MONTHLY MEETING THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2013
2:00 PM HOMEWOOD LIBRARY
*****Next meeting, November 3rd – 1st Sunday*****
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
What a treat we have for you this month. BRC member, Bob Friedman and the gospel group he is a member of, The Pillars, will be our special guest. This group has members who have been singing gospel for a long time and I have a story to tell, not only ion song but with life experiences. I have listed the guys here and a short bio of each. Don’t miss hearing them tell their story and hear them sing.
Norman Wooding, Jr, was born in Rosedale, Alabama on November 28, 1923 to a singing family of two brothers and two sisters. NB joined the MacMillan Juniors in 1935, singing in knee pants, sometimes bare foot, for 10 cents at the door. He joined the Willing Workers Gospel Group in 1938 and the Marian Anderson Choral Ensemble in 1940. From 1944-49, NB joined the Kelley Choral Singers and sang with a young Willie McKinstry. During this time, the Kelleys appeared on WJLD-AM 1400 in Bessemer. From 1949 to 1973, NB Sang with the group his dad founded, the MacMillan Jubilee Singers, and in 1977 joined the Birmingham Traveleers and recorded several sides at Sound of Birmingham Studios. He is currently the host of the Gospel Unity Hour, Sundays at 7:30 AM on WJLD.
Reverend Don Solomon was born on February 13, 1932 in Birmingham, Alabama. His first singing experience was with the Titusville Spiritual Five (TSF) . His teacher, Ms Samuels, would invite the group to sing at her church. Mr Fikes, a promoter at New Pilgrim Baptist Church (when it was a wooden church on 13th Street), specialized in featuring quartets on Sunday evening and the TSF was one of those groups. They also sang at Legion Field where Don met Roberta Roland and the PCW Aggregation. They traveled to Mississippi and performed for free. In 1946, Don met Leroy Garrett (future owner of WEUP, Huntsville) who owned Manhattan Dry Cleaners on 6th Avenue South in Birmingham. Don and three others recorded several acetates there in Leroy’s studio (The Blue Goose) on his cutting machine which were delivered to Trumon Puckett for pressing on his “Hallelujah” label. No 78 RPM recordings have been found to date but this was the birth of the Heavenly Four, with whom Don sang for three years. He joined the air force in 1949 and sang with the Evangeleers, a 10 member choir in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1958, he returned to Birmingham and sang for a while with the Willie McKinstry Singers, appearing on WBRC Channel 6. In 1970, Don joined a group called The Saints, organized by well-known dee jay, evangelist and singer Gatemouth Moore. Don was the “right hand” of entrepreneurial millionaire AG Gaston for over 30 years and currently serves as Pastor of the Lily Grove Baptist Church in Fountain Heights and host of WJLD’s “Gospel Train” from 7-7:30 AM Sundays.
Henry Burton was born in Birmingham, Alabama on October 26, 1932. His first chance to sing gospel was in 1946 with the William Blevins Aggregation. Blevins has been touted as the south’s first Black radio announcer, beginning his career in 1931. Henry then sang lead for the Four Stars of Harmony from 1949-52. During a stint with the army in Korea from 1952-54, he sang with the Christian Special Service Group. Upon his return to Birmingham, and from 1954-59, he sang lead for the Maddox Gospel Singers. Henry then joined the Gospel Revelators until 1961, when he met NB Wooding, Jr. and joined the MacMillan Jubilee Singers. Henry and NB stayed together for 11 years and then joined three other members of the Birmingham Traveleers to continue the Traveleers group (mentioned in NB’s bio). He was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Bob Friedman was born in Manhattan on November 25, 1943 to eastern European immigrant parents. His mom insisted that the house have a piano and his older brother Mort played pop tunes from the early 50’s and Bob sang Eddie Fisher and Tony Bennett songs. Raised in a Jewish household, he was Bar Mitzvahed when he was 13 and sang a Haf Torah (part of the torah). But Rock and Roll was booming in New York City and Bob learned about RnB in summer camp when Black kitchen workers would lend him their 78’s to spin at dances. By 1959, Bob was singing bass with a group called the DuVals in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood. In 1962 he joined the Chambrays. In 1963, he formed the Squires which recorded the last record on the Gee label (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers label). The Squires won an Apollo Amateur Night in 1964. It was with the Squires that Bob sang “His Eye is On the Sparrow” for the first time in Lenox Lanes in Harlem. Everyone in the group had the Harmonizing Four’s classic VeeJay album. In 1965, he joined the Sparrows Quartet, who emulated the quartet sound of the early 50’s. The Sparrows recorded three albums as well as numerous 45’s and 78’s and performed in rock and roll shows around the city. In 1974, Bob moved to Gary, Indiana and Chicago where he began singing with Yesterday’s Rhythm. They produced two albums of 50’s and 60’s RnB standards and played a variety of clubs and concerts and were opening acts for the Drifters, the Spaniels, Danny and the Juniors, the Shirelles and others. In 1987, Bob moved to Birmingham to work on the national independent presidential campaign of Dr. Lenora Fulani and soon afterwards, joined the WJLD staff in 1989. He is currently Operations and Sales Manager and has dedicated his bass singing to the performances of great bass singers, in particular Jimmy Jones of the Harmonizing Four, Jimmy Ricks of the Ravens, Gerald Gregory of the Spaniels, Isaac “Dickie” Freeman of the Fairfield Four, Herbert Reed of the Platters and Bill Brown of the Dominoes.
