Those Studio Musicians Were Moving Like Chess Mirrored the Changing Times Chess Sessions from 1955 to 1960
NON P E I F 0 R E N S Ralph B ass
BY HARRY W E I N G E R
/ALPH BASS WAS A CO-CREATOR of some of the indisputable landmarks of rock & roll: producer of and/or witness to “Call It Stormy Monday” (T-Bone Walker), “Sixty-Minute Man” (the Dominoes), “Sleep” (Earl Bostic), “Work With Me, Annie” (Hank Ballard & the Midnighters), “Please Please Please” (James Brown), and so many more. His life spans five decades of music and stints with such pioneering indie labels as Black & White, Savoy, King, and Chess. Yet for all of the artists he nurtured and the labels he Flushed with this sudden success, Bass launched his toiled for, a Ralph Bass production was almost invisible. He own Bop label. His most famous date was a two-part live sax inspired seemingly effortless performances from his vocalists battle between Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray titled “The and musicians in which the overriding Chase” and “The Hunt.” Bass later concern was for pure feeling, “I didn’t RALPH BASS founded Portrait Records and captured give a shit about technique,” he says to PICKS SIX significant performances by Errol Gamer. day. “To hell with bad notes. They had to Bass found his first consistent suc T-Bone Walker, Call It Stormy Monday feel it. I had to feel it.” (1947, Black & White, #5 R&B) cess with Herman Lubinsky’s Savoy Part Italian, part Jew, all hipster-hus “A landmark, and I was no longer andvice. It gave me Records from 1948 to 1951. The hits tler, Ralph Bass was born May 1, the confidm ceto go on my own. ” flowed freely from Big Jay McNeely, in the Bronx and became a child violin Brownie McGee, Little Esther Phillips, Little Esther Phillips, Double Crossing Blues and the Johnny Otis Orchestra. prodigy who played his first concert at (lQ^S^Savoy, #1 R&B) the age of six. But one night uptown at “Cut as a demo, no title. I gave Esther $i$S ffan d the In 1951, King Records founder Syd the height of the jazz age changed him Robins, who were signing backup, — ‘Thanks, Nathan offered Bass the Federal sub forever. kids.’ I never thought Herman Lubinsky would put it sidiary, and he turned out one chart-top “Chick Webb was playing,” Bass out!” ping R&B hit after another. Two of his recalls,. ‘T said to my friends, ‘Listen to ’ Little Willie Littlefield, K .C . Lovin a/k/a biggest, the Dominoes’ “Sixty-Minute that music! Look at those dancers!”’ Kansas City (1952, Federal) Man” and Hank Ballard & the Mid Uprooted to the West Coast a few “Wintertime, KansasCity, asleep in thy hotel near the nighters’ “Work With Me, Annie,” be years later, Bass took a job at a Los Ange Flame Bar. At 4 a m. a dancer bangs on my door to came embroiled in censorship battles. “It borrow five bucks for a room —she’s gotta have her was a racial thing,” Bass says. “‘Makin’ les manufacturing plant. The company man, only he lives with his mother. What the hell, 1 go picnics featured records in lieu of live with her and throw snowballs at Us window, drive Whoopee’ was considered cute, but a music, and Ralph became the designated them back and pay fo r the room. A few months later, I black record that white people didn’t un DJ. He thought he could do better than meet Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and tell them the derstand, that was banned.” the sides he played, and Was soon given story.” Thus: “Kansas ($&,. Kansas City here I Bass stayed with King/Federal for . come/They got a cra&y way of lovin’ there, and I’m the chance to prove it by Paul Reiner, the gonna get me some. ” seven years. He signed James Brown, owner of Black & White Records. Bass driving all night through a violent rain was soon cutting the likes of Lena Home, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Work W ith storm to beat Leonard Chess to the deal. Ivie Anderson, Slim Gaillard, and T-Bone M e, A nnie and A nnie H ad A Baby He witnessed the collapse of the color (1954, Federal, both #1 R&B) barrier, the creation of Hank Ballard’s Walker. But it took a fluke hit to break “The original title was ‘Sock It To Me, Maddy’—back him out of the pack. then, too nasty. But ‘work with it’ was a phrase evggyg. original “Twist,” and the rise of payola. In late 1947, Bass and jump-jazzman body was throwing out. Annie was engineer Eddie Living out of suitcases, Bass remained a Jack McVea cut eight sides in three hours Smith's wife’s name. She was pregnant and about to driven soul even when his own family be at L.A.’s Radio Recorders. ‘With one more drop—when she did, we thought o f the follow-up. ” came a casualty of his fervor. to go and only a few minutes left,” Bass James Brown & the Flames, Chess hired him in 1958, and for the says, “the guys ran down a comedy rou Please Please Please (1956, Federal, #5 R&B) next 18 years Ralph Bass survived chang tine called ‘Open The Door, Richard!’— “Someone gave me their demo on the road. I didn’t ing popular taste with notable successes: and not*v^r^ well, I thought, but there even know who the lead singer was. All I wanted was Etta James, Moms Mabley, Sonny Boy that song. 5yd Nathan tried to fire me, said it was the Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy was no time to do it over. Next thing I worst piece o f shit he’d ever heard!” knew, I was sitting on a national pheno Waters, as well as gospel greats the menon.” “Open The Door, Richard!” Etta James, All I Could Do Was Cry Violinaires, and the Soul Stirrers. touched off an American craze. The song (1960, Argo, #2 R&B) “All I ever wanted was the musicians’ went to Number Three Pop and was a “One take, and Etta was crying her eyes out for real. respect,” says Ralph Bass. ’’And to tell you The band wanted to doitovfir! I told them, forget it. I factor in Capitol’s purchase of Black & mean, how much more soul am id I get from a ringer?” the truth, I didn’t give a damn if whites White. ever bought my records!”
P A G E 2 9 Chess Master: iVillk Dixon (center)^^|r an
The Chess Sìmdio Scene of Chicago
by Don Snowden “Those studio musicians were moving like Chess mirrored the changing times Chess sessions from 1955 to 1960. with its output of jump blues, mod “There is the producer in the theatri em jazz, gospel, Delta-rooted Ckt- , cal sense, who puts together the cago blues, vocal-group R&B, classic money and hires the musicians. rock & roll, comedy, and soul music. There’s the producer on the session Chess’ dominance in Chicago who says, ‘The tempo’s wrong, we’re over the years allowed the company going to do it a little faster.’ And to recmit session players from the there’s the producer who says, ‘Okay, cream of the Windy City’s freelance that’s it, next case.’ musicians. Drummer A1 Duncan and “Leonard Chess functioned fre bassist Louis Satterfield were regulars quently and very well as the theatrical in the pit band of the Regal Theater form of producer. He was then per in the early ’60s. Phil Upchurch was fectly content to let the people on the high school buddies with Curtis floor do the job. .Will [Dixon] would Mayfield, played on many early Im run ’em off in a comer somewhere pressions tracks, and handled the and rehearse them a bit, and we’d do guitar when the Motown rhythm sec the session. tion rolled into Veejay to cut John ■ “We just continued to churn out Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom.” Gene this stuff year after year, including “Daddy G” Barge brought his saxo- some of the most horrible stuff, to my phonic legacy (including Chuck taste, I’ve ever m n across, and some Willis’ “The Stroll” and all of Gary stuff that was absolutely wonderful. U.S. Bonds’s hits) from Norfolk, Vir There are things like ‘Back In The. ginia to produce, arrange, and per ¡USA and ‘I’m A Man’ that you know form on Chess sides by Little Milton are classics when you cut them. You and Etta James. Phil Chess don’t know if it’s going to sell, but you know you’re doing somethingjisefulS UT CHESS WAS AN EVOLU- In May, 1 9 5 ^ Chess moved again, to 2 1 2 0 South ' tionary process that endured five Michigan Ayeupe in the heart of Chicago’s Record Row. I locations and multiple sonic per This new Ter-Mar studio housed administrative offices mutations beginning in 1947 at and a small rehearsal room cu m demo studio on its first its