There's a new book available (Kindle version on US & UK Amazon: actual book also for US customers) from Charles Wright  --

............ 'Up From Where We've Come'.

Charles was of course leader of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band of "Express Yourself", "Spreadin Honey", "Loveland" fame .....

..... but don't get your hopes up .......... it only deals with his early life before he got into music.

Maybe there's a further volume in development that will deal with his musical career, but at present that's not on offer.

Edited March 18, 20169 yr by Roburt

No disrespect, but I don't think many will care about his life before he got famous...I'm a fan of his music but I never heard of him before then.

We couldn't give a toss about the Watts 103 etc for the most part it's his early career that WE are interested in - pity the book is all about NOT singing.

 

Edited March 18, 20169 yr by DaveNPete

I'm interested in his early life AND, more importantly, his earlier career, up to the point when he started The Watts 103rd Street Band.  He was part of a circle of L.A, songwriters and producers that had connections with H. B. Barnum and Frank Wilson and Marc Gordon, Willie Hutchison and Hal Davis during the early to mid '60s, which is undoubtedly how he came to use some songs in his productions that he had written for Los Angeles' Jobete Music office.  I'm interested in find out with whom he was working, how he made which connections, what he recorded for whom (who owns the masters now, if there's anything left in the can.

Edited March 19, 20169 yr by RobbK

I made mention of Charles' 103rd St Band days AS THAT IS what he was / is famous for in the music world. In that guise, he enjoyed many hits and toured / played gigs extensively (Mary Love was even the bands support act for some time on shows they did around California area. NS folk may JUST be interested in part of his career but you have to go with the facts not your personnel preferences. AND like Robb, I have an interest in his whole life and certainly in the 'when & why' of how he broke into the music biz.

PLUS the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band made some great music (though James Gadson was far from happy with the way he got treated during that period by Charles).

A Watts 103rd St album that may illustrate the impact the band had; note the country of origin of this release ............

  On 19/03/2016 at 08:32, Roburt said:

I made mention of Charles' 103rd St Band days AS THAT IS what he was / is famous for in the music world. In that guise, he enjoyed many hits and toured / played gigs extensively (Mary Love was even the bands support act for some time on shows they did around California area. NS folk may JUST be interested in part of his career but you have to go with the facts not your personnel preferences. AND like Robb, I have an interest in his whole life and certainly in the 'when & why' of how he broke into the music biz.

PLUS the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band made some great music (though James Gadson was far from happy with the way he got treated during that period by Charles).

A Watts 103rd St album that may illustrate the impact the band had; note the country of origin of this release ............

 

  On 19/03/2016 at 08:18, Robbk said:

I'm interested in his early life AND, more importantly, his earlier career, up to the point when he started The Watts 103rd Street Band.  He was part of a circle of L.A, songwriters and producers that had connections with H. B. Barnum and Frank Wilson and Marc Gordon, Willie Hutchison and Hal Davis during the early to mid '60s, which is undoubtedly how he came to use some songs in his productions that he had written for Los Angeles' Jobete Music office.  I'm interested in find out with whom he was working, how he made which connections, what he recorded for whom (who owns the masters now, if there's anything left in the can.

I know you guys will like this, a really really cool photo, although if I was doing a caption thing James Gadson looks like he's is chewing/sucking a mint ?

Edited February 18, 20214 yr by Blackpoolsoul

I visited Weldon McDougal at his home in Philadelphia circa 2003.

I mentioned to Weldon that I was a big fan of the Mirwood sound but could find no reference as to who was doing the backing tracks at Emperor Production Studios.

He picked up the phone and called Brenda Holloway who said immediately that it was The 103rd Street Rhythm Band.

In one of Kent's cd booklets Ady Croasdell notes that Brenda and her sister Patrice were both in the Belles group which recorded briefly for Mirwood.