Tommy Wills RIP - Article - Labels and 45s - Airtown, Juke etc

[Mