Tell Me :  Talk
Talk about your favorite band. 

Previous page Next page First page IORR home

For information about how to use this forum please check out forum help and policies.

Goto Page: PreviousFirst...4041424344454647484950...LastNext
Current Page: 45 of 91
Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: August 31, 2017 19:24

Quote
Mathijs
Quote
stevecardi
Quote
exilestones
Quote
stevecardi
Quote
exilestones
FRANKFURT 2ND SHOW

Exilestones, THANK YOU for posting this! I've always wondered if the Stones flew in the 1981 indoor arena stage for these Frankfurt shows, and now I know.

I wondered if this photo was the Stones since it was an indoor concert but it was confirmed by Alamy:



Stock Photo - Audience in the Festhalle.The Rolling Stones on 29 June 1982 in Frankfurt (Germany). [www.alamy.com]

Yeah, it's weird: whereas 1981 was evenly split between stadiums and arenas, the 1982 tour was almost exclusively outdoor stadium shows, except for West Berlin (an amphitheater gig) and these three Frankfurt shows. Maybe the Berlin Olympiastadion and the Waldstadion in Frankfurt were unavailable.

But this picture does not show the Stones, and wasn't taken at one of the Stones gigs though.

Mathijs

I kept looking st the stage wondering if it was the Stones. The piano/keyboards would be on the other side. I was thinking maybe it was a band before the Stones on the same day and place?

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: August 31, 2017 19:31




DIE ROLLING STONES IN KOLN ~ ROLLING STONES OVER EUROPE
Germany: July 4 - 5 1982
ROLLING STONES, J. GEILS BAND, PETER MAFFAY
16 pages * small booklet * vertical fold

[www.peterice.com]

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: stevecardi ()
Date: August 31, 2017 20:34

Quote
Mathijs
Quote
stevecardi
Quote
exilestones
Quote
stevecardi
Quote
exilestones
FRANKFURT 2ND SHOW

Exilestones, THANK YOU for posting this! I've always wondered if the Stones flew in the 1981 indoor arena stage for these Frankfurt shows, and now I know.

I wondered if this photo was the Stones since it was an indoor concert but it was confirmed by Alamy:




Stock Photo - Audience in the Festhalle.The Rolling Stones on 29 June 1982 in Frankfurt (Germany). [www.alamy.com]

Yeah, it's weird: whereas 1981 was evenly split between stadiums and arenas, the 1982 tour was almost exclusively outdoor stadium shows, except for West Berlin (an amphitheater gig) and these three Frankfurt shows. Maybe the Berlin Olympiastadion and the Waldstadion in Frankfurt were unavailable.

But this picture does not show the Stones, and wasn't taken at one of the Stones gigs though.

Mathijs

Opening act, maybe?

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: August 31, 2017 21:18

NEW CASTLE




The Rolling Stones at St James Park, Newcastle, 1982



The Rolling Stones at St James Park, Newcastle, June 23, 1982



For Jagger, Richards and co, it was a far cry from their earliest appearances in Newcastle.

The city’s musical relationship with the Rolling Stones dated back to the early 1960s and the small, sweaty confines of the Club a’Gogo on Percy Street.

But on this day 35 years ago, Mick, Keith and the boys would break new ground, becoming the first major act to play in concert at St James’ Park, home of Newcastle United.

In the years that followed, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Queen and others would follow in their footsteps at the Toon’s stadium.

Back on June 23, 1982 the Stones were in the middle of a European tour in support of their Tattoo You album, and it was six years since UK audiences had seen them in the flesh.

Under a headline of ‘Jumping Jack Splash’, the Chronicle gave the big show high-profile coverage.

“The drizzle reigned all night but by nightfall Mick’s magic had rained down on 38,000 fans drying their spirits and rekindling the fire of good old rock’n’roll,” we reported.

“Their sell out concert at St James’ Park was a mesmerising spectacle, a non-stop musical party, an unqualified success.”




Rolling Stones at St James' Park, Newcastle, 1982 (Photo: UGC TNE)




Queues had formed outside the venue in the early hours ahead of the doors opening at 2pm.

For hungry fans, hot dogs were on sale for 50p, and hamburgers 60p.

As for merchandise, you could pick up a tour sweatshirt for £7.

Support came from George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and the J Geils Band who’d recently enjoyed a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic with Centrefold.

Back on the night, the band members, who had been staying at the Holiday Inn in Seaton Burn, arrived at St James’ in a luxury coach just before 7pm.

They were whisked backstage where in the hospitality tent, champagne flowed as visiting rockers including Sting and members of Genesis mingled.

The 25-song show kicked off with Under My Thumb.

Songs news and old followed, including You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Tumbling Dice, Miss You, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, and Jumping Jack Flash.

Satisfaction was the inevitable encore.




The Rolling Stones perform in concert at St James Park, Newcastle 23 June 1982 - Mick Jagger sings (Photo: NCJ Archive)


Our reviewer was seemingly impressed.

“Jagger is still the most charismatic live performer in rock”, he drooled.

“He cuts a striking figure, making full use of the 240ft-long stage, running from end to end to tease and torment in fine athletic form.”

Meanwhile, “Richards seemed to be only marginally less popular than Jagger, eliciting huge cheers every time he moved to one side of the stage, with the inevitable cigarette jammed in his mouth.

“The band kept the level of excitement at a consistently high level throughout the two-hour set, and the enthusiasm among the good-humoured crowd didn’t flag for one second.”

The way we were in the North East 35 years ago
The show came to an end with the strains of the 1812 Overture and a spectacular firework display.

As for the aftermath, we told how there had been little trouble, with only a handful of mainly drink-related arrests.

Indeed, one group of fans were nabbed with a five-gallon container of Newcastle Brown Ale and bottles of spirits.

We also revealed how Newcastle United would pick up £35,000 for hosting the show.

And with that, the Rolling Stones were on their way to their next show at Wembley.



[www.chroniclelive.co.uk]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-01 22:10 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 2, 2017 18:00


Nile Rodgers, left, record producer and member of the band Chic poses
with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones at a party for David Bowie in New York,
July 29, 1983. Bowie appeared in three sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden,
wrapping up his New York appearances Wednesday night.
(AP Photo/Katz)

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 4, 2017 06:20

ROCKFORD






Rolling Stones accept fans' invitation
Sept. 19, 1981


ROCKFORD, Ill. -- More than 35,000 people signed an invitation asking the Rolling Stones to entertain
their fans and the Stones have agreed.

The group is scheduled for one show at the MetroCentre Oct. 1.

'The city is flying right now,' said Dallas Cole, program director for WZOK-radio and the force behind a drive to
get the Stones to stop in Rockford during their cross-country tour.

'They (the Stones) sent us a telegram Tuesday,' Cole said. 'It read, 'To the music fans of Rockford: We are overwhelmed
by your gracious invitation by petition. We accept. See you Oct. 1, 1981. Tattoo you.'

Despite the relative ease of getting the English group to stop in Rockford, there are some problems.

The MetroCentre will not hold the 35,000 fans who signed the invitation.

To make the ticket distribution process as fair as possible, Cole and the concert organizers enlarged the petitions
and cut signers' names into individual strips. Thursday, they will draw 4,300 signatures and each winner will be allowed
to buy two tickets at $15 apiece.

Fair as that may sound, the fight for tickets is already on.

Douglas Logan, MetroCentre general manager, said newspapers were accepting classified ads from people offering to pay as much as six times the price of tickets. He estimated scalpers will get as much as $400 per ticket.

Logan said he was swamped by requests for tickets. One man mailed Logan a tape.

'You know how a tape is, you're always curious,' Logan said. 'So I played it and it was this guy imploring me to give him two tickets.

'I've said no as many as 250 times in a day. I've had people come out of the woodwork I didn't even know were alive.'

Concert organizers said they expect none of the violence that has erupted at other Stones concerts -- despite the mad
rush for tickets.

'Sure, I'll take extra security precautions,' Logan said. 'I'd be remiss if I didn't. But people storming the building or
something like that? No. This is Rockford.'



++++++++++++++++


ROCKFORD TO BE STONED

By GLENNE CURRIE, United Press International | Sept. 21, 1981

Responding to an invitation signed by 35,000 fans, the Rolling Stones agreed to play in Rockford, Ill.

'The city is flying right now,' said Dallas Cole, program director for WZOK-radio and the force behind the petition drive.
'They (the Stones) sent us a telegram Tuesday,' Cole said. 'It read, 'To the music fans of Rockford: We are overwhelmed by
your gracious invitation by petition. We accept. See you Oct. 1, 1981. Tattoo you.'




Rockford IL

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 4, 2017 06:21

ROCKFORD


Quote
TooTough
According to M. Bonanno a 9.000 sellout. They were selected
from the 36.000 who signed the petition.

btw: about Lee Allen (saxophone)

He played three shows in October 1981 with the Rolling Stones:
on October first at the Metro Centre (Rockford, Illinois), and
on the third and the fourth at Folsom Field (Boulder, Colorado).
According to Ian McLagan,[1] who played keyboards with the Stones
on the 1981 Tattoo You tour, Allen was so bewildered by playing
with the Stones for over 80,000 people in attendance "he [Allen]
completely choked up". Audio recordings of the shows confirm
McLagan. Allen was replaced by Ernie Watts for the remainder of
the tour.
wikipedia

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 4, 2017 07:49

The Rolling Stones – Party Down (no label)


Party Down (no label)

Rockford MetroCentre, Rockford, IL – October 1st, 1981

Disc 1 (53:38): Take The A Train, Under My Thumb, When The Whip Comes Down, Let’s Spend The Night Together, Shattered, Neighbours, Black Limousine, Just My Imagination, Twenty Flight Rock, Let Me Go, Time Is On My Side, Beast Of Burden, Waiting On A Friend

Disc 2 (54:42): Let It Bleed, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Tumbling Dice, Little T & A, She’s So Cold, Hang Fire, Miss You, Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash

The Rolling Stones’ Still Life tour in 1981 was conceived to be the biggest and most lucrative rock tour of all time. Through the use of corporate sponsors (Jovan Musk), booking the show into the biggest stadiums playing in full daylight, and even utilizing the new pay-per-view for the tour finale, the tour was the largest grossing tour, not only for 1981, but for many years afterwards.

An anomaly is the October 1st show in Rockford, Illinois. It is the only small show in an indoor venue. The show was added to the schedule when the radio station WZOK gathered 36,000 signature on a petition for the Stones to play at the newly opened Rockford MetroCentre. After management agreed, the actual petitions were cut up and used to hold a lottery to give fans the rights to buy tickets at $15 each.

The genial performance was captured on a stereo audience recording of the entire show. The 3LP Party Down – Live USA 1981 (Music Fans Records MFRSR) came out later that year with the entire show. More than thirty years later this is the first silver pressed disc edition of the show. The label uses a pristine vinyl copy for the transfer with barely a hint of vinyl surface noise.

The tape begins with Bill Graham’s shouting introduction over the taped “Take The A Train” before the band come on stage to play “Under My Thumb” and “When The Whip Comes Down.”

After Jagger’s greeting to Rockford, they proceed with “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and a very sloppy and chaotic version of “Shattered.” The high octane punk-like attack of the set fits well in the small venue, but at times the performance resembles more closely the chaotic feel of the Some Girls tour in 1978 rather than the slick professionalism of the 1981 Still Life. Richards misses the cue for the first guitar solo in “Shattered” and they wander around the measures until they find it.

“Neighbours” is the first song from the new album Tattoo You and is received very well. After “Black Limousine” Jagger jokes that “one day we dreamed we played in Rockford, but it was just my imagination” before playing a bit of R&B.

One of the highlights of the show is a moody, brooding version of “Beast Of Burden.” Played in the Stones’ mid-tempo groove, it is an excellent opportunity for Richards and Wood to have some fun on the guitar, spitting out riffs between the verses.

The following song “Waiting On A Friend” is a different story, however. One of the best songs from Tattoo You, it is live highlight. The sultry saxophone melody is a key part in the song, but Bobby Keyes wasn’t with the band for the first week of the tour. Lee Allen filled in for him on this night and the following two shows in Boulder, Colorado. It sounds as if he’s not too familiar with the song and is absent for much of it. Richards improvises a guitar part giving a different feel to the piece.

After “Let It Bleed” Jagger announces another new song “Tops,” but quickly corrects himself and introduces “one you can sing along to.” The slower “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” also prominently features the saxophone and Allen fares much better, playing an effective solo in the middle.

The finale of the show whips the audience into a frenzy. Jagger complains that he can’t see anyone past the front rows, and asks them if they have any requests before they play “Hang Fire.” Both “Miss You,” with the audience singing along, and “Start Me Up” receive huge ovations from the appreciative audience.

The tape ends with the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” the final song of the regular set. There is no hint of either an encore or the taped Jimi Hendrix performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” which closed every show on the Still Live tour, so it’s not clear if the encore wasn’t played or wasn’t taped.

Party Down replicates the artwork of the original LP set released in the early eighties including the track listing for the LPs in addition to the track listing of the CDs on the back. The no label Rolling Stones releases are excellent for actually releasing tapes that have never been issued before by the big labels such as TSP, VGP or DAC. With the great sound quality and uniquness, it’s one worth having.


Post: 1981 Tour Archive ***
Posted by: BeforeTheyMakeMeRun

5. October 01, 1981 - Metro Center, Rockford, IL
a. AUDIO, MFRSR-1/2/3, 'Party Down' [mega.nz]


***All dates/locations taken from dbboots.com [dbboots.com]



Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: Redhotcarpet ()
Date: September 4, 2017 11:46

Thank you Exile - keep up the good work. Lovely thread.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 4, 2017 19:03

Quote
Redhotcarpet
Thank you Exile - keep up the good work. Lovely thread.

Thank you and others for the compliments and encouragement. I couldn't believe I had some complaints about this thread. Some people...

Every time I think we're nearing the end of this thread (the material is bound to run out), there's more!

I listened to the Rockford concert listed above. It was rough playing for Lee Allan IMHO.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-04 19:03 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 5, 2017 02:19

More Details About the Rockford Show



The Rolling Stones added a Rockford, Illinois date to their Tattoo You tour, because roughly 35,000 people
signed petitions circulated by a local radio station. Because the idea “sort of struck their fancy,” The Stones said
something like, “Oh, hell, why not?” And Rockford got its show.

A radio station (WZOK). A word-of-mouth community in relative geographic isolation. Actual signatures on pieces
of paper. Remember paper and clipboards? I had the opportunity to talk to Jeff Rowe, who was Program Director at
WZOK at the time.

Here’s how the timeline played for the “Bring the Stones to Rockford” petition drive:

In mid- to late spring of 1981, several things were going on in Rockfordites’ world: unemployment was high, the new
Metro Center arena had just opened its doors, and The Rolling Stones announced U. S. Tattoo You tour dates for later
in the year. Jeff Rowe got the idea for the petition drive, but didn’t want to “go rogue” with putting it into action,
so he contacted Doug Logan, then-manager of Metro Center, and Bill Graham Presents, the legendary concert-promotion
agency out of the San Francisco Bay Area, which was promoting the Tattoo You tour in the U.S. Mr. Rowe asked
Bill Graham Productions whether they (BGP) would get the WZOK audience’s pending petition papers to the Stones. BGP agreed.

Thinking it was a long shot at best, WZOK made announcements for a few days, then started circulating actual petitions.
Over a three-week period, those 35,000 signatures were collected on what filled five boxes worth of paper. Rowe hand-
delivered the five boxes of petitions to Bill Graham people at a Santana show at Poplar Creek (Hoffman Estates, IL,
June 7, 1981).Then he was compelled to keep doings on the matter under wraps from the public.

In late August, BGP called Doug Logan and requested that he and Jeff Rowe come to New York to meet and discuss the
tentative Rockford show. The men from Illinois were told that the Stones were setting up several “unannounced”
shows at smaller venues, but that if anything were said prematurely, BGP would deny it.

Around Labor Day, there was a press conference with the announcement that there would be upcoming “surprise”
shows by the Stones as they were headed west across the U.S.

In the second week of September, the Rockford show was announced; those whose signatures on the petitions were legible
were entered into a drawing for the chance to buy pairs of tickets.

Subsequently and after a whole lot of press—including a story on Good Morning, America—8800 fans got to see The
Rolling Stones in Rockford, Illinois on October 1. Unprecedented and extremely collectible tickets were printed,
on which the promotion credit read: “Presented by Music Fans of Rockford, IL.”



Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 5, 2017 17:24

ROCKFORD


Rolling Stones Rockford Metro Centre Memories with Doug Logan and Dallas Cole


Doug Logan, Metro Centre General Manager and Dallas Cole, Programming Director WZOK Radio.


Our interview with former Rockford MetroCentre General Manager Doug Logan. We threw some names and
dates at him and he was kind enough to elaborate and share what he remembered about bringing them to Rockford.



Mike Os: I remember The Rolling Stones coming to Rockford in October of 1981. There was a
petition that ultimately got them here. Can you tell us anything about that?

Doug Logan: I had a lengthy conversation with Mick Jagger prior to the Rolling Stones concert in Rockford.
We discussed two topics. The first was a discussion about safety, particularly the problems with the structural
integrity of concert stages. Early in the band’s career apparently they experienced a stage collapse
that resulted in serious injuries. Since that time, Jagger has made it a point to personally inspect every
stage at every show during sound check.

We did get the band to come to Rockford via a petition drive that we organized with Dallas Cole
[real name, Jeff Rowland], Programming Manager with WZOK.

Fred Wallin: Rumor has it that you always left some seats in the front for last minute show ups. Is this true?

Doug Logan: There is no such thing as a sellout. Every wise hall manager always holds a few seats for ushering
difficulties and in case someone with the attraction shows up at the last minute. They are usually good seats
but never in the front row.


Rock River Times


     
Keith Rocks Rockford!
photos Paul Natkin



++++++++


Fans cheer as Ron Wood, left, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones perform the group’s final number at the Rockford, Ill., Metro Centre, October 1, 1981.
Nine thousand people attended the concert, which the Stones agreed to do after receiving about 32,000 petitions from area music fans requesting an appearance.
(AP Photo/Charles Borst)


++++++++


                    The Go-Go's Opened in Rockford!

Go-Go's Opening for the Stones in Rockford. American musicians Belinda Carlisle (L) and Charlotte Caffey (R) perform on stage in Rockford, October 1, 1981.
photos by Paul Natkin



Gina Schock of the Go-Go's performs on stage, Rockford, October 1, 1981.
photo by Paul Natkin





The Go-Go's!

The Go-go's "Beauty and the Beat" released, July 8, 1981, peaked at number one on the Billboard charts,
where it remained for six consecutive weeks, ranking second among Billboard's Top 100 albums of 1982. The LP sold
in excess of two million copies and reached double platinum status, making it one of the most successful debut
albums of all time.

The Rolling Stones Tattoo You took over Billboards number one position after it's release in late August 1981.

The above videos were played in heavy rotation back when MTV was a music videos channel. Other heavily played
videos on MTV that year included the Rolling Stones "Start Me Up," "Hang Fire" and
"Waiting on a Friend."



VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Official video of The Go-Go's performing We've Got The Beat from their debut album Beauty And The Beat (1981). We've Got The Beat was released as a single in 1982.


VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Californian girl band, The Go-Go's performing Our Lips Are Sealed from the album Beauty And The Beat (1981).


VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
The Go-Go's, "Paint It, Black" (Rolling Stones)

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 5, 2017 17:35

1981 Tour Additional musicians:

Lee Allen - saxophone (October 1, Rockford, Illinois, and on October 3 and 4 at Folsom Field, in Boulder, Colorado)
Ian Stewart – piano
Ian McLagan – keyboards, backing vocals
Ernie Watts – saxophone
Bobby Keys – saxophone (on 'Let it Bleed', 'Brown Sugar' and 'Honky Tonk Women')


[www.wikiwand.com]

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 6, 2017 06:12


1982



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-08 20:39 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: Paul Kersey ()
Date: September 6, 2017 08:55

Brilliant thread! Thanks!

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: Mathijs ()
Date: September 6, 2017 14:52

Quote
exilestones



Fans cheer as Ron Wood, left, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones perform the group’s final number at the Rockford, Ill., Metro Centre, October 1, 1981.
Nine thousand people attended the concert, which the Stones agreed to do after receiving about 32,000 petitions from area music fans requesting an appearance.
(AP Photo/Charles Borst)

That's one of the first pics I've seen from lee Allen with the Stones.

Mathijs

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: Pecman ()
Date: September 7, 2017 05:49

This Thread is the absolute best from all my years on IORR...Keep it going!!!!

Pecman

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 8, 2017 04:45











Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-11 05:34 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 8, 2017 20:41

ROCKFORD



Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 9, 2017 02:51

Quote
Mathijs


That's one of the first pics I've seen from lee Allen with the Stones.

Mathijs


It's the only one I can remember seeing. I'll look for more.



Lee Allen Played Three Shows with the Stones in 1981



Lee Allen 1981 (non-Stones) photo by Charles Paul Harris


Lee Allen

Lee Francis Allen[1] (July 2, 1927 – October 18, 1994) was an American tenor saxophone player. He was a key figure in New Orleans rock and roll of the 1950s and recorded with many leading performers of the early rock and roll era.

Chuck Berry’s electric guitar, Earl Palmer’s propulsive drums and Lee Allen’s honking saxophone comprise the instrumental Holy Trinity of rock ‘n’ roll. Although not a Louisiana native, Allen’s session work with Little Richard, Fats Domino and Huey “Piano” Smith more than justifies his recognition as a “Master” of the state’s unique sounds.

You may not know who Lee Allen was, but you cannot have listened to American popular music in the late 20th century and not have heard his saxophone. Quite simply, Lee Allen’s sound is one of the defining sounds of rock ‘n’ roll. Just like Chuck Berry’s guitar, Bo Diddley’s beat, Earl Palmer’s drums, and Dave Bartholomew’s arrangements, Lee Allen’s sound is one of the DNA strands of rock. You can hear it on Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Shirley and Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll,” Fats Domino’s “I’m Walking,” Tommy Ridgley’s “Jam Up,” Huey Piano Smith’s “Don’t You Just Know It,” Etta James’ “Tough Lover,” any of Paul Gayten’s recordings, and, of course, the classic “Walkin’ with Mr. Lee.”

Back when rock & roll burst out of roadhouses and clubs on the wrong side of town and onto the airwaves, the saxophone was every bit as important as the guitar, piano, or drums in defining the sound. For a first generation Rock & Roll saxophone player such as Lee Allen, the Jazz inherent in his playing is obvious.

Lee Allen, who played on dozens of hits and many hundreds of sides, by artists including Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, and Little Richard, but never managed to make a lasting foothold on the charts himself. In the process of trying, though, he generated one of the finest and most-beloved instrumental albums to come out of the New Orleans R&B boom of the 1950s.

The man whose saxophone style would define rock ‘n’ roll wa born in Pittsburg, KS (some sources claim Sewanee, TN), in 1926. Following the death of his father in 1927, his mother moved the family to Denver, CO, where Allen grew up. He showed a natural musical aptitude as a boy and gravitated toward the saxophone, which was an integral part of the swing sound that was in full bloom, as well as the sounds of jump blues.

Allen qualified for a combined athletic and music scholarship from Xavier College in New Orleans. He'd forsaken a future on any playing field in favor of blowing sax in a band fronted by Paul Gayten. He soon crossed paths with producer/composer/bandleader Dave Bartholomew and, through him, ended up playing behind Fats Domino, Little Richard, Amos Milburn, and Smiley Lewis, among numerous others.

Allen, his fellow tenorman Alvin "Red" Tyler, bassist Frank Fields, and drummer Earl Palmer were at the core of some of the best rock & roll and rhythm & blues to come out of New Orleans during the 1950s, including most of Fats Domino's biggest hits of the period.

Allen was a lucky man when it came to his gigs as a session musician and sideman, but he was never able to translate that into success under his own name.

In 1956, he tried stepping forward with a pair of sides, "Shimmy" and "Rockin' at Cosimo's," for the Aladdin label, but they went nowhere. Allen toured with Domino and others. In 1958, Allen recorded a bouncy, rocking instrumental that he'd devised while on the road with Domino, using the title "Walkin' With Mr. Lee" -- it was picked up by Dick Clark, who used it many times on American Bandstand, and ended up riding the middle level of the national charts for three months that year, peaking at number 54 but selling well enough over that time to work its way into a lot of households, on top of what Clark did for Allen and the record on his show. Allen's later release, "Tic Toc," only charted for a week, and "Cat Walk" made it onto some radio-station play lists, but it was "Walkin' With Mr. Lee" that made his reputation.

Allen ended up cutting a complete album entitled Walkin' With Mr. Lee for Ember, which contained some surprisingly elegant jazz and blues in between its stomping New Orleans-style numbers, and was probably a little too sophisticated for most of the teen audience that it was aimed at -- the LP became a serious collectors' item over the decades that followed. The name “Walking with Mr Lee” comes from Lee’s habit of walking (more of a stomp as excitement builds) on the spot while playing. Perhaps this has some connection to his amazing ability to state the beat, his phrasing was so in the pocket he was almost part of the drum kit.

"He could groan, moan and wail a bump and grind blues better than anyone but, as he pointed out to me on several occasions, never honked. I don’t think that I’m going out on a limb by saying that half the reason that so many of the records he played on were hits were because his melodic solos were as much a part of the structure of the song as the chord progressions and lyrics. Fats Domino’s ‘I’m Walkin’’ being a perfect case in point,” said Phil Allen. Earl King also agreed about why Allen’s solos were instantly memorable and saleable. “He had that commercial appeal that most saxophonists shied away from. Other guys would get too jazzy. Lee stayed commercial and stuck pretty close to the melody of the singers.”

In 1965, Allen left New Orleans and moved to Los Angeles, where he kept his hand in music with gigs at small clubs and occasional session work. At some point, he did leave music for a steadier job at an aircraft factory, but when the oldies boom hit in the early '70s, he was back working with Fats Domino again. He returned to private life at the end of the decade, but with the dawn of the 1980s Allen was once again getting requests for his services, now from a whole new generation of rock & rollers. The rockabilly revival of the late 1970s found younger musicians seeking Allen's distinctive saxophone.

He played sessions with the Stray Cats and established a whole new name for himself working with the California-based band the Blasters, doing two albums with them in the early '80s. Lee Allen enjoyed a busy year in 1981, playing on an LP with The Blasters and recording with the Stray Cats. Allen briefly filled-in on the Rolling Stones tour until Ernie Watts was available. Then Lee went on to tour Europe with Fats Domino that year. Allen was so popular in Europe, he was surprised to see the first three rows at a Fats Domino concert wearing Lee Allen t-shirts.

It was an unexpected and welcome coda to four decades of making music. n 1994 Allen played on Dr. John's "In the Right Place (Right Time).

After Allen's death, Blasters member Dave Alvin dedicated the song "Mister Lee" to Allen.

Cosimo Matassa remembers him as “an easy-going, soft-spoken man. He was quiet and nice. But those solos! When you turned him loose, look out!” Earl King also confirms this, “He was on my first recording. I mean, he was part of the wallpaper at Cosimo’s studio. Every time you walked into Cosimo’s, you’d see Lee and Red (Tyler) and Earl (Palmer). Lee played solos on everything on Ace. He’s on all the Huey “Piano” Smith records.”

Some say that Allen was bitter about not getting the credit he was due for making so many songs hits for so many different artists. He made millions for others while personally earning $42 per session. Dave Alvin says, “He did feel that sidemen deserved more cash if a record was a hit. I can’t imagine those songs without Lee in the same way I can’t imagine Chuck Berry without Johnnie Johnson, Elmore James without Johnny Jones.



In Groups:
Crescent City Gold, Dave Bartholomew And His Orchestra, Fats Domino And His Sextet, Lee Allen & His Band, Lee Allen's Orchestra, Little Richard And His Band, Mr. Google Eyes And His 4 Bars, The Blasters.







20 great solos by Lee Allen (the year is the year of recording) :

Paul Gayten, Gayten's Nightmare (1949)
Smiley Lewis, Playgirl (1953)
Professor Longhair, In the Night (1953)
The Spiders, I Didn't Want To Do It (1953)
Shirley and Lee, Feel So Good (1955)
Little Richard, Tutti Frutti (1955)
Fats Domino, I'm In Love Again (1955)
Little Richard, Long Tall Sally (1956)
Little Richard, Slippin' And Slidin' (1956)
Lloyd Price, I Yi Yi Gomen-A-Sai (1956)
Paul Gayten, You Better Believe It (1956)
Bobby Mitchell, Goin' Round In Circles (1956)
Huey Smith, Li'l Liza Jane (1956)
Bobby Charles, Take It Easy Greasy (1956)
Etta James, Tough Lover (1956)
Richard Berry, Yama Yama Pretty Mama (1956)
Little Richard, Lucille (1956)
Roy Montrell, That Mellow Saxophone (1956)
Roy Brown, Saturday Night (1956)
The Spiders, Better Be On My Way (1956)


credits: Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll,
Bruce Eder Rovi, Black Cat Rockibilly & Off Beat Magazine


Lee Allan VIDEOS: [www.youtube.com]



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-11 18:19 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 9, 2017 20:57

Ernie Watts Has Had “About Three Lifetimes” in Music





"Ernie Watts is one of the greatest living tenor saxophonists, at the top of his game." - Ian Patterson

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ernie Watts is one of the most versatile and prolific saxophone players on the music scene. Ernest James "Ernie" Watts (born October 23, 1945) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. Watts is one of the most respected jazz saxophonists of his generation.

If you’ve listened to music in the past 50 years, then you’ve probably heard Ernie Watts play his saxophone many times. Being a first-call horn player on the LA studio scene from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s puts you on a lot of historic recordings, and it’s no exaggeration to say that some of Watts’s solos have become part of the fabric of western music. His credit list runs to more than 1,500 recordings, for everyone from Marvin Gaye and the Jackson Five to Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. The soaring saxophone solo that ends Christopher Cross’s 1981 mega hit Arthur’s Theme – that’s him. Then there’s Quincy Jones, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, the Four Tops and the Commodores – they’ve all picked up the phone and called Ernie Watts.

But even if he wanted to, Watts can’t escape his illustrious past – something as simple as a trip to buy groceries is haunted by ghosts.
“Yeah, we often hear tunes I’ve played on while we’re in the store,” he says, laughing.

“But it’s like another life, you know. It’s like, oh yeah, and then I’ll remember the session and I’ll remember that day and what was going on. Most of them anyway.
“Sometimes I don’t remember the record, but I still know it’s me. And I say, holy cow, that’s me playing, but I don’t remember who this is.”

Watts started playing saxophone at age 13 in Wilmington, Delaware. He went with a friend who was joining the local school music program, and found himself carrying home an instrument too. He wanted a trombone back in junior high, but thankfully his band teacher handed him a saxophone! Ernie Watts was given a bari sax for band because he was a big kid. “The band director thought I was big enough to carry the bari for marching band,” Watts says. It was only 6 months before an alto sax became available and young Watts took off, running with the sax. "I was a self-starter; no one ever had to tell me to practice," remembers Watts.

“I guess after a while, my parents realised I wasn’t going to quit, so my mother bought me a record player, and she joined the Columbia record club. The very first record she got was Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. That’s when I heard John Coltrane, and it changed my life.
“I would take my lunch money every week and I would buy a John Coltrane record. The record player had one of those stackers on it, and at night before I went to bed, I would put three or four records on the stacker, and I would turn it on very low, and listen to Coltrane while I fell asleep.”

His discipline combined with natural talent began to shape his life. He won a scholarship to the Wilmington Music School where he studied classical music and technique. Though they had no jazz program, his mother provided the spark by giving him his own record player plus a record club membership, for Christmas. That first record club promotional selection turned out to be the brand-new Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. "When I first heard John Coltrane play, it was like someone put my hand into a light socket," Watts says. He started to learn jazz by ear, often falling asleep at night listening to a stack of Coltrane records. Although he would enroll briefly at West Chester University in music education, he soon won a Downbeat Scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, renowned for jazz.

When Gene Quill quit Buddy Rich's Big Band in Boston, trombonist Phil Wilson (a professor at Berklee), was asked to recommend a student as temporary replacement. A young Ernie Watts was referred, and left Berklee for that important spot. The student stayed with Buddy Rich from 1966-1968 and toured the world, also recording two albums with the band-Big Swing Face and The New One.

During the 1970s and '80s, Watts was immersed in the busy production scene of Los Angeles. His signature sound was heard on countless TV shows and movie scores, almost all the early West Coast Motown sessions, and with pop stars such as Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan. Though the pop music genre placed narrow confines on his performance, the studio sessions allowed Watts the chance to constantly hone and refine his tone. After years in the studios, Watts' passion for acoustic jazz never left him. At the end of a long day of sessions, he could frequently be heard playing fiery jazz in late-night clubs around Los Angeles.

Much as he might want to, it’s impossible for Watts to tell his own story without dropping some of the biggest names in music history. There’s the playing with Frank Sinatra at the Sands in Las Vegas in the late 1960s. There are recording sessions with the Jacksons, “when Michael was a kid”. There are the 20 years with Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show band. There’s playing on soundtracks for films such as Grease and Fame, and all the Motown records with the Temptations, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.

In the 1970s, Watts became particularly associated with Marvin Gaye, appearing on some of the singer’s most famous recordings, including the classic "Let’s Get It On."

Marvin Gaye said, “He was a beautiful singer and a beautiful man. He knew what he wanted but he also knew how to share. He had his own studio on Sunset Boulevard, and we would go there and work on his tunes together. He had a concept, you know? He had a sound. Most great artists have a sound in their mind that they want to bring through.”



Ernie Watts added Much to the Rolling Stones Sound on their 1981 tour including their big hit single "Going to a Go-Go."

But in his own mind, Watts remained a jazz musician, always practising, always writing his own music. Then in the mid-1980s, he met bass player Charlie Haden and found himself drawn back towards a pure jazz career. A tour with Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny was the catalyst that finally made him quit the session work.

Ernie Watts remarked, “Being with people like that on a full-time basis, it creates a different kind of energy. It’s a more intense energy that goes into creating the music, and I wanted to get to that level. Life has chapters in it, and you know when you get to the end of a chapter, and you have to turn the page.
“The whole time I was doing commercial music it was interesting to me and I learnt a lot. All those artists are very sincere about their music, no matter what it is, but I got to the point where I wanted to get back to my original plan”

Watts worked in the big bands of Oliver Nelson and Gerald Wilson, recorded with Jean-Luc Ponty in 1969, and became a staff musician for NBC, performing with the Tonight Show Band on a regular basis. His own records of the 1970s and early '80s were generally pop-ish (1982's Chariots of Fire was a big seller), and Watts played frequently with Lee Ritenour and Stanley Clarke, in addition to recording with Cannonball Adderley (one of his idols) in 1972. However, Ernie Watts' work became much more interesting from a jazz standpoint starting in the mid-'80s when he joined Charlie Haden's Quartet West and started recording no-nonsense quartet dates for JVC.

In 1983, the film composer Michel Colombier wrote an orchestral piece entitled "Nightbird" for Watts. That led to Watts performing with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and to tours with Pat Metheny's Special Quartet in to the late 1980's.


Ernie Watts 1983

Watts' touring with Metheny's group in the late 1980s was a turning point for him. Watts' charter membership in Haden's critically-acclaimed Quartet West, continued for almost 30 years until Haden's death. Watts' work for the audiophile Japanese label JVC Music, and now his growing catalog of original music for Flying Dolphin continue to express his joy in the power of jazz. His four recordings for JVC Music are some of the finest of his extensive career.

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ernie Watts is one of the most versatile and prolific saxophone players in music. It has been more than fifty years since he first picked up a saxophone, and from age sixteen on he has been playing professionally, initially while still attending school. Watts has been featured on over 500 recordings by artists ranging from Cannonball Adderley to Frank Zappa, always exhibiting his unforgettable trademark sound. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo he played the "Mystery Horn", a straight-necked C melody saxophone. He played the notable saxophone riff on The One You Love by Glenn Frey. He was featured in the Windows XP edition Jazz preview. The song he was featured in was "Highway Blues".

Because he was involved in many commercial recording projects from the mid-'70s through the early '80s and on an occasional basis ever since, some observers wrote Ernie Watts off prematurely as a pop/R&B tenorman.

Watts' eclectic mix of career activities has included work with vocalist Kurt Elling in a tribute to Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, Dedicated To You which won a Grammy Award.

A typical year finds him touring Europe with his own European Quartet in spring and fall, and working as a feature artist with other artists he admires.

He gives back to the music by conducting clinics and master classes, both on the student and professional level. There is the occasional "hometown gig" with the Ernie Watts Quartet in California, where he is still based.

Summing it all up, Watts describes his ongoing journey: "I see music as the common bond having potential to bring all people together in peace and harmony. All things in the physical world have vibration; the music I choose to play is the energy vibration that touches a common bond in people. I believe that music is God singing through us, an energy to be used for good."


Ernie Watts 2016

As Watts approaches 73, the original plan is going very nicely. There have been two Grammys, critically acclaimed recordings with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, and a starring role alongside jazz vocalist Kurt Elling.

Then there is his own record label, Flying Dolphin, on which he releases his own recordings. At this stage, he reckons he has had “about three lifetimes” in music.

Ermie says, "“Do what you love,” he says decisively. “Even if you have to drive a bus to make money, take part of your day, every day, and do something that you really love. It keeps you strong. I think we all evolve that way, and as you grow and as you learn, you find out that there’s a simple core in the centre of everything, and you want to get back to that.”


credits: Ian Patterson, ErnieWatts.com, Greg Vail

Personal Management: BATES MEYER, INC.
Phone: 909-547-0504 / Fax: 909-547-0901
www.batesmeyer.com

Discography (not including guest appearences)

As leader:

Planet Love (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
The Wonder Bag (Vault, 1972)
Look in Your Heart (Elektra, 1980)
Chariots of Fire (Qwest, 1982)
Musician (Qwest, 1985)
Sanctuary (Qwest, 1986)
The Ernie Watts Quartet (JVC, 1987 [1991])
Afoxe with Gilberto Gil (CTI, 1991)
Reaching Up (JVC, 1994)
Unity (JVC, 1995)
Long Road Home (JVC, 1996)
Classic Moods (JVC, 1998)
Reflections with Ron Feuer (Flying Dolphin, 2000)
Alive (Flying Dolphin, 2004)
Spirit Song (Flying Dolphin, 2005)
Analog Man (Flying Dolphin, 2006)
To The Point (Flying Dolphin, 2007)
Four Plus Four (Flying Dolphin, 2009)
Oasis (Flying Dolphin, 2011)
Wheel of Time (Flying Dolphin, 2016)
With Karma

Celebration (Horizon/A&M, 1976)[4]
For Everybody (Horizon/A&M, 1977)[5]
As sideman[edit]
With Billy Alessi and Bobby Alessi

Words and Music (A&M, 1979)
Long Time Friends (Qwest, 1982)
With Gene Ammons

Free Again (Prestige, 1971)
With Paul Anka

Walk a Fine Line (CBS, 1983)
With Willie Bobo

Tomorrow Is Here (1977)
With Brass Fever

Time Is Running Out (Impulse!, 1976)
With Kenny Burrell

Both Feet on the Ground (Fantasy, 1973)
With Lee Ritenour

Stolen Moments (GRP, 1989)
With David Axelrod

Earth Rot (Capitol, 1970)
With Donald Byrd

Caricatures (Blue Note, 1976)
With Stanley Clarke

Time Exposure (CBS, 1984)
With Randy Crawford

Secret Combination (Warner Bros., 1981)
With Donna Summer

Donna Summer (Eponymous Quincy Jones Producer 1982)

With Kurt Elling

Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord, 2009)
With Marvin Gaye

Let's Get It On (Tamla, 1973)
I Want You (Tamla, 1976)
With Dizzy Gillespie

Free Ride (Pablo, 1977)
With Charlie Haden

Quartet West (Verve, 1986)
The Private Collection (Naim, 1987–88 [2000])
In Angel City (Verve, 1988)
The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Verve, 1989 [1999])
Haunted Heart (Verve, 1991)
Always Say Goodbye (Verve, 1993)
Now Is the Hour (Verve, 1995)
The Art of the Song (Verve, 1999)
Sophisticated Ladies (EmArcy, 2010)
With Bobby Hutcherson

Head On (Blue Note, 1971)
Linger Lane (Blue Note, 1975)
Montara (Blue Note, 1975)
With Milt Jackson

Memphis Jackson (Impulse!, 1969)
With J. J. Johnson

Concepts in Blue (Pablo Today, 1981)
With Carole King

Music (Ode, 1971)
With Charles Kynard

Charles Kynard (Mainstream, 1971)
With Eric Martin

Eric Martin (Capitol, 1985)
With John Mayall

Moving On (Polydor, 1973)
With Carmen McRae

Can't Hide Love (Blue Note, 1976)
With Blue Mitchell

Vital Blue (Mainstream, 1971)
With Helen Reddy

Reddy (Capitol, 1979)
With New Stories

Speakin' Out (1998)
With Moacir Santos

Carnival of the Spirits (Blue Note, 1975)
With Lalo Schifrin

Gypsies (Tabu, 1978)
No One Home (Tabu, 1979)
With Bud Shank

Windmills of Your Mind (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
With Gábor Szabó

Faces (Mercury, 1977)
With Gino Vannelli

Brother to Brother (A&M, 1978)
Inner Conflicts (Atlantic, 1978)
With Gerald Wilson

Eternal Equinox (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
Lomelin (Discovery, 1981)
Jessica (Trend, 1982)
Calafia (Trend, 1985)
With Torsten de Winkel and Hellmut Hattler

Mastertouch (EMI, 1985)




In Groups:
Andreas Pettersson Quintet, Buddy Rich Big Band, Charlie Haden Quartet West, Doc Severinsen And His Big Band (The Tonight Show), Ernie Watts Quartet, Ernie Watts Quintet, Friendship (3), Gerald Wilson Orchestra of The 80's, GRP All-Star Big Band, Jasper Van't Hof's Face To Face, Karma (9), Leonard Feather All Stars, Liberation Music Orchestra, Love Unlimited Orchestra, Nat Adderley Sextet, The Bruce Eskovitz Jazz Orchestra, The Ernie Watts Encounter, The John Dentz Reunion Band, The Meeting, The Mothers, The Night Blooming Jazzmen

Buddy Rich, "Get Me to The Church" featuring Ernie Watts
VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Ernie Watts featured at 2.08

Ernie Watts VIDEOS: [www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-09 21:19 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 11, 2017 01:00



VIDEO: Going to a Go-Go featuring Ernie Watts
[www.youtube.com]



Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 11, 2017 02:08

VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]

Going to a Go-Go 1982 featuring Bobby Keys

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: shattered ()
Date: September 11, 2017 04:28

Quote
exilestones
Ernie Watts Has Had “About Three Lifetimes” in Music





"Ernie Watts is one of the greatest living tenor saxophonists, at the top of his game." - Ian Patterson

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ernie Watts is one of the most versatile and prolific saxophone players on the music scene. Ernest James "Ernie" Watts (born October 23, 1945) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. Watts is one of the most respected jazz saxophonists of his generation.

If you’ve listened to music in the past 50 years, then you’ve probably heard Ernie Watts play his saxophone many times. Being a first-call horn player on the LA studio scene from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s puts you on a lot of historic recordings, and it’s no exaggeration to say that some of Watts’s solos have become part of the fabric of western music. His credit list runs to more than 1,500 recordings, for everyone from Marvin Gaye and the Jackson Five to Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. The soaring saxophone solo that ends Christopher Cross’s 1981 mega hit Arthur’s Theme – that’s him. Then there’s Quincy Jones, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, the Four Tops and the Commodores – they’ve all picked up the phone and called Ernie Watts.

But even if he wanted to, Watts can’t escape his illustrious past – something as simple as a trip to buy groceries is haunted by ghosts.
“Yeah, we often hear tunes I’ve played on while we’re in the store,” he says, laughing.

“But it’s like another life, you know. It’s like, oh yeah, and then I’ll remember the session and I’ll remember that day and what was going on. Most of them anyway.
“Sometimes I don’t remember the record, but I still know it’s me. And I say, holy cow, that’s me playing, but I don’t remember who this is.”

Watts started playing saxophone at age 13 in Wilmington, Delaware. He went with a friend who was joining the local school music program, and found himself carrying home an instrument too. He wanted a trombone back in junior high, but thankfully his band teacher handed him a saxophone! Ernie Watts was given a bari sax for band because he was a big kid. “The band director thought I was big enough to carry the bari for marching band,” Watts says. It was only 6 months before an alto sax became available and young Watts took off, running with the sax. "I was a self-starter; no one ever had to tell me to practice," remembers Watts.

“I guess after a while, my parents realised I wasn’t going to quit, so my mother bought me a record player, and she joined the Columbia record club. The very first record she got was Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. That’s when I heard John Coltrane, and it changed my life.
“I would take my lunch money every week and I would buy a John Coltrane record. The record player had one of those stackers on it, and at night before I went to bed, I would put three or four records on the stacker, and I would turn it on very low, and listen to Coltrane while I fell asleep.”

His discipline combined with natural talent began to shape his life. He won a scholarship to the Wilmington Music School where he studied classical music and technique. Though they had no jazz program, his mother provided the spark by giving him his own record player plus a record club membership, for Christmas. That first record club promotional selection turned out to be the brand-new Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. "When I first heard John Coltrane play, it was like someone put my hand into a light socket," Watts says. He started to learn jazz by ear, often falling asleep at night listening to a stack of Coltrane records. Although he would enroll briefly at West Chester University in music education, he soon won a Downbeat Scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, renowned for jazz.

When Gene Quill quit Buddy Rich's Big Band in Boston, trombonist Phil Wilson (a professor at Berklee), was asked to recommend a student as temporary replacement. A young Ernie Watts was referred, and left Berklee for that important spot. The student stayed with Buddy Rich from 1966-1968 and toured the world, also recording two albums with the band-Big Swing Face and The New One.

During the 1970s and '80s, Watts was immersed in the busy production scene of Los Angeles. His signature sound was heard on countless TV shows and movie scores, almost all the early West Coast Motown sessions, and with pop stars such as Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan. Though the pop music genre placed narrow confines on his performance, the studio sessions allowed Watts the chance to constantly hone and refine his tone. After years in the studios, Watts' passion for acoustic jazz never left him. At the end of a long day of sessions, he could frequently be heard playing fiery jazz in late-night clubs around Los Angeles.

Much as he might want to, it’s impossible for Watts to tell his own story without dropping some of the biggest names in music history. There’s the playing with Frank Sinatra at the Sands in Las Vegas in the late 1960s. There are recording sessions with the Jacksons, “when Michael was a kid”. There are the 20 years with Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show band. There’s playing on soundtracks for films such as Grease and Fame, and all the Motown records with the Temptations, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.

In the 1970s, Watts became particularly associated with Marvin Gaye, appearing on some of the singer’s most famous recordings, including the classic "Let’s Get It On."

Marvin Gaye said, “He was a beautiful singer and a beautiful man. He knew what he wanted but he also knew how to share. He had his own studio on Sunset Boulevard, and we would go there and work on his tunes together. He had a concept, you know? He had a sound. Most great artists have a sound in their mind that they want to bring through.”



Ernie Watts added Much to the Rolling Stones Sound on their 1981 tour including their big hit single "Going to a Go-Go."

But in his own mind, Watts remained a jazz musician, always practising, always writing his own music. Then in the mid-1980s, he met bass player Charlie Haden and found himself drawn back towards a pure jazz career. A tour with Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny was the catalyst that finally made him quit the session work.

Ernie Watts remarked, “Being with people like that on a full-time basis, it creates a different kind of energy. It’s a more intense energy that goes into creating the music, and I wanted to get to that level. Life has chapters in it, and you know when you get to the end of a chapter, and you have to turn the page.
“The whole time I was doing commercial music it was interesting to me and I learnt a lot. All those artists are very sincere about their music, no matter what it is, but I got to the point where I wanted to get back to my original plan”

Watts worked in the big bands of Oliver Nelson and Gerald Wilson, recorded with Jean-Luc Ponty in 1969, and became a staff musician for NBC, performing with the Tonight Show Band on a regular basis. His own records of the 1970s and early '80s were generally pop-ish (1982's Chariots of Fire was a big seller), and Watts played frequently with Lee Ritenour and Stanley Clarke, in addition to recording with Cannonball Adderley (one of his idols) in 1972. However, Ernie Watts' work became much more interesting from a jazz standpoint starting in the mid-'80s when he joined Charlie Haden's Quartet West and started recording no-nonsense quartet dates for JVC.

In 1983, the film composer Michel Colombier wrote an orchestral piece entitled "Nightbird" for Watts. That led to Watts performing with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and to tours with Pat Metheny's Special Quartet in to the late 1980's.


Ernie Watts 1983

Watts' touring with Metheny's group in the late 1980s was a turning point for him. Watts' charter membership in Haden's critically-acclaimed Quartet West, continued for almost 30 years until Haden's death. Watts' work for the audiophile Japanese label JVC Music, and now his growing catalog of original music for Flying Dolphin continue to express his joy in the power of jazz. His four recordings for JVC Music are some of the finest of his extensive career.

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ernie Watts is one of the most versatile and prolific saxophone players in music. It has been more than fifty years since he first picked up a saxophone, and from age sixteen on he has been playing professionally, initially while still attending school. Watts has been featured on over 500 recordings by artists ranging from Cannonball Adderley to Frank Zappa, always exhibiting his unforgettable trademark sound. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo he played the "Mystery Horn", a straight-necked C melody saxophone. He played the notable saxophone riff on The One You Love by Glenn Frey. He was featured in the Windows XP edition Jazz preview. The song he was featured in was "Highway Blues".

Because he was involved in many commercial recording projects from the mid-'70s through the early '80s and on an occasional basis ever since, some observers wrote Ernie Watts off prematurely as a pop/R&B tenorman.

Watts' eclectic mix of career activities has included work with vocalist Kurt Elling in a tribute to Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, Dedicated To You which won a Grammy Award.

A typical year finds him touring Europe with his own European Quartet in spring and fall, and working as a feature artist with other artists he admires.

He gives back to the music by conducting clinics and master classes, both on the student and professional level. There is the occasional "hometown gig" with the Ernie Watts Quartet in California, where he is still based.

Summing it all up, Watts describes his ongoing journey: "I see music as the common bond having potential to bring all people together in peace and harmony. All things in the physical world have vibration; the music I choose to play is the energy vibration that touches a common bond in people. I believe that music is God singing through us, an energy to be used for good."


Ernie Watts 2016

As Watts approaches 73, the original plan is going very nicely. There have been two Grammys, critically acclaimed recordings with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, and a starring role alongside jazz vocalist Kurt Elling.

Then there is his own record label, Flying Dolphin, on which he releases his own recordings. At this stage, he reckons he has had “about three lifetimes” in music.

Ermie says, "“Do what you love,” he says decisively. “Even if you have to drive a bus to make money, take part of your day, every day, and do something that you really love. It keeps you strong. I think we all evolve that way, and as you grow and as you learn, you find out that there’s a simple core in the centre of everything, and you want to get back to that.”


credits: Ian Patterson, ErnieWatts.com, Greg Vail

Personal Management: BATES MEYER, INC.
Phone: 909-547-0504 / Fax: 909-547-0901
www.batesmeyer.com

Discography (not including guest appearences)

As leader:

Planet Love (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
The Wonder Bag (Vault, 1972)
Look in Your Heart (Elektra, 1980)
Chariots of Fire (Qwest, 1982)
Musician (Qwest, 1985)
Sanctuary (Qwest, 1986)
The Ernie Watts Quartet (JVC, 1987 [1991])
Afoxe with Gilberto Gil (CTI, 1991)
Reaching Up (JVC, 1994)
Unity (JVC, 1995)
Long Road Home (JVC, 1996)
Classic Moods (JVC, 1998)
Reflections with Ron Feuer (Flying Dolphin, 2000)
Alive (Flying Dolphin, 2004)
Spirit Song (Flying Dolphin, 2005)
Analog Man (Flying Dolphin, 2006)
To The Point (Flying Dolphin, 2007)
Four Plus Four (Flying Dolphin, 2009)
Oasis (Flying Dolphin, 2011)
Wheel of Time (Flying Dolphin, 2016)
With Karma

Celebration (Horizon/A&M, 1976)[4]
For Everybody (Horizon/A&M, 1977)[5]
As sideman[edit]
With Billy Alessi and Bobby Alessi

Words and Music (A&M, 1979)
Long Time Friends (Qwest, 1982)
With Gene Ammons

Free Again (Prestige, 1971)
With Paul Anka

Walk a Fine Line (CBS, 1983)
With Willie Bobo

Tomorrow Is Here (1977)
With Brass Fever

Time Is Running Out (Impulse!, 1976)
With Kenny Burrell

Both Feet on the Ground (Fantasy, 1973)
With Lee Ritenour

Stolen Moments (GRP, 1989)
With David Axelrod

Earth Rot (Capitol, 1970)
With Donald Byrd

Caricatures (Blue Note, 1976)
With Stanley Clarke

Time Exposure (CBS, 1984)
With Randy Crawford

Secret Combination (Warner Bros., 1981)
With Donna Summer

Donna Summer (Eponymous Quincy Jones Producer 1982)

With Kurt Elling

Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord, 2009)
With Marvin Gaye

Let's Get It On (Tamla, 1973)
I Want You (Tamla, 1976)
With Dizzy Gillespie

Free Ride (Pablo, 1977)
With Charlie Haden

Quartet West (Verve, 1986)
The Private Collection (Naim, 1987–88 [2000])
In Angel City (Verve, 1988)
The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Verve, 1989 [1999])
Haunted Heart (Verve, 1991)
Always Say Goodbye (Verve, 1993)
Now Is the Hour (Verve, 1995)
The Art of the Song (Verve, 1999)
Sophisticated Ladies (EmArcy, 2010)
With Bobby Hutcherson

Head On (Blue Note, 1971)
Linger Lane (Blue Note, 1975)
Montara (Blue Note, 1975)
With Milt Jackson

Memphis Jackson (Impulse!, 1969)
With J. J. Johnson

Concepts in Blue (Pablo Today, 1981)
With Carole King

Music (Ode, 1971)
With Charles Kynard

Charles Kynard (Mainstream, 1971)
With Eric Martin

Eric Martin (Capitol, 1985)
With John Mayall

Moving On (Polydor, 1973)
With Carmen McRae

Can't Hide Love (Blue Note, 1976)
With Blue Mitchell

Vital Blue (Mainstream, 1971)
With Helen Reddy

Reddy (Capitol, 1979)
With New Stories

Speakin' Out (1998)
With Moacir Santos

Carnival of the Spirits (Blue Note, 1975)
With Lalo Schifrin

Gypsies (Tabu, 1978)
No One Home (Tabu, 1979)
With Bud Shank

Windmills of Your Mind (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
With Gábor Szabó

Faces (Mercury, 1977)
With Gino Vannelli

Brother to Brother (A&M, 1978)
Inner Conflicts (Atlantic, 1978)
With Gerald Wilson

Eternal Equinox (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
Lomelin (Discovery, 1981)
Jessica (Trend, 1982)
Calafia (Trend, 1985)
With Torsten de Winkel and Hellmut Hattler

Mastertouch (EMI, 1985)




In Groups:
Andreas Pettersson Quintet, Buddy Rich Big Band, Charlie Haden Quartet West, Doc Severinsen And His Big Band (The Tonight Show), Ernie Watts Quartet, Ernie Watts Quintet, Friendship (3), Gerald Wilson Orchestra of The 80's, GRP All-Star Big Band, Jasper Van't Hof's Face To Face, Karma (9), Leonard Feather All Stars, Liberation Music Orchestra, Love Unlimited Orchestra, Nat Adderley Sextet, The Bruce Eskovitz Jazz Orchestra, The Ernie Watts Encounter, The John Dentz Reunion Band, The Meeting, The Mothers, The Night Blooming Jazzmen

Buddy Rich, "Get Me to The Church" featuring Ernie Watts
VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Ernie Watts featured at 2.08

Ernie Watts VIDEOS: [www.youtube.com]

Exile! He is all over. I didn't see anything mentioned that he is on "My Old School" off Steely Dan's "Countdown to Ecstasy".

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 11, 2017 05:04

Quote
shattered


Exile! He is all over. I didn't see anything mentioned that he is on "My Old School" off Steely Dan's "Countdown to Ecstasy".



Cool! Thanks for adding to the list.







The Stones didn't play "Going to a Go-Go" until half-way through the tour. I wonder if the Stones Picked "Going to a Go-Go" to play live with the idea that they'd release it with Ernie doing a solo. He did many great solos!

The Stones made great use of Sonny Rollins on Tattoo You.

I was surprised that Bobby played the "Going to a Go-Go" sax solo in '82.

These great Sax players are Jazz musician who converted over to rock including Gene Barge.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 11, 2017 16:48

Gene Barge Toured with the Stones in '82

Born James Gene Barge, 1926, Norfolk, Virginia

Saxophonist / bandleader / producer / arranger / actor / songwriter



Bobby Keys and Gene Barge share Saxophone Duties on the Rolling Stones 1982 Tour (Cologne 2nd show)



Gene Barge

In high school, Gene Barge's ambition was to become a professional football player. At Booker T. Washington High School he played clarinet in the school band.

“How I really got started in music was, I was in junior high school, and this notice was put out that they were trying to reform my high school band, which was the Booker T. Washington High School band. The junior high school was adjoined to the high school,” says Barge. “My dad had bought me a drum, a snare drum, for a Christmas present. So I decided that when I got to school, I wanted to play a clarinet. That was the only other instrument available. I wanted to blow something. So I brought my drum to school and traded it for a clarinet.”

Music wasn’t Barge’s only interest in high school. He loved playing football and dreamed of being a pilot. With World War II raging, he dropped out in his senior year and joined the Air Force.

After nearly two years in the service, Gene enrolled at West Virginia State College in Charleston.

His passion for playing music reignited, thanks in part to a rusty old horn. “My father had a saxophone that he had gotten off a Navy ship,” he says. “The ship had been torpedoed, and they sealed the ship off to keep it from sinking. And in that sealed-off section, there was this horn. So the British sailor gave it to him. And the pads had all swollen, and the horn was water-soaked and everything. So a friend of mine says, ‘Well, we’re gonna fix this up!’ So he bolted down some of the keys so they wouldn’t leak. I’m playing with a horn with three keys bolted down. We found some pads and changed the pads. And that was my horn.

