Latest christian music: Though their golden anniversary is fast approaching, Little Anthony and the Imperials are having a banner year in 2009 - getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, celebrating a new album, "You'll Never Know," and declaring their independence from the "doo-wop reunions" tours.
Little Anthony himself, Anthony Gourdine, says the group's recent honors, including being part of Paul Simon's Brooklyn Academy of Music run last year, make him feel like it's the days of "Tears on My Pillow" and "Hurts So Bad" all over again.
Have you come down from the Rock Hall induction yet?
My wife and I were just talking about that and she said, "I realize it's over and I don't want it to be over. . . . The induction really validates our career. It's us being judged on our body of work, not by some catchphrase. We haven't been a doo-wop group since we were 16 or 17 years old.
Source
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Christian music news: Little Anthony and the Imperials
Latest christian music: Anthony Gourdine (vocals; born January 8, 1940), Clarence Collins (vocals; born March 17, 1941), Tracy Lord (vocals; born tk), Glouster “Nat” Rogers (vocals; born tk), Sammy Strain (vocals; born December 9, 1941), Ernest Wright, Jr. (vocals; born August 24, 1941)
Little Anthony and the Imperials were one of the finest vocal groups to emerge from the talent-rich New York scene. Moreover, they enjoyed unusual longevity for an act of that type, having hits in both the doo-wop Fifties and the soul-music Sixties. They outlasted their peers by virtue of “Little Anthony” Gourdine’s powerful, beseeching vocals and the consummate professionalism of the Imperials, who mastered a broad range of material and knew how to work a stage.
It all started in Brooklyn, where Gourdine and friends grew up in the throes of the vocal-group craze. His first groups were called the Duponts (after the chemical company) and the Chesters. The latter group got signed to music-biz impresario George Gouldner’s End Records. Wanting a name more regal than the Chesters, the label rechristened them the Imperials. It was Alan Freed, then an influential New York disc jockey and concert promoter, who christened Gourdine “Little Anthony,” for the youthful quality in his voice. Both Freed and fellow deejay/promoter Murray Kaufman (a.k.a. “Murray the K”) liked Little Anthony and the Imperials and helped launch their career with airplay and concert bookings.
“Tears on My Pillow,” their first single as the Imperials, was released on End Records. This classic vocal-group ballad was one of the biggest hits of 1958, reaching #2 on the R&B chart and #4 on the pop chart. Little Anthony and the Imperials were suddenly stars. The story might have ended there, with “Tears On My Pillow” fondly recalled as a vocal-group classic from one of the many one-hit wonders from that era. In fact, some of their followup singles did flop, strong as they were. But the group rebounded with an uptempo number, “Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko Bop,” that capitalized on a dance craze.
Little Anthony and the Imperials enjoyed even greater success in the Sixties with a string of chart singles on the DCP label. Their renaissance followed a two-year hiatus during which Little Anthony pursued acting while the Imperials worked the “borsht belt” circuit of resorts in the Catskills. The time off served to season both parties, and they reunited stronger than ever. Against fierce competition from the British Invasion and Motown, Little Anthony and the Imperials had back-to-back Top Ten hits with “Goin’ Out of My Head” (#6) and “Hurt So Bad” (#10). Both were dramatic pop-soul epics about romantic loss that were keyed by Little Anthony’s fevered, confessional delivery and a strong vocal arrangement. Each song has been heavily covered by other artists, as well. The Letterman returned “Goin’ Out of My Head” to the Top Ten in 1968 and Linda Ronstadt did the same with her revival of “Hurt So Bad” in 1980.
The story didn’t end there. Little Anthony and the Imperials became the first group from the contemporary realm to play New York’s prestigious Copacabana nightclub, predating the Temptations and Supremes into this more “adult” room. The group also continued their hitmaking ways, charting ten more singles between the mid-Sixties and mid-Seventies, including “Take Me Back” and “I Miss You So.” In 1974, they reached #25 on the R&B chart with “I’m Falling in Love With You.” It was their final hit of any consequence. All totaled, Little Anthony and the Imperials placed 21 singles on the pop or R&B charts in three different decades – a formidable record of achievement for this durable vocal group.