John Lawrence – The Four Eagles. 2013 will mark the 75th anniversary for these veteran singers. Organized in 1938 and based in Bessemer, Alabama today, the Four Eagles consist of William Crawford, John Lawrence, John Pettie, Demetrius Williams and Oliver Mack Williams and they produce exciting acapaella! John Lawrence has been singing continuously with the Four Eagles since 1963. Their anniversary will be held on Sunday, November 17, 2013 at Bessemer City Hall, 1800 Third Ave North at 4 PM. He has been baritoning with the Pillars since NB Wooding, Jr. retired from that position.
Vincent Witt – 44 years old, began singing around the age of 11 with the Traveleer Juniors with Henry Burton’s son and a couple of other youngsters. In other words, he’s been around quartet singing all his life. A contractor by trade, Vincent has been with the Pillars for the past four years. He is the grandson of NB Woording, Jr.
NEXT MONTH’S MEETING
The November meeting will be held on the FIRST (1st) Sunday of the month, Nov. 3rd, due to work being done at the library. NOVEMBER MEETING – NOV 3RD – 1ST SUNDAY.
It’s time to nominate our officers and begin forming committees for 2014. Whether it’s helping with monthly programs, providing your technology expertise, updating our membership list, doing more at record show time, etc, there is a job that you can do.
We have one more segment of the documentary, ‘Rock and Roll’ to view. Part 1 of that segment will be played at the November meeting. The title of this segment is ‘Blues In Technicolor’. This segment looks at the infusion of the drug culture and psychedelic music of the mid- 60’s. Groups such as The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & Holding Company, etc are highlighted.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
This month I thought we’d take a look at someone who, although has not been out-of-the-picture any length of time, should be given her due as someone who had one of the great voices of our time and who brought us many wonderful songs.
Linda Ronstadt, 67, announced in August that she has Parkinson’s disease and recently has said she now needs help with many daily activities such as brushing her teeth. When she told the press that she has Parkinson’s she said she could no longer ‘sing a note.’ She uses poles to help her walk on uneven places and a wheelchair when traveling. Check sandiegodowntown.com.
The Grammy-winning singer has sold over 100 million LP’s worldwide. Her ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ LP, which was nominated for a Grammy, included hits such as ‘You’re No Good’, ‘When Will I Be Loved’, and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’. Overall she won 11 Grammy’s and was nominated for 17 more. She has sung on over 120 LP’s. She had 38 Billboard Hot 100 singles. Her first solo LP, ‘Hand Sown….Home Grown’ has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artists.
Over her career Linda has sung country rock, rock, folk, soft rock, pop, opera, and jazz. In 1980 she performed on Broadway and in 1982 teamed up with Nelson Riddle to record some of the songs from the Great American Songbook with LP’s such as ‘What’s New’, ‘Lush Life’, and ‘For Sentimental Reasons’.
My favorite Linda Ronstadt LP is ‘Simple Dreams’. It included songs like ‘It’s So Easy’, ‘Blue Bayou’, ‘I Never Will Marry’ – a duo with Dolly Parton, and two good rockers, ‘Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me’, and the Stones, ‘Tumbling Dice’. But the one song that stands out to me off this LP is the Warren Zevon composition, ‘Carmelita’. It’s hard to say what my favorite Ronstadt song is but if I had to choose it would be ‘Desperado’ which is from her 4th LP, ‘Don’t Cry Now’.
Ronstadt is one of my top 5 female singers along with Patsy Cline, Wanda Jackson, Emmy Lou Harris, and Crystal Gayle. Of these 5, Linda and Patsy are the two I unfortunately never saw in concert so the best I can do is watch youtubes of their performances. Thanks, Linda, for a whole library of great songs from one of the great voices of the 20th century.
UPCOMING EVENTS / RECORD SHOWS
FRIDAY NOV 1st Larry and The Loafers will be rockin and rollin with 60s and 70s MUSIC. Polish up your dancin shoes and join us at the Kelly Ingram V F W (downtown) Bham starting 7:30 till. Great Hardwood Dance Floor, secure fenced parking, and great bar prices at this site. REMEMBER NOV 1st hope to see you there. Questions – 205-261-8397.
HEY! HAVE YOU HEARD THIS ONE?
Last month I had a quite a few good remarks about the Marquees song that was played here so I decided to play the flip side of the 45 – so here it is. By the way, Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel) was a co-writer of both songs, his band plays on this month’s song with Bo on guitar and Jerome on maracas. His band played on the original recording of last month’s song but it was re-recorded later with another band and that was the version released.