“So I played this horn for a good while to study on it, trying to learn how to play it. Then I found this Navy chief who had a repair shop and he fixed it so I could at least play at the full spectrum of the horn. All the keys were eventually opened, and I could use all the keys. So then I progressed pretty fast between then and time to go to college. I went to college and joined a dance band there, and became the leading solo saxophonist. They had a 20-piece orchestra and a marching band, and I was a full-fledged music major,” he says. “I managed to finish in three years. I finished with a bachelor’s of music degree. I stayed in West Virginia a whole year messin’ around, playing in one of the clubs.

In 1950 he graduated from West Varginia State College with a B.A. degree, majoring in architecture. But he soon switched to music (first jazz, then R&cool smiley, having started to play the saxophone. Throughout the second half of the 1950s he maintained a band while holding down a teaching post at the Suffolk High School.

“In 1951, I came on home and started to see what I could do in music,” says Barge. “I started playing around with Clint Turner’s band in Virginia, which was one of the top bands in the area. By the time I got back, Clint Turner was on his way down. He had gotten old. The legendary bands that he had had in Norfolk, Virginia had had their era. Then I played with another older guy named Sam Harris.

“I formed a band and started playing at some of the clubs on the outskirts of Virginia Beach and places like that. Virginia Beach had these little liquor houses back in the woods. Then we also played out on the beach itself. The beach clubs suffered because they couldn’t sell whiskey. That made it very, very lucrative for the bootleggers, because you couldn’t sell legitimate whiskey. So the bootleggers made corn liquor and sold it in joints and after-hours clubs.” He had several main influences on sax. “Lester Young was one of ‘em, and I guess you could say Coleman Hawkins. And then later on there was Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet. I got to see all of ‘em, except I didn’t get a chance to see Coleman,” he says. “‘Prez’ was my main man.”

“I got with a disc jockey that was working at a station called WRAP in Norfolk,” says Gene. “His name was Bill Curtis. He was the emcee, and they were running spots through his station for this club called Cedarboro Country Club down in Virginia Beach, back in the woods. It was a nice club. He was saying, ‘Man, you ought to record. Maybe we can do something.’ Because he and I got to be really good friends. So he called Phil Chess and asked Phil Chess about it. Phil Chess said, ‘Hey baby, you ought to make a tape and send it to me.’

“So we went in the radio station and cut ‘Country’ and ‘Way Down Home.’ And he sent him the tape, and Phil put it out. Well, when he first heard the tape, he says, ‘What the hell is that?’ The guy said, ‘It’s a saxophone!’ He said, ‘It don’t sound like a saxophone!’ So anyway, he put it out. That was in 1955. Barge wouldn’t find his way back into a studio for a while after that.

“I’m floundering around, just playing music, mostly in Virginia Beach, and casual gigs around, playing with other bands,” Barge says. “I got Shaw Booking Agency to book me, and went out on the road.



“Eventually, I ended up in New York. While we were doing these shows, Chuck Willis took a liking to me. I was just a sideman in the band. Chuck Willis says, ‘Man, why don’t you come and ride with me? Don’t ride with the band, come and ride with me. I want to talk to you.’ So he was asking me about “C.C. Rider.” He says,’Man, I’m gonna record this song. I’m with Atlantic now, and I want to do this. Tell me what you think about it.’ I knew the song,” says Barge. “He says, ‘Yeah, Bea Booze did it, and somebody else had done it. But I’m gonna do it like this.’ So he said, ‘Okay, when we get to New York, we’re going to go and do a demo.’ So we did. We checked into the Theresa and went downtown to 1750, somewhere in that area, Broadway. There was a demo studio in the basement. Went down, and the bass player went, and somebody was there patting on a barstool. We didn’t have a drum.

“He turned it into Atlantic Records. In the meantime, we finished the gig and we all left. Apparently, Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun got real excited about Chuck doing this song, “C.C. Rider.” So Chuck said, ‘If I do the session, I want you to come back and do the session.’ So I went home to Virginia. Some kind of way they decided to do it, and Chuck wanted me to come and do it, come to New York. So we got Atlantic Records to give me a plane ticket and put me in a hotel. When I got to the penthouse where they were doing the session, they didn’t want me to play at all. They wanted to use their own fellows. They had Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor on saxophone, and had given the demo to Jesse Stone, and he had wrote a whole new arrangement.

“They did about 22 takes of ‘C.C. Rider.’ In the meantime, I went downstairs and bought me a pint of liquor and come back upstairs, sittin’ around sneaking a hit on my pint. So by the time I got up, it was about the 22nd take. Jerry and Ahmet were saying, ‘Well, we still ain’t got the groove. We don’t have the groove.’ Chuck says, ‘Well, why don’t you let Gene try it?’ He says, ‘Where’s your horn?’ So I go get my horn out. So I start playing it, and they say,’That’s it! That’s it! Let’s cut one just like that!’ Two takes later, they accepted the cut. “That’s it, that’s a cut! That’s a wrap.’”

Its easy tempo tailor-made for dancing the Stroll, Willis’ irresistible revival of “C.C. Rider” paced the R&B charts in 1957 and was a huge pop hit. Barge’s expressive sax solo was one of its shining moments. Barge achieved some notoriety by blowing a haunting, distinctive solo on Chuck Willis's "C.C. Rider", a # 1 R&B hit.

By 1960, Gene was working for the Legrand label in Norfolk. Barge and Nabs Shields, trombonist Leonard Barks, bass player Ron "Junior" Fairley, guitarist Wayne Beckner and recorded the instrumental. “I came up with the song,” says Gene. Barge’s two-part instrumental was named “A Night With Daddy ‘G’,” the single was credited to the Church Street Five in 1960. The record bubbled under the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1961 and was credited to The Church Street Five. "Daddy G" became Barge's nickname.

“Hy Lit in Philadelphia, one of the biggest disc jockeys in the United States at that time, started using ‘A Night With Daddy “G”’ for a theme song,” says Gene. “Harvey Miller used to play it too. Both of those guys were bigger than Dick Clark in Philadelphia.”

Gary U.S. Bonds was a top artist on the strength of his pounding 1960 rocker “New Orleans.” Gene had known Bonds since he was a wee lad named Gary Anderson. “Gary lived about five blocks from me,” says Gene. “He grew up in my neighborhood, and I used to see him all the time. They used to hang out on the street corner singing and stuff, in groups.” Gary’s followup “Quarter To Three” would key in on the same chord changes, melody, and raucous excitement powering “A Night With Daddy ‘G.’”




When (Gary) U.S. Bonds and Barge had a drink (or probably more than one) together in the Legrand studio, Daddy G asked Bonds to write lyrics for "A Night With Daddy G". Ten minutes later, Bonds had come up with some words and the band started jamming on the arrangement. This developed into "Quarter To Three", a # 1 hit for Gary U.S. Bonds in mid-1961. From that point on, Barge played a prominent role on all of Bonds's recordings including the number one pop hit, “Quarter to Three.”



We went in and recorded ‘Quarter To Three,’” says Barge. “We cut it, and it became a hit. It was quite an ordeal getting that thing promoted. Nobody wanted to play it, because they said it sounded like it was cut in a toilet. Actually, Gary was in the bathroom for an overdub booth!” With its booming, echo-laden sound quality, Daddy G’s blistering sax solos, and Bonds’ electrifying vocal, “Quarter To Three” was a pop chart-topping monster in the summer of ‘61.

Later that year, Bonds’ hit streak continued with “School Is Out” and its logical sequel “School Is In,” Daddy G blowing hard. “That was my influence, me being a schoolteacher." “I wrote most of the words to ‘School Is Out.’ Because Gary just added a few things,” says Barge.

When he wasn’t collaborating with Bonds, Gene blasted out instrumentals for Legrand under the Daddy “G” & the Church Street Five handle: “Fallen Arches,” “Hey Now,” “Look Alive” (Barge’s studio pet phrase), “Daddy ‘G’ Rides Again.”

In 1961, the Dovells reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a song called "The Bristol Stomp", which refers to Bristol, Philadelphia, and includes the line, "We ponied and twisted and we rocked with Daddy G".

Bonds wasn’t the only Norfolk hitmaker Barge was involved with. He discovered Jimmy Soul, whose calypso-rooted “If You Wanna Be Happy” topped the pop hit parade in 1963.

Despite all of his hometown success, Barge moved from Virginia to Chicago in 1964 to widen his music and acting careers. He worked with Chess Records during the 1960s, playing on recording sessions and providing arrangements along with some production work. After seven years of teaching, Gene Barge was hired as a producer, arranger, sax player and musical contractor for Chess Records. “My job was an A&R man,” he says. “I was put in charge of the rhythm section, to rehearse the songs that we were going to record. Some of the artists with whom he was involved were Little Milton, Fontella Bass, Muddy Waters, Billy Stewart, Koko Taylor, the Dells and the Soul Stirrers.

“My first assignment was with Oliver Sain, Fontella Bass and Bobby McClure as singers in his band. He came in to record, and everybody got so excited about Fontella’s singing, ‘cause she was doing a song called ‘Soul Of A Man,’ and I played on that. First thing I played on for Chess,” says Barge. “I didn’t do a solo, I just played background horn riffs on that ‘Soul Of A Man.’ Then at a later session, Gene was in the horn section for Fontella’s ‘65 R&B chart-topper “Rescue Me.”

Gene switched over to alto sax for his high-flying solo on Little Milton’s 1965 #1 R&B smash “We’re Gonna Make It,” co-penned by Barge, Miner, Davis, and Carl Smith.

The saxman produced the impeccable 1966 Chess LP "Little Milton Sings Big Blues."

