http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8pk0mzk No online items Guide to the J.J. Malone Audiovisual Collection Sean Dickerson African American Museum & Library at Oakland 659 14th Street Oakland, California 94612 Phone: (510) 637-0198 Fax: (510) 637-0204 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/locations/african-american-museum-library-oakland © 2013 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved. Guide to the J.J. Malone MS 210 1 Audiovisual Collection Guide to the J.J. Malone Audiovisual Collection Collection number: MS210 African American Museum & Library at Oakland Oakland, California Processed by: Sean Dickerson Date Completed: 2017-05-19 Encoded by: Sean Dickerson © 2013 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: J.J. Malone Audiovisual Collection Dates: 1972-2001 Collection number: MS 210 Creator: Malone, J.J. Collection Size: 1 linear foot(2 boxes) Repository: African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.) Oakland, CA 94612 Abstract: Bay area blues musician, record company executive, and night club owner John Jacob (J.J.) Malone (1935 – 2004) was born on August 20, 1935 in Peets Corner, Alabama. The J.J. Malone audiovisual collection consists of recordings documenting his life and musical career. The recordings are arranged in to six series: Live recordings, studio recordings, promos, KALX interview, home movies, and assorted. Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English Access No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public. Access Restrictions Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating. Publication Rights Permission to publish must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. Preferred Citation J.J. Malone Audiovisual Collection, MS 210, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California. Acquisition Information Donated to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland by J. Brontez Purnell on May 05, 2017. Processing Information Processed by Sean Dickerson. Biography / Administrative History Blues musician, record company executive, and night club owner John Jacob (J.J.) Malone (1935 – 2004) was born on August 20, 1935 in Peets Corner, Alabama. When he was a child, Malone bought an old, beat-up acoustic guitar from a second cousin which he taught himself to play while recovering from an appendix operation. His father, Charlie Malone, was an accomplished bottleneck guitarist and although a staunch Christian, showed J.J. a few blues chords on the instrument. Malone began singing at local churches, and started dancing and performing rhythm and blues at chitlin’ parties, fish fries, family gatherings, and teen parties. His style was greatly influenced by Lightnin 'Hopkins, Louis Jordan, Washboard Sam, Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Muddy Waters. At seventeen Malone moved with his brother to Indiana where at first he worked mules and chopped cotton. He then started working for the Veterans’ Canteen Services as a busboy. Soon he was working two jobs when his older brother got Guide to the J.J. Malone MS 210 2 Audiovisual Collection him a job at a local hospital. In 1958 he enlisted into the United States Air Force and was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base. In Spokane, Washington Malone formed his first band, the Rockers (later the Tops in Blues). The trio got a gig at a burger joint on the East side of Spokane called Virgil’s playing with handmade, makeshift equipment such as radio store amps built into suitcases and paste-board cabinets. After leaving the armed services, Malone relocated to Fresno, California to find better paying work, and formed the band The Rhythm Rockers with C.A. Carr, Charles Banks, Calvin Peele, and former rockabilly Troyce Key. In 1962 Malone recorded his first single, “Does She Love Me” for Chance Records. After C.A. Carr left the group to join James Brown’s band, Malone relocated to Oakland, California and in 1967 acquired full-time employment as a mechanic at the Alameda Naval Air Station. Signing with Fantasy Records in 1969, Malone began recording in the late 1960s-1970s for producer Ray Shanklin, owner of the Galaxy label. For Galaxy, Malone recorded a series of 45s in a style somewhere between soul and rhythm and blues, with “Danger Zone,” “One Step Away,” and notably “It’s a Shame,” with which he scored a hit in 1972. Shanklin, who was impressed by Malone’s talents as a composer and arranger, gave him responsibilities in the expanding record company as advisor to Little Johnny Taylor, Big Mama Thornton, and Sonny Rhodes. Malone during this time wrote, without signing, tracks for Creedence Clearwater Revival and was credited by Sonny Rhodes as heavily responsible