day, and I'll defer to that feature for more about Herbert Wiley, The Checkmates and Rabbit Factory. (Editor's note - I will be featuring material from the new second volume of Rabbit Factory's "Birmingham Sound" series very soon; it's a great CD!)

"All-the-Way Wrong" is one of those songs whose atmosphere makes all the difference. The moody ballad features a very world-weary vocal by Wiley that seems to summon the spirit of Solomon Burke at times. Even in the most emotional passages of the song, Wiley keeps his vocals at a simmer, letting the horns do the shouting for him instead. It's a great deep soul mover. Trust me - it's all-the-way right!

Carla, Isaac and Donny

Carla Thomas:


B-A-B-Y


Never Be True

Today is one of those days that just didn't start on the right foot: I didn't sleep well last night, I have a lot on my mind, and an accident on the highway forced me to sit in traffic for nearly ninety minutes on my way to work. One good thing came out of the latter, however, as it gave me an opportunity to listen to Live at the Bohemian Caverns by Carla Thomas, which was released for the first time by Concord/Stax last year, in its entirety, and listening to Carla Thomas is always a fine way to brighten up a day, right?

The Bohemian Caverns album was recorded on May 25, 1967, the second night of a five-night engagement Thomas had at the legendary Washington, D.C. jazz club. It was a particularly auspicious occasion, as Stax prexy Jim Stewart, Al Bell, Rufus Thomas (who performed a short set afterwards) and Carla's brother Marvell had come up from Memphis to show support (Otis Redding was also to attend, but he was delayed). Carla, backed by a fine ensemble featuring her Howard University classmate Donny Hathaway on piano, performed a great set of jazz, standards, her hits "Gee Whiz" and "B-A-B-Y" and the Donny Hathaway-Leroy Hutson composition "Never Be True." Although the concert recording was assigned a Stax album number, it ended up being shelved. Although the strength of the set leads one to wonder whose head was full of rocks to not release the album, the fact that the Otis and Carla LP King and Queen, featuring the smash hit "Tramp," was hitting the streets that year and that the Bohemian Caverns set was jazz-bent probably factored into the decision. It's fortunate for us soul fans that the album has seen the light of day now, because it would be criminal for it to have been lost to history!

The latter two tunes mentioned above are the focus of today's post. The passing of Isaac Hayes this weekend makes the inclusion of the Hayes-Porter tune "B-A-B-Y," a big hit for Carla in 1966, that much more significant. In keeping with the jazz leanings of the entire set, the band provides a Ramsey Lewis-esque groove to the tune, which Carla rides to glory, replete with some great ad libs later in the tune. Carla closed the set with "Never Be True," which she notes is a Hathaway composition, prophetically stating "I think we're going to hear a lot of things by this young man." Carla then proceeds to sing the mess out of the song, and I dare you to not be moved by her performance of it.

All I know is that maybe I should get stuck in traffic more often!

Vinyl Record Day - NSFW Edition!

Tuesday, August 12 is Vinyl Record Day, a commemoration of the anniversary of the invention of the phonograph. For the second year, I write this post as a participant in the Vinyl Record Day blogswarm organized by J.A. Bartlett from The Hits Just Keep On Comin'. I'm proud to be invited to participate once again, and I encourage you to check out all of the bloggers, many of whom participated last year but a great many more who are coming aboard this year, from the blogswarm roll call page.

Last year I discussed how vinyl played a fundamental role in my evolution into the Stepfather of Soul. This year I've decided to dive into a particular segment of my collection that doesn't get coverage on the blog. The "party record" has a pretty long history, stretching well into the 78 RPM era, and such albums, which featured blue humor and often suggestive cover art, thrived well into the '70s and perhaps even the '80s. The party record was so named because it would often be played at adult social gatherings. Usually they were sold under the counter at record stores or by mail order. One of the best known and most notorious party record labels was Laff Records, who recorded everyone from Joe Ross from Car 54, Where Are You? to a young Richard Pryor to LaWanda Page ("Aunt Esther" from Sanford and Son) to Richard & Willie (a foul-mouthed take on the Willie Tyler & Lester ventriloquist act), but a great many others, mostly low-budget affairs, also recorded material. A Laff discography is available here (warning - this page includes nude cover art and is, accordingly, not suitable for viewing at work or by minors or those who would be offended). I think that changing mores by the '80s did in the party record, in part because the humor contained in those grooves just didn't seem so dirty in light of mainstream success by Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, Andrey "Dice" Clay and others. Some of the jokes are downright tame to a 2008 listener.

I've decided to feature material from two party albums for my Vinyl Record Day feature. Although party records were not limited to black comics (one of the most famous party record artists was Rusty Warren, whose "bodacious broad" routines graced albums like Knockers Up!), in keeping with the blog's usual subject matter, two well-known and one lesser-known black comics' works are featured. I will reiterate my earlier warning, as some of this material is indeed not safe for work and not suitable for minors or those who don't appreciate blue humor.