In 1969, Ernest Wright left the Imperials and was replaced by Bobby Wade. In the early Seventies, Sammy Strain left to join the O’Jays and was replaced by Harold “Hal” Jenkins, who served both as vocalist and musical director. Little Anthony himself exited in 1975 for a solo career. The remaining trio of Collins, Wade and Jenkins kept the Imperials going through 1979, getting steady work in the Las Vegas lounges and on cruise ships.
Little Anthony and the Imperials reunited in 1992 to make a well-received appearance on an oldies bill at Madison Square Garden. Shortly thereafter, they performed on the 40th anniversary special for American Bandstand. Deciding to make the reunion permanent, Little Anthony and the Imperials have remained active on the touring circuit. The current lineup includes Gourdine, Collins, Wright and Harold Jenkins.
They received the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and have been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In 2008, Little Anthony and the Imperials released You’ll Never Know, an album of new songs and rerecorded oldies to celebrate their 50th anniversary as a group.
Source
Little Anthony and the Imperials were one of the finest vocal groups to emerge from the talent-rich New York scene. Moreover, they enjoyed unusual longevity for an act of that type, having hits in both the doo-wop Fifties and the soul-music Sixties. They outlasted their peers by virtue of “Little Anthony” Gourdine’s powerful, beseeching vocals and the consummate professionalism of the Imperials, who mastered a broad range of material and knew how to work a stage.
It all started in Brooklyn, where Gourdine and friends grew up in the throes of the vocal-group craze. His first groups were called the Duponts (after the chemical company) and the Chesters. The latter group got signed to music-biz impresario George Gouldner’s End Records. Wanting a name more regal than the Chesters, the label rechristened them the Imperials. It was Alan Freed, then an influential New York disc jockey and concert promoter, who christened Gourdine “Little Anthony,” for the youthful quality in his voice. Both Freed and fellow deejay/promoter Murray Kaufman (a.k.a. “Murray the K”) liked Little Anthony and the Imperials and helped launch their career with airplay and concert bookings.
“Tears on My Pillow,” their first single as the Imperials, was released on End Records. This classic vocal-group ballad was one of the biggest hits of 1958, reaching #2 on the R&B chart and #4 on the pop chart. Little Anthony and the Imperials were suddenly stars. The story might have ended there, with “Tears On My Pillow” fondly recalled as a vocal-group classic from one of the many one-hit wonders from that era. In fact, some of their followup singles did flop, strong as they were. But the group rebounded with an uptempo number, “Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko Bop,” that capitalized on a dance craze.
Little Anthony and the Imperials enjoyed even greater success in the Sixties with a string of chart singles on the DCP label. Their renaissance followed a two-year hiatus during which Little Anthony pursued acting while the Imperials worked the “borsht belt” circuit of resorts in the Catskills. The time off served to season both parties, and they reunited stronger than ever. Against fierce competition from the British Invasion and Motown, Little Anthony and the Imperials had back-to-back Top Ten hits with “Goin’ Out of My Head” (#6) and “Hurt So Bad” (#10). Both were dramatic pop-soul epics about romantic loss that were keyed by Little Anthony’s fevered, confessional delivery and a strong vocal arrangement. Each song has been heavily covered by other artists, as well. The Letterman returned “Goin’ Out of My Head” to the Top Ten in 1968 and Linda Ronstadt did the same with her revival of “Hurt So Bad” in 1980.
The story didn’t end there. Little Anthony and the Imperials became the first group from the contemporary realm to play New York’s prestigious Copacabana nightclub, predating the Temptations and Supremes into this more “adult” room. The group also continued their hitmaking ways, charting ten more singles between the mid-Sixties and mid-Seventies, including “Take Me Back” and “I Miss You So.” In 1974, they reached #25 on the R&B chart with “I’m Falling in Love With You.” It was their final hit of any consequence. All totaled, Little Anthony and the Imperials placed 21 singles on the pop or R&B charts in three different decades – a formidable record of achievement for this durable vocal group.
In 1969, Ernest Wright left the Imperials and was replaced by Bobby Wade. In the early Seventies, Sammy Strain left to join the O’Jays and was replaced by Harold “Hal” Jenkins, who served both as vocalist and musical director. Little Anthony himself exited in 1975 for a solo career. The remaining trio of Collins, Wade and Jenkins kept the Imperials going through 1979, getting steady work in the Las Vegas lounges and on cruise ships.