original storefront on 71st and Phillips. By 1950, the floor and the main recording, facility on the second. The Chess brothers had shifted their primary focus to Delta- new room “w^S good for its day because it was 3ive-er,’|| bred blues (following Muddy Waters’ seminal 1948 hit, says Ron Malo, the engineer who took over from Chis “I Can’t Be Satisfied”), changed their label’s name from holm in early i960 and ran Chess sessions for the next Aristocrat to Chess, and moved to new quarters at 49th ten years. “We had to deaden it down when we went to. and Cottage Grove. In 1951, Willie Dixon was lured four-track and eight-track to get more separation. It had away from his Big Three Trio with the offer of a Chess, angled walls and adjustable louvers in the walls. staff job. Over the next five years, recording in their “The musicians and singers were ready to perform own back room or at other Chicago studios, like Univer — when that red light went on, that was ‘money time’ sal, Chess cut a string of some 60 R&B chart hits by and they p e r fo r m e d . We didn’t have earphones, baffles, such future icons as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Lit or separators. BSjly Stewart’s S u m m ertim e albuin was to tle Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, and Bo tally live,, no.overdub^, Billy Stewart was standing in the Diddley— with Willie Dixon as the brothers’ right-hand middle of the band, singing live and conducting the or man on the studio floor. The supporting cast included chestra. 1 remixed the four-track—just doing the fades Jimmy Rogers, Robert Jr. Lockwood, David Myers, and adding a little echo— in 45 minutes, an album with Louis Myers, and Luther Tucker (guitars); Dixon and 32 minutes of music.” Ransom Knowling (basses); Fred Below, Odie Payne,, New faces arrived at 2120— veteran R&B producer Clifton James, and A1 Duncan (drums); Little Walter, Ralph Bass and soul queen Etta James, and younger Sonny Èoy, and Big Walter Horton (harp); Harold blues players Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. Willie Dixon Ashby (tenor); and Lafayette Leake (piano). returned to Chess after a brief late-’50s stint with Co At the same time, Chess was recording urbane bra, though now Chess blues sessions drew on a differ bluesmen like Jimmy Witherspoon and Lowell Fulson, ent pool of musicians and were as likely to feature or and branching into gospel (including 14-year-old gan and horns as the traditional piano and harp. The Aretha Franklin’s first album) and jazz (with pianists early-’60s success of Etta James pointed Chess in a new Ahmad Jamal and Ramsey Lewis). The company also direction, one that became the label’s principal focus launched its Checker and Argo subsidaries, in 1952 when Billy Davis became head of A&R in late 1963. and 1956 respectively, and established an in-house “Billy Davis.. .organized the creative staff to some publishing company, Arc Music, in 1954... degree, whereby the system he put in kind of cloned “There are three producers on every session,” main the system Berry Gordy had,” recalls Gene Barge. “Billy tains Malcolm Chisholm, the engineer on innumerable wanted to go more R&B, and Chess prior to that was principally a blues/ j mm, company. tion center, recording studios, of “We could do three tunes in three fices for administrators, writers, and hours if you had everything scripted. I producers— in one locale. had written everything out and had “We’d go in around noon, the rhythm section and background maybe as early as ten o’clock, and be singers well-rehearsed so all they had out of there by six or seven,” says to do was execute. It was not a matter Phil Upchurch. “We’d do the de of going into the studio totally unpre mos— a two-track, basically, of mu pared and working premium time at sicians live getting the basic groove premium rates. W hen you went up to happening. From there they’d get Studio A, you just fine-tuned.” approved by the front office and In line with Davis’ philosophy we’d go over to the other side of the Chess’ first full-fledged studio band building and record them in the was hired early in 11164. It included