On the blues side at Chess, Barge’s gritty tenor was spotlighted on Willie Dixon’s “Wang Dang Doodle,” the last Chicago blues platter to achieve major R&B hit status in 1966. “Willie Dixon and I became friends,” says Gene. “He liked me a lot. And he asked me to be on that session.

At A&R man Ralph Bass’ behest, Gene added horns to Muddy Waters’ ‘66 album Brass and the Blues. “I had just gotten my first arrangement assignments, me and Charles Stepney,” he recalls. “They had cut the tracks, so we went in and got the tracks and wrote these horn parts for the tracks.” Barge was heavily involved in Waters’ controversial 1968 album Electric Mud. “That was a collaboration where Marshall Chess had gotten this idea. He called Charles Stepney and I in to sit down,” says Gene. “He said, ‘The rock guys are making all the money, based on the blues and the British sound. The British Invasion has taken over. Muddy and them are not making the kind of money they ought to be making, and we aren’t selling the kind of records we ought to sell now. So with the hard rock emerging–Vanilla Fudge and all these guys–what we want to do is take these tunes...’

“So Charles and I said, ‘Yeah! Let’s go with it. We’ve got some ideas.’ We started practicing these ideas, and had guys like (guitarists) Pete Cosey and Cash McCall and Phil Upchurch. So what we did was just took these same songs and rearranged them like hard rock stuff. I even had a wah-wah saxophone on one of ‘em–a saxophone connected to an electric device with a wah-wah pedal.” The results horrified blues purists, but revisionist history now claims the set was visionary. Muddy himself wasn’t pleased, and Howlin’ Wolf was even less enthusiastic when submerged in the psychedelic murk. “Wolf came to it fighting and screaming all the way,” says Gene. “He didn’t want to do it at all. Not at all. In fact, they put that on the album (cover). That was no stage joke. He really didn’t want to do it. Cantankerous as ever.”

It wasn’t all behind the scenes for Gene at Chess. His 1965 Checker album Dance with Daddy “G” largely consisted of instrumental renditions of current soul hits: Sam Cooke’s “Shake,” Major Lance’s “The Monkey Time,” Alvin Cash’s “Twine Time,” a fine arrangement of the Valentinos’ “It’s All Over Now,” with a Beatles cover (“I Feel Fine”) and Gene’s own “Fine Twine” sprinkled in (Checker issued the last title as a single with Barge’s version of Dobie Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd” on the flip). “At that time, song after song coming out was a dance song,” he says. “The idea was to do kind of a party album with dance songs.”

But Gene’s good times at Chess hit a sour note in mid-October of 1969. An aborted Little Milton session with ex-Vee Jay A&R man Calvin Carter preceded devastating news.

“Chess had moved from 2120 (South Michigan) to (320) East 21st Street. They bought the building. This is going to be Little Milton’s first session over there. The night that we did this session–well, I had done the Grits Ain’t Groceries album. But we were getting ready to do this other album, the second album. Calvin Carter kept interrupting the song. I hadn’t even gotten out of the introduction, he’d run out of the studio. He’d gotten high. So next thing I know, we got into this, almost like a fight. Guys separated us, threw music all over the studio.

“We got in a fight and the session cleared out and everybody ran out of the studio and we didn’t cut nothing ‘cause Calvin Carter and I were gonna fight,” says Gene. “Little Milton, he was pissed ‘cause the session went down, and he felt like, ‘I gotta pay these musicians,’ and he didn’t get no music done. And they were gonna charge it to his account.

Gene said, “So I get a call from Leonard Chess about seven o’clock in the morning, saying, ‘Get the hell over to the studio!’ I get over to the studio, there’s Little Milton sitting there swollen up and pouting, man. So he says, ‘Leonard, I’m not gonna pay for this thing because that wasn’t my fault.’ He really wanted to come down on me, because he felt like I did it. It was on me. He really wanted Leonard to fire me. So Leonard says, ‘We’re gonna call some of these guys back, and we’re gonna cut this session today. Now get on it. We’ll deal with you later.’ So anyway, I go out there and get on the phone. Couldn’t get all the same musicians back. They had commitments. Half of the group was different. We got ‘em all in the studio, and we were gonna cut eight songs that day, and eventually we did. But halfway through, we got the word that Leonard Chess had been rushed to the hospital. We found out later he died."

“On the day of the funeral I had planned to go to Los Angeles to record Etta James. After the cemetery thing I flew out to Los Angeles and did Etta James.” Barge wrote “I Think It’s You” for Etta’s 1970 Cadet LP Losers Weepers.

With Leonard gone, Gene left the label. “The whole company just about had disintegrated,” he says. “They sold the company, and then we were working for GRT.” Barge scored a 1970 hit as writer and producer of Jesse Anderson’s wry “I Got A Problem.” Chess Records closed in 1971.

In 1973, Barge hooked on with Stax Records. “(Rev.) Jesse Jackson helped me get that job, because he and Al Bell were really close friends at the time. He recommended me for it to Al. He had a label called Gospel Truth, and he needed some help with that. So I went in as like one of the execs, along with David Clark, who was an old-time promotion man who used to be with Don Robey,” he says. “He and I were running Gospel Truth. I didn’t even last a good two years, because Al Bell started having serious problems with the label. They let me go.”

Barge was instrumental in launching the career of Natalie Cole (daughter of Nat King Cole). Barge won a Grammy for co-producing Cole's "Sophisticated Lady" (1976). Barge appeared in eight movies including "The Guardian" (2006), starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Chuck Norris, Harrison Ford and Steven Seagal. He played cameo roles in the TV series "The Blues" and "Godfathers and Sons" (both in 2003).

During much of the 1960s and 1970s, Barge was active in the civil rights movement. In 1971.

Barge has toured and played with such notables as Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Big Joe Turner, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Chuck Willis and the Rolling Stones.

Gene “Daddy G” Barge’s tenor saxophone is as every bit as distinctive as that of King Curtis, Boots Randolph, or Maceo Parker. Like those sax heroes, he’s played on a ton of hits. He’s written, arranged, and produced plenty more, even had one of his own. And Daddy G still regularly rocks the house with the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings as their star vocalist, sharing sax duties in the band with Terry Ogolini.

Following a high-profile 1982 European tour as guest soloist with the Rolling Stones, Barge began working with Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows, one of Chicago’s most popular R&B bar bands. He co-produced two of their albums for Alligator before Larry “Big Twist” Nolan died in 1990. The Mellow Fellows soldiered on, and when they cut their Street Party CD for Alligator that year, Gene split vocals with Martin Allbritton. Guitarist Pete Special left and took the Mellow Fellows name with him in ‘93, the band renaming itself the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings with saxist Terry Ogolini and trumpeter Don Tenuto the co-leaders. Several vocalists came and went before Barge stepped up as their primary lead singer, as well as blowing his sax alongside Ogolini and Tenuto.

“I don’t mind being a front man,” says the genial Daddy G, whose vocal emergence came surprisingly late in his career. “The thing of it is, I hadn’t sung. And it’s very difficult for me to remember lyrics. I can’t remember three songs!” Nonetheless, Gene exercised his burnished pipes on the R&B Kings’ eponymous 1999 CD for Blind Pig. More recently, the band played the main stage of the 2009 Chicago Blues Festival with Texas chanteuse Trudy Lynn, and his featured vocal numbers climax the band’s sets on their many club dates.

In the spotlight where he’s always belonged, Gene Barge’s golden horn is as singular and uplifting as ever.


Acknowledgements:
- All Music Guide (Gene Barge biography by Ed Hogan).
- Liner notes (by Brian Walsh) for the CD "Frank Guida Presents the Norfolk, VA Rock 'n' Roll Sound" (Ace 541).
- Liner notes (also by Brian Walsh) for the CD "Frank Guida Presents the Church Street Five" (Ace 742). Most of the Legrand singles and some LP tracks.
- Bill Dahl

Other CD´s:
- Gene Barge, Dance With Daddy G Plus (See For Miles SEECD 442), 1996. Chess and Checker recordings from the 1960s.
- U.S. Bonds Meets Daddy G & the Church Street Five (Finbarr FICD 2), 1993.
- The Church Street Five, Daddy G Rides Again (Swift Record Distribution).

(With thanks to Tony Wilkinson.)




Portrait of Johnny Winter & Band
Studio portrait of American Blues musician Johnny Winter (1944 - 2014)
(shirtless and in cowboy hat) and his band, Chicago, Illinois, February 27, 1984.
From left, Casey Jones, Ken Saydak, Winter, Gene Barge, Johnny B Gayden, and
Billy Branch. The photo was taken for Winter's album 'Guitar Slinger.'

photo by Paul Natkin



VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Movie Clip: The Stony Island Band is rehearsing when Percy (Gene Barge) is struck by a heart attack.
Jerry Domino (Dennis Franz), the owner of the rehearsal space, finds Percy and tells the band members.



++++++++


VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
A Night With Daddy G (Part 1 & 2)-Church Street Five-1961


VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
Quarter To Three - Gary "U.S." Bonds 1961


++++++++


VIDEO: [www.youtube.com]
"Let's Spend the Night Together" · Muddy Waters · Gene Barge · Phil Upchurch · Roland Faulkner · Pete Cosey · Charles Stepney · Louis Satterfield · Morris Jennings


++++++++



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-11 18:48 by exilestones.

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: shattered ()
Date: September 11, 2017 20:20

Thanks exile, this is really good.smiling smiley

Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 13, 2017 16:44





Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 15, 2017 04:22


Re: Stones 1981-1982 Wardrobes
Posted by: exilestones ()
Date: September 18, 2017 03:44



            
            Candlestick Park



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-18 03:47 by exilestones.

Goto Page: PreviousFirst...4041424344454647484950...LastNext
Current Page: 45 of 91


Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Online Users

Guests: 2047
Record Number of Users: 206 on June 1, 2022 23:50
Record Number of Guests: 9627 on January 2, 2024 23:10

Previous page Next page First page IORR home