Little Anthony and the Imperials reunited in 1992 to make a well-received appearance on an oldies bill at Madison Square Garden. Shortly thereafter, they performed on the 40th anniversary special for American Bandstand. Deciding to make the reunion permanent, Little Anthony and the Imperials have remained active on the touring circuit. The current lineup includes Gourdine, Collins, Wright and Harold Jenkins.
They received the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and have been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In 2008, Little Anthony and the Imperials released You’ll Never Know, an album of new songs and rerecorded oldies to celebrate their 50th anniversary as a group.
Source
Monday, August 10, 2009
Christian music news: Feelin' the blues
Latest christian music: Roomful of Blues is noncommittal when it comes to touting a particular style of blues, said its band leader Chris Vachon.
Having a meaty horn section gives the New England blues band a swing sound, but lately, the guys have moved closer toward New Orleans style blues.
But, Vachon said, really, the sound the band aims for is “authentic.”
“The way you’re supposed to do it,” Vachon said, in a recent phone interview with The Herald-Mail. “There are a lot of people who sort of try to play that stuff but don’t get all the nuances of it.”
It’s sort of like learning a language but speaking it in the wrong accent, he explained.
“You have to spend a lot of time listening to what’s on those records to get the real approach to those styles,” Vachon said.
Roomful is in Saturday’s band roster at the Western Maryland Blues Fest, a four-day string of concerts set in and around downtown Hagerstown.
Blues Fest starts tonight with a free show at University Plaza Park and runs through Sunday with another free concert at City Park. The focal points of the event are the concerts Friday and Saturday in Hagerstown’s Central Lot downtown. Roomful of Blues’ show comes ahead of Saturday’s headliners The Derek Trucks Band.
For Vachon, performing blues is a pleasure.
“I think the fact that it’s an open-ended, improvisation type of thing, where you don’t have to play the same thing every night in the same song,” Vachon said. “It’s not like copying verbatim because people want to hear it exactly that way because they heard it on a record. So if you get into a different mood and you’re doing a solo, then you’ve got to do something different. The freedom of that is something we all like.”
They bring that live aspect into the recording studio — they don’t do overdubs.
“I think we’d probably freak out if we had to do a bunch of overdubs,” Vachon said. “Sometimes the little mistakes you make on a record, you end up keeping as something you probably couldn’t come up with if you’re sitting around trying to overdub. It’s kind of fun that way.”
The band’s latest album, “Raisin’ a Ruckus” was released in early 2008 by Alligator Records, the home to Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor.
This year, Roomful’s label mates Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials will also be performing at Blues Fest. Alligator was the source of several past Blues Fest performers, including Nappy Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco and Guitar Shorty.
Roomful of Blues was founded in the late 1960s. Vachon said that 55 musicians have since come and gone. Sax player Rich Lataille joined the band in 1970, when the band added a horn section, making him the longest-tenured member in the eight-man blues band.
“We’ve had very few people that we were happy to see go,” Vachon said.
In fact, the band has only recently replaced one of its members, veteran trumpet player Bob Enos, who died at the age of 60 in 2008. He had been with the band for more than two decades.
“We were on tour over in Georgia,” Vachon said. “We were waiting for him in the morning to get on the bus and he didn’t show up so a couple of us went up there and had the hotel let us in the room and he had passed away.
“It knocked the wind right out of us for a while.”
Six months ago, the band brought in a new trumpet player, Doug Woolverton, who has performed with The Temptations.
“He’s a younger guy, very good. Very good attitude, very positive fellow,” Vachon said.
As for what’s next, Vachon said the band plans to record a new record this fall.
Source
Having a meaty horn section gives the New England blues band a swing sound, but lately, the guys have moved closer toward New Orleans style blues.
But, Vachon said, really, the sound the band aims for is “authentic.”
“The way you’re supposed to do it,” Vachon said, in a recent phone interview with The Herald-Mail. “There are a lot of people who sort of try to play that stuff but don’t get all the nuances of it.”
It’s sort of like learning a language but speaking it in the wrong accent, he explained.
“You have to spend a lot of time listening to what’s on those records to get the real approach to those styles,” Vachon said.
Roomful is in Saturday’s band roster at the Western Maryland Blues Fest, a four-day string of concerts set in and around downtown Hagerstown.