morning. They’d press the records at Maurice White (later replaced by Mor noon and in the evening they were ris Jennings) on drums, Louis Satter playing them on the radio. ” field on bass, Bfyce Robertson and The larger studio at this ex Gerald Sims on guitars, and Leonard panded facility became famous for Castori and Raynard Miner on key large-scale orchestral arrangements boards. Phil Upchurch entered the pic when the Dells made their hit ture in 1967, doubling on bass and reprise of “Oh, What A Night” and guitar. Gerald Sims, the current owner fhe first Rotary Connection album of 2120, left Chess in 1965 and was launched a career for Chess recep replaced by Pete Cosey. tionist Minnie Ripperton. But the “Those studio musicians were ' bulk of the blues, gospel, and R&B moving like ants up theie,” recalls Leonard Chess releases— -to the musicians’ near- Cash McCall, part of a nascent Chess unanimous relief— were cut in the songwriting stai along with Raynard Miner, Sonny more intimate confines of Studio B. Thompson, Sugar Pie DéSanto, and Sheria DeMell, Momentum slowed after Chess was sold to GRT in among others. “As a songwriter, you wèritin there with 1969 and fell rapidly when Leonard Chess died of a the rhythm section and made the demo. Then word heart attack later that year at the age of 52. Restrictive would get passed down that maybe Mitty Collier or Lit corporate policies wreaked havoc on the freewheeling'" • tle Milton or Etta James was coming in, and ftfen you creativity of the label’s salad & | Jk and most of the key had to hustle to get your sbng to thè artist. session players and engineers were long gone by the “There was a kind of hierarchy there and if you time of Chess’ demise in 1974. Were new, you had to really hustle to get one of yòùr Gene Barge won a Grammy for co-producing Na songs cut. It was definitely high competition, and if you talie Cole’s “Sophisticated Lady” and toured Europe wore your feelings onybtir shoulder, ft didn’t get you with the Rolling Stones. Phil Upchurch moved to L.A. too much. Most òf the artists that came around Chess and played rhythm guitar on several of George Benson! weren’t taking any prisoners because they wanted their best-selling albums. Willie Dixon established himself as records to sound good and wanted them to s .fusolo artist and roving ambassador of the blues. Mau rice White and Louis Satterfield went oil to massive Y 1964, SLUES RECORDING ' pop success with Earth, Wind & Fire; Satterfield has was in decline, later aggravated spent the past nine years playing behind Phil Collins in by the deaths hf Sonny Boy the Phenix Homs. But all have fond memories of thè Williamson, Elmore James, and Chess studio scene. Little Walter. Muddy and Wolf were still recorded regu “There was a lot of give-and-take and passing ideas larly, and other blues sessions occasionally brought the around,” says Phil Upchurch. “You always looked for Chess brothers up to the control booth. “Phil and ward to doing the gigs. We were proud of what we were Leonard never came up to the studios u n less it was a doing— making monèy and having fun— you couldn’t blues sèssion,” McCall insists. ask for much more than that. We didn’t have any idea The 2 j| jl Studiò began to attract a new breed of that thempsic was as important as it turned out to be.” ; British rockers who had teethed ori Chess vinyl and now dutifully trooped to the source. The Stones rolled I# to cut 21 songs in three separate sessions, in ’64 and ’65; the Yardbirds touched down to Cut their ground (Portions o f this article were adaptedfirom I Am The Blues: breaking “Shapes Of Things” single. Toward the end of The W illie Dixon Story, by W illie Dixon with Don Snowden, 1965, Chess gradually moved its base of operations available from DaCapo Press. Thanks to Cash McCall, Ron around the comer to 520 fitòt 21st Street. The shift to Malo, Malcolm Chisholm, W illie Dixon, Al Duncan, Louis this six-story warehouse enabled Leonard Chess to con Satterfield, Gene Barge and Dick LaPalm for their help in solidate his m $ m operation— pressing plant, distribu re sea rc h .)
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