for the band’s signature sound. Throughout the 1970s, Malone would record for Don Lindenau’s Blues Connoisseur label in Pleasant Hill and with Sonny Rhodes on Cherrie Records. In 1978, Troyce Key, J.J. Malone and the Rhythm Rockers recorded an albums’ worth of blues material at San Francisco’s Blossom Studio for Red Ligntnin’ Records in Norfolk, England, which would eventually be released as I've Gotta a New Car (1980) and Younger than Yesterday (1982). In 1979, Key and Malone purchased Eli’s Mile High Club upon the death of the club’s founder Eli Thornton. The Rhythm Rockers were elected house band, and the group changed names to the J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key. Known as the "West Coast Home of the Blues," Eli’s Mile High Club attracted notable blues and R&B performers throughout the 1970s-1980s and was awarded the Bay Area Blues Society’s Blues Night Club of the Year award in 1991. In 1986, Key founded Eli Mile High Records, a blues record label which released Malone’s Bottom Line Blues (1989). During this period Malone returned to performing as a solo artist, while working a mechanic’s job in Alameda, and cut three albums for Schoolboy Cleve’s Cherrie label and two for Fedora, continuing to record until 2001. Malone spent his last years in Hawaii playing blues in Luther Tucker’s ex-harp players’ band, and died in February 2004. Scope and Content of Collection The J.J. Malone audiovisual collection consists of recordings documenting the life and musical career of blues musician, record company executive, and night club owner John Jacob (J.J.) Malone. The recordings are arranged in to six series: Live recordings, studio recordings, promos, KALX interview, home movies, and assorted. Arrangement Series I. Live recordings Series II. Studio recordings Series III. Promos Series IV. KALX interview Series V. Home movies Series VI. Assorted Indexing Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. Blues (Music)--California--San Francisco Bay Area. Eli’s Mile High Club (Oakland, Calif.). Fantasy Records. Key, Troyce. Malone, J.J. Rhodes, Sonny. Sound recordings. Related Material Banks (Charles) Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Key (Troyce) Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Guide to the J.J. Malone MS 210 3 Audiovisual Collection Live recordings 1980-2001 Live recordings 1980-2001 Series Scope and Content Summary Includes live recordings of J.J. Malone, performing solo and in various groups such as the J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key. Arrangement Arranged chronologically. Box 1 J.J. Malone solo on piano in Alabama, featuring Lucy Malone (Lucy Malone singing “Don’t Worry About me,” “Will the Circle be Unbroken”) 1980-08-24 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 9 (min): 36 (s) Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key live fundraiser for Jesse Jackson presidential campaign 1988-04 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 46 (min): 50 (s) Box 1 J.J. Malone with ERA live in Blagòevgrad, Bulgaria at the Ninth Annual Alen Mak International Music Festival 1989-09-22 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 44 (min): 47 (s) Box 1 J.J. Malone with Chris Daniels (drums), John Graham (guitar), and Tim Walker (bass) at the Third Annual Blues Festival, Pier 47, San Francisco, California 1990-09-14 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Box 1 The Bobby Blue Brown show with the J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key, Eli’s Mile High Club 1991-06-08 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key, J.J. Malone's birthday party live at The Fifth Amendment Club 1991-08-20 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key, J.J. Malone's birthday party live at Eli's Mile High Club 1991-08-23 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key featuring Frankie Lee at the Fifth Amendment Club, Oakland 1997-03 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 13 (min): 40 (s) Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key at the Fifth Amendment Club 1998-08-25 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 46 (min): 51 (s) Box 1 Malone family reunion, J.J. Malone performing live 1998 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Box 1 J.J. Malone & the Backroads Blues Band at the 5th Amendment Club 1999-07-27 Physical Description: 1 videotape(s) (VHS) Guide to the J.J. Malone MS 210 4 Audiovisual Collection Live recordings 1980-2001 Box 1 J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key at Eli's Mile High Club 1999-10-02 Physical Description: 1 audiocassette(s) Physical Description: Run Time: 46 (min): 28 (s) Side A Physical Description: Run Time: 46 (min): 52 (s) Side B Box 1 J.J.