The late comic and actor Nipsey Russell is probably better known today as "the poet laureate of television" due to his frequent game show and talk show appearances, on which he was regularly called upon to recite comic couplets - a well-known one was "the opposite of 'pro' is 'con' / this fact is plainly seen / if 'progress' means 'move forward' / then what does 'Congress' mean?" - and as the Tin Man in the film version of The Wiz than he was for his comedy, but Russell was an important figure in African-American comedy, as his more intellectual approach to his material - including sharp monologues about race - set the stage for comics like Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby. In the '50s and early '60s Russell cut several party records, mostly for the Humorsonic label, but as he became a TV fixture he dropped blue material from his act. I present here four selections from his The Birds and the Bees and All That Jazz album. "A Day at the Races" finds Russell joking about a bad time at the track (remarking about a slow horse he had bet upon, "you've heard of a photo finish? They could make an oil painting of that rascal") before settling into a re-telling of Redd Foxx's famous "The Race Track" routine. On "Radio Roundup" Russell drops lots of bad puns in a fake radio news report. "My Friend Luigi" allows Russell to do a little humor in an exaggerated Italian accent, and on "School Days" Nipsey dips into "little Johnny"-styled jokes. It's not clear from the album notes whether this album was recorded at a nightclub, and I sort of doubt it, because the audience laughs just a little too hard at some jokes, but it's a good album nonetheless.

Redd Foxx was a star long before "Sanford and Son" catapaulted him into "household name" status thanks to prolific album output on Dooto, Loma, Warner Brothers, King and Foxx's own MF stretching back to the 1956 Dooto LP Laff of the Party. Foxx was easily the "King of the Party Record," and his stuff is more widely available on CD than many of his contemporaries. At Home was recorded at Foxx's Los Angeles comedy club (it was in business from 1967 or so until 1971, when it burned down), and over the course of the album, Foxx tells lots of blue jokes, gets some jabs in at some audience members, and even makes reference to the fact there's a recording being made ("sit in the back - you gonna mess my record up with an 'ooooh'," Foxx says). You can check it out here in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2).

Happy Vinyl Record Day! Keep laffin'!

RIP Isaac Hayes

This weekend has brought news of two entertainment deaths of significance. Yesterday's news brought forth the story of comedian/actor Bernie Mac's untimely death, and today I learn that Isaac Hayes has passed away at the age of 65. Although to many people in the mainstream, especially those younger than the age of 30, Hayes is known primarily as the voice of "Chef" on the animated series South Park and for the infamous song "Chocolate Salty Balls" from the show. For soul fans, however, Hayes was "Black Moses," whose songwriting with David Porter provided hits for Stax Records (most notably with Sam & Dave) and whose solo LPs for Enterprise ushered in lush, highly-orchestrated sounds that went beyond the length of the standard soul 45 (Hot Buttered Soul, his 1969 breakthrough album, had only four tracks). Hayes' baritone crooning and sensual raps laid the groundwork for artists like Barry White, and his soundtrack to Shaft kick-started the blaxploitation boom. Over at Funky 16 Corners and at In Dangerous Rhythm, Larry and Colin each pay tribute to Hayes (go to the links section to access their posts), and I'm sure more will follow. I wanted to contribute, so I picked four tunes that are personal favorites of mine (a fifth, "Rolling Down a Mountainside," appeared on the blog nearly two years ago).




Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic

The impact of Hot Buttered Soul goes beyond the track lengths, as discussed above: Hayes' bald head made for striking cover art; the album got play on R&B radio as if it were a single; the album topped several Billboard charts and was it was so hot a property that, according to Rob Bowman, record stores reported being burglarized but only having Hot Buttered Soul stolen! My favorite track from the LP is the long funk jam "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic." Hayes delivers some oddball blues lyrics while the band and the backing singers slink along. After nearly five minutes, Hayes settles into a funky piano solo and you can get lost in the funk as it pushes along for another four minutes or so.




Soulsville


Shaft's Cab Ride

Hayes picked up an Oscar for his soundtrack to the 1971 film Shaft, and the title track became part of pop culture history. The entire soundtrack, released as a 2-LP set, featured lots of great material, but two things I always enjoy hearing are the deep soul song "Soulsville" and a piece of "action" music called "Shaft's Cab Ride." The former is a powerful, gospel-slanted song in which Hayes points out lots of ghetto ills, and the latter is a short thing that starts off orchestrally and then settles into a nice Memphis-flavored instrumental stomp.


Wonderful

My last pick is a 1974 Enterprise single from Hayes. "Wonderful" is a bit more conventional that some of Hayes' other tunes, but I think that anyone who's ever been in love can understand the lyrics of the song.

Of course, there's so much more to Hayes' story than I can tell in a simple blog post, and I'm sure my fellow bloggers will cover a lot of ground over the next few days. RIP, Black Moses. Your sound and unique style will live on forever.

