Baltimore Record Labels - Bay Sound, Dontee, Marti, Roc-Ker

[Roburt]

Baltimore helped kick off the doo-wop group explosion in the 50's, had loads of fine soul acts in the 60's plus a great live soul club / theatre scene back then ..... BUT .... it struggled to set up / support local recording studios and record labels during those times and into the early 70's. Lots of local soul artists headed out to New York, Philly, DC and the like to sign record deals and cut tracks but a few stayed local to kick off their recording careers. Rufus Mitchell's Ru-Jac was the local label that lasted the longest and made the most impact but lots of their stuff was actually cut in DC area studios. 

 

Lou Mills (Louis R Mills Jr) opened his North Baltimore based studio set-up as Recording International at East Cold Spring Lane and the Alameda (not far from the Morgan State Uni campus) in 1958. Lou's outfits then seemed to use the names Recording Inc. & Record Manufacturers Inc. before he later renamed his studio as Flite 3. Lou was highly regarded locally as a recording engineer and soon became known as 'Baltimore's Godfather of Sound'. The first big cuts to be laid down at the studio seemed to be by locally based Al Brown and the Tune Toppers. They used the studio in 1960 to cut "The Madison", which after being picked up by Amy made the US R&B Top 20 in May / June 1960. Syng McGowan cut most of his tracks (released on Hope Records) there from around November 1965 through to the end of 1966. Betty Sandler Feldman (Bella Flowers) owned / ran Hope Records. Top sound engineer George Massenburg started out working as a sound engineer / producer at Lou's studio in the late 60's and he worked on lots of the tracks released on Bay Sound Records. Bay Sound Records put out good stuff by the Bleu Lights, the Chaumonts, Clay Hunt & the Fuzzy Kane Trio. Kenny Hamber did a show with Clay Hunt at Annapolis High School back then and was blown away with the guy's vocal ability. Clay seems to have maintained his singing career right down the years (his first 45 release being a Motown cover on Kapp) but I don't know of any other records released on him unless he's the guy who was cutting for Polydor in the early 80's. 

 

Another Baltimore studio where local artists cut in the late 60's was Accent Sound Studios which was located at 48 West Biddle Street. By all accounts this was a basic facility that had a 'homely feel'. Eddie Drennon (NJ / DC based back then) cut Baltimore act Mickey & His Mice there in 1968 and their version of "Little Green Apples" made the local charts for an extended period after being picked up by Bell. The success of that 45 enabled local promoter Marty Cantine to start up Marti Records (the label putting out  Mickey & His Mice's follow up 45). The Marti label was associated with Roc-Ker Records for a while. However most of the 45 cuts made by Baltimore's Frankie & the Spindles that came out on the Roc-Ker label seemed to be cut in Philly and were put out via Philly based Phil LA of Soul Records and then via a deal with Amy / Mala / Bell. Frankie & the Spindles 45 version of "Have You Seen Her" (Funny "A") made some noise in 71 until Brunswick relented and allowed the Chi-Lites original version to escape on a single. Strangely, Frankie had first called his group Frankie & the Spinners but despite the national profile of the Tri Phi / Motown outfit, he was still using that name on live shows as late as summer 1968. 

 

Dontee Records was run by Joe Tate who later started Jotee Records. His main artists were the Summits, the Contemplations (who became Rock Candy) and the Blendels. In the early 70's, they seemed to cut their tracks at DB Sound Studio (where was this located ?). There was another basic recording studio located down by the Inner Harbor area but I can't recall the exact location or owner at present.  

 

Can anyone add much to the above information or provide details of other Baltimore studios in the 1960's (the city had a few more decent ones by the 70's including one built on a barge anchored in Baltimore harbor). 

Edited June 19, 2013 by Roburt

[Roburt]

RE: Clay Hunt seems to have maintained his singing career right down the years (his first 45 release being a Motown cover on Kapp) but I don't know of any other records released on him unless he's the guy who was cutting for Polydor in the early 80's ..........

 

The Clay Hunt who recorded for Kapp & then Bay Sound in the 60's is obviously the same guy who had the LP 'Part One' + 2 singles out on Polydor in 1981.   

Clay's manager in the mid to late 70's was a guy called Sonny Gordon. Sonny was also Peaches & Herbs (Herb Fame) manager at the time.

