Wardell Quezergue R.i.p.

Sad to hear that Wardell Quezergue has died, age 81.

He was a huge talent and a gentleman.

Rest in peace.

Paul

added by site

news item and biography Nola.com

...Wardell started working with other artists in the studio, producing and arranging their records and specializing in horn charts. By the early-60's, he had a new group, Wardell & the Sultans, who recorded for Imperial Records with Bartholomew producing, but his greatest success came in the studio where he produced and arranged the Dixie Cups hits Iko Iko and Chapel of Love and Robert Parker's Barefootin'.

In 1964, he started Nola Records and, in the early-70's, began working with the then struggling Malaco Records. At Malaco, Quezergue brought in artists that had been rejected by other labels and turned them into hitmakers. At one point, he brought in five such artists and, in a single session, turned out big sellers for Jean Knight (Mr. Big Stuff) and King Floyd (Groove Me)...

full article can be read

http://www.nola.com/...gendary_ne.html

Feature

...Hitting immediately with Robert Parker’s “Barefootin,’” under Quezergue’s watchful stewardship Nola amassed a staggering catalog of soul and R&B—from the obscure Charles “Soul” Brown to the famed Willie Tee—before its untimely demise in 1968. Along with subsidiaries like Bonatemp, Whurley-Burley and Hot Line, Quezergue kept himself busy with productions for smaller labels like A.B.S., Shagg and Mode, always using the same modus operandi: the song itself came first.

full article can be read...

http://www.ponderosa...rdell+Quezergue

2007 video