Blues Fest starts tonight with a free show at University Plaza Park and runs through Sunday with another free concert at City Park. The focal points of the event are the concerts Friday and Saturday in Hagerstown’s Central Lot downtown. Roomful of Blues’ show comes ahead of Saturday’s headliners The Derek Trucks Band.
For Vachon, performing blues is a pleasure.
“I think the fact that it’s an open-ended, improvisation type of thing, where you don’t have to play the same thing every night in the same song,” Vachon said. “It’s not like copying verbatim because people want to hear it exactly that way because they heard it on a record. So if you get into a different mood and you’re doing a solo, then you’ve got to do something different. The freedom of that is something we all like.”
They bring that live aspect into the recording studio — they don’t do overdubs.
“I think we’d probably freak out if we had to do a bunch of overdubs,” Vachon said. “Sometimes the little mistakes you make on a record, you end up keeping as something you probably couldn’t come up with if you’re sitting around trying to overdub. It’s kind of fun that way.”
The band’s latest album, “Raisin’ a Ruckus” was released in early 2008 by Alligator Records, the home to Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor.
This year, Roomful’s label mates Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials will also be performing at Blues Fest. Alligator was the source of several past Blues Fest performers, including Nappy Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco and Guitar Shorty.
Roomful of Blues was founded in the late 1960s. Vachon said that 55 musicians have since come and gone. Sax player Rich Lataille joined the band in 1970, when the band added a horn section, making him the longest-tenured member in the eight-man blues band.
“We’ve had very few people that we were happy to see go,” Vachon said.
In fact, the band has only recently replaced one of its members, veteran trumpet player Bob Enos, who died at the age of 60 in 2008. He had been with the band for more than two decades.
“We were on tour over in Georgia,” Vachon said. “We were waiting for him in the morning to get on the bus and he didn’t show up so a couple of us went up there and had the hotel let us in the room and he had passed away.
“It knocked the wind right out of us for a while.”
Six months ago, the band brought in a new trumpet player, Doug Woolverton, who has performed with The Temptations.
“He’s a younger guy, very good. Very good attitude, very positive fellow,” Vachon said.
As for what’s next, Vachon said the band plans to record a new record this fall.
Source
Monday, August 3, 2009
Christian music news: For the love of the blues
Latest christian music: Recently I have found myself feeling a little homesick for the blues, and, let’s be honest, while Enid has a lot to offer, blues is not among those offerings. Live music in Enid is somewhat akin to the punch line in the “Blues Brothers” movie when Jake and Elwood stroll into Bob’s Country Bunker Saloon and the bartender tells the boys not to worry because the bar has “both” kinds of music: “Country AND Western.”
So, off I went in search of some genuine live blues in Oklahoma and let me tell you, the pickings were rather scarce. So imagine my relief when I found a juke joint in a little town called Rentiesville. Better yet, the club was bringing in Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, one of the top blues acts out of Chicago. But a pretty cool thing happened along the blues highway; I not only found some great blues but also found a genuine love story.
Rentiesville is a small community about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa. It’s so small it does not even have its own post office, but it is the epicenter of Oklahoma blues. It’s also one of only 13 towns remaining out of an original 40-50 communities that were founded in eastern Oklahoma by freed black slaves following the civil war with an eye toward making the area the nation’s first all-black state. Obviously that never materialized.
Rentiesville also is the home to D.C. Minner’s Down Home Blues Club which is run by Selby Minner, the charming, engaging and talented widow of the late D.C. Minner, a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame who, aside from being an established blues star in his own right, played alongside musical greats like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Freddie King. And for Rhode Island native Selby Minner, who has called Rentiesville home since 1988 when she and D.C. moved here after spending several years touring the nation, with a heavy emphasis on the West Coast, this has become a true labor of love in every sense of the word.
Together, D.C. and Selby (they married in 1979 after meeting in California) became the first couple of Oklahoma blues when they made the decision to renovate the property where D.C.’s grandmother operated a “corn whiskey house” several decades earlier. “It was a place with a jukebox and where people came for entertainment and bootleg whiskey,” Selby told me while taking me through a tour of the blues club. “They also made and sold choc beer,” which I learned was good old-fashioned home-brew.
The blues-loving couple completed renovating the house a few years after moving back home. “D.C. did all the work by hand,” Selby explained. But it didn’t end there.
Together, the Minners established the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2004. “That’s what D.C. wanted — he understood he wasn’t going to get wealthy playing blues, but at the end of the day what made it worthwhile was the recognition by his peers. We wanted to share that.”
The couple went on to organize the three-day outdoor “Dusk Til Dawn” blues festival which takes place every Labor Day weekend on the grounds of the blues club and, in 1999, also were recipients of the prestigious “Keeping the Blues Alive” award.
Selby continues to do more than her part in “keeping the blues alive” through the “Blues in the Schools” program as well as offering young people a place to perform on the first Friday of each month (the club is only open the first weekend of each month), with a coffeehouse atmosphere where the bar is closed off and young people are invited to perform during their “Java Jam.”
On this night, Selby’s band, “Blues On The Move” opened up for Lil Ed and Selby’s engaging stage presence, on guitar and vocals, demonstrated how her love of the blues, and for D.C., (who passed away last year at the age of 73) clearly keeps her going. She sang some of D.C.’s original material — apparently there is a veritable treasure trove of unpublished D.C. Minner-penned tunes — and then later jammed onstage with the headliner.
This funky little juke joint seemingly in the middle of nowhere is not, however, just about the blues. It stands as a living, thriving testament to the enduring bond between Selby and D.C. that remains today. You can see it in her eyes and feel it in her words when she speaks about D.C. and, most of all, you feel it in her music.
Source
So, off I went in search of some genuine live blues in Oklahoma and let me tell you, the pickings were rather scarce. So imagine my relief when I found a juke joint in a little town called Rentiesville. Better yet, the club was bringing in Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, one of the top blues acts out of Chicago. But a pretty cool thing happened along the blues highway; I not only found some great blues but also found a genuine love story.
Rentiesville is a small community about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa. It’s so small it does not even have its own post office, but it is the epicenter of Oklahoma blues. It’s also one of only 13 towns remaining out of an original 40-50 communities that were founded in eastern Oklahoma by freed black slaves following the civil war with an eye toward making the area the nation’s first all-black state. Obviously that never materialized.
Rentiesville also is the home to D.C. Minner’s Down Home Blues Club which is run by Selby Minner, the charming, engaging and talented widow of the late D.C. Minner, a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame who, aside from being an established blues star in his own right, played alongside musical greats like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Freddie King. And for Rhode Island native Selby Minner, who has called Rentiesville home since 1988 when she and D.C. moved here after spending several years touring the nation, with a heavy emphasis on the West Coast, this has become a true labor of love in every sense of the word.
Together, D.C. and Selby (they married in 1979 after meeting in California) became the first couple of Oklahoma blues when they made the decision to renovate the property where D.C.’s grandmother operated a “corn whiskey house” several decades earlier. “It was a place with a jukebox and where people came for entertainment and bootleg whiskey,” Selby told me while taking me through a tour of the blues club. “They also made and sold choc beer,” which I learned was good old-fashioned home-brew.
The blues-loving couple completed renovating the house a few years after moving back home. “D.C. did all the work by hand,” Selby explained. But it didn’t end there.
Together, the Minners established the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2004. “That’s what D.C. wanted — he understood he wasn’t going to get wealthy playing blues, but at the end of the day what made it worthwhile was the recognition by his peers. We wanted to share that.”
The couple went on to organize the three-day outdoor “Dusk Til Dawn” blues festival which takes place every Labor Day weekend on the grounds of the blues club and, in 1999, also were recipients of the prestigious “Keeping the Blues Alive” award.
Selby continues to do more than her part in “keeping the blues alive” through the “Blues in the Schools” program as well as offering young people a place to perform on the first Friday of each month (the club is only open the first weekend of each month), with a coffeehouse atmosphere where the bar is closed off and young people are invited to perform during their “Java Jam.”
On this night, Selby’s band, “Blues On The Move” opened up for Lil Ed and Selby’s engaging stage presence, on guitar and vocals, demonstrated how her love of the blues, and for D.C., (who passed away last year at the age of 73) clearly keeps her going. She sang some of D.C.’s original material — apparently there is a veritable treasure trove of unpublished D.C. Minner-penned tunes — and then later jammed onstage with the headliner.
This funky little juke joint seemingly in the middle of nowhere is not, however, just about the blues. It stands as a living, thriving testament to the enduring bond between Selby and D.C. that remains today. You can see it in her eyes and feel it in her words when she speaks about D.C. and, most of all, you feel it in her music.
Source
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