'Peaches' in the 60's had been ex Sweet Things (Date) lead singer Francine Barker. When the Sweet Things were recording (65), Freddie Perren was a DC area school teacher who wrote arrangements for the group and so got to know their manager, Sonny Gordon. Encouraged by his music biz success, Freddie quit his teaching job and went on tour with Jerry Butler. He ended up in LA and became a member of Motown writing team 'the Corporation'. A few years later, he struck out on his own, working with Tavares, the Sylvers, Revelation, Minnie Ripperton, Gloria Gaynor, etc. When he started his own MVP Record label, he signed Peaches & Herbs to a deal as he remembered Herb from the old days. This brought him back in touch with Sonny Gordon and so he also signed Clay Hunt to a deal with MVP (via Polydor).

Edited June 19, 2013 by Roburt

[Speedlimit]

Hi Roburt how about the pulse label  the sound of Baltimore  with Doc & the Echoes " Why Wonder "   & " Million dollar bill "

 

 

 

[Steve G]

There is a book you need called Baltimore Sound Roburt it's not cheap but a fascinating mine of information with great pix etc. Loads of Balto groups.....you'd be amazed just how many.....

[Roburt]

RE: Hi Roburt how about the pulse label  the sound of Baltimore  with Doc & the Echoes " Why Wonder "   & " Million dollar bill "

 

Yep they were a decent outfit who got their name because they had started life as Tommy Vann's backing band -- Tommy Vann and the Echoes.

So when he went off & got some new guys to work with, they were so well known locally that they decided to just become 'And The Echoes'.

Tommy himself plus 4 of the 5 guys in 'And The Echoes' were white but that didn't stop them loving / performing soul stuff. 

Here they are (without Tommy Vann) ............

 

[Roburt]

There is a book you need called Baltimore Sound Roburt it's not cheap but a fascinating mine of information with great pix etc. Loads of Balto groups.....you'd be amazed just how many.....

Yes Steve I know about the book & have chatted (on-line) with the guy who produced it.

As far as I recall, there is little in there about the recording studios (its mainly about the local acts; soul & pop).

[Steve G]

Yes the acts the records and where they played. It includes references to studios and some great pix.......

[Roburt]

JM just got £100 for the Bay Sound 45 by Soul Clinic ("So Sharp c/w No One Loves Me Anymore").

[Roburt]

With the internet these days, it can be quite easy to chase up facts on an old record or artist. The 'back room' people behind the music (label owners, studio engineers, producers, arrangers, studio musicians) are much harder to track facts down on.

Using a common name for a group also causes many problems. One such named Baltimore outfit was the Persians.

Put 'the Persians' into a search engine and you get 1000's of hits about the people who lived in the middle east many years ago and very little that relate to music groups.

On top of that, there seem to have been a number of outfits that recorded under that name.

The Baltimore group named the Persians had 45's out on ABC, GWP and Capitol between 1968 and 1972. None of their sessions seem to have been cut in Baltimore and the group existed before and way after the period during which they had record contracts. So 'researching' them is a minefield only made easier due to the fact that they re-formed in the 90's and so put out a potted bio back then to assist them in landing new bookings.

Their first recording session (& quite a few after that) was overseen by George Kerr so its highly likely that lots of their studio sessions were undertaken in the New York / New Jersey / Philly region BUT establishing just which studio was used for each session is a nightmare (unless like Ace / Kent you have access to the original session logs).

With George Kerr being such a 'back room 'heavyweight in the recording biz over many years, you would think that he would have received numerous mentions in say Billboard mag back in the 1960's / 70's. HOWEVER, that doesn't seem to be the case. So researching George's exploits requires quite a bit of detective work.

[Mike]

John

 

you want to start posting these type posts via the articles feature

that way your words get more exposure and highlighted as well as still show in the forum

 

heres the page explaining things more

 

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/directory/_/record-shops-online/pete-french-soul-supply-r138

 

 

heres

the link to submit

 

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/index.php?app=nexus&module=support&section=new&department=4

 

cheers

mike

[boba]

I only scanned the thread and haven't really read it, but noticed that this webpage wasn't posted so I might as well post it:

 

www.dcsoulrecordings.com

[Steve G]

I think it's good form when reposting stuff to give a credit to the source.

[Mike]

I think it's good form when reposting stuff to give a credit to the source.

 

 

that should be happening

 

it is yep?

 

if not then it goes against site policy/outlook and have/will act when aware

 

so ask if any concerns of any post then  please report them using teh "report post " feature

so we here are aware of your concerns

 

thanks

mike