A postscript - Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes' passing so close together is uncanny, as Bernie Mac, Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes just recently filmed a movie, Soul Men, in which Mac and Jackson starred as an estranged pair of soul singers and in which Stax tunes were included. Here's to hoping that the movie gets released and that it does well in the box office!

(EDITOR'S NOTE - Vinyl Record Day is Tuesday, August 12. Last year, your ever-lovin' Stepfather of Soul participated in a blogswarm connected to the event hosted by J.A. Bartlett from The Hits Just Keep On Comin'. Well, another blogswarm is happening, and I will be participating again. I was going to write a piece to post today, but in light of the news of Isaac Hayes' passing, I will postpone it to tomorrow. Make sure to check it out!)

Get on Down With Clarence & Calvin!

Clarence & Calvin - Rooster Knees and Rice

Clarence Carter's long career started in the early '60s with his Alabama State University classmate Calvin Scott. The duo recorded for Fairlane, Duke and Atco billed as "Clarence & Calvin" or the "C&C Boys," with no particular success. After Calvin was seriously injured in an auto accident, Clarence soldiered on as a solo act with Rick Hall, who had produced the duo's Atco single, signing to FAME and then achieving major success on Atlantic. Calvin would return to recording a few years later, but despite pretty good product - including the Stax LP I'm Not Blind ... I Just Can't See - his recording career never took off and he got out of show business in the mid-'70s. (Check out Calvin's official website for his biography and other information about his career.)

"Rooster Knees and Rice" was the flip side of the duo's Atco 45 (the A-side was a secular version of the Boyer Brothers' gospel classic "Step By Step"). The tune is an instrumental that is essentially a hybrid of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" and James Brown's "Mashed Potatoes," but it's a fun slice of greasy R&B that is good for some dancefloor action.

Soul on the Air #9: Fat Daddy, 1966

Play Music - Share Audio - Paul "Fat Daddy" J...

It's high time that another installment of "Soul on the Air" make its way on the blog, and this 20-minute slab of sockin' soul power comes from Baltimore's WWIN, with the ebullient Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson doing his thing. I'll defer to this great profile of Fat Daddy for info about the DJ, which includes some additional aircheck clips and MP3s of two 45s featuring Johnson's jive ("Downtown With the Fat Man" has to be heard to be believed). I've heard quite a few motormouth DJs over the years, but Fat Daddy's rapid-fire rhyming and scatting are amazing.

This aircheck is from the morning of July 1966. The announcer's spiel sets the stage right away: "if you missed any of the action on the last part of the Fat Daddy Soul Morning Show, brother, you missed a lot!" Fat Daddy then proceeds to spin Solomon Burke, Nancy Wilson, the Five Stairsteps and others while pushing his high-octane patter and giving a big "soul kiss" to the Baltimore listening audience. The commercials are cool, too, and they include a soulful plug for Salem menthol cigarettes and the "Golden Oldie Album," a joint venture between WWIN and Roulette Records (many radio stations used their record industry connections to create compilation LPs plugging the station and its jocks - I have a WVON Christmas premium in my record collection like the one advertised here). It's a great aircheck, but it's unfortunately too short!

Get on Down With Buddy Ace!

Buddy Ace - Fingerprints

It's funny how quickly time flies by; I knew I had featured soul-blues singer Buddy Ace on this blog before, but I'm surprised to find out that it was a year ago! I'll defer to this Blues Critic profile of Ace for biographical info so I can jump right into today's selection.

After a lengthy tenure at Duke, where he scored a couple of minor hits but generally remained in the shadow of labelmate Bobby Bland, whose vocal style Buddy emulated (and in whose band he played in back in the '50s), Ace moved on to Stan Lewis' Jewel/Paula/Ronn concern. "Fingerprints" was a 1971 Paula single, and over a buoyant groove Buddy works the song's great lyrics with aplomb. (Interestingly enough, Bobby Bland would turn the tables on his soundalike ex-labelmate/sideman and record a less-funky but very good version of "Fingerprints" for his ABC-Dunhill LP Get on Down With Bobby Bland a few years later.)

Tuesday Is (After-Hours) Blues Day

B.B. King - Messy But Good

It's no accident that B.B. King is considered to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time. King knows how to make "Lucille" sing oh-so-soulfully, and even on throwaway tracks like today's selection, it's always nice to hear him work those six silver strings with his trademark passion. "Messy But Good" was included on the Electric B.B. King LP for ABC. It was clearly there just for filler, but one man's filler is a King's feast, so B.B. and the band lay down some serious after-hours instrumental blues that leads one's mind to a smoky bar at 2 A.M. with the jukebox playing something like this. The tune truly lives up to its title!

Part 6 of the Lattimore Brown Story Is Now Online!

Over at The B-Side, Red Kelly tells Part Six of the Lattimore Brown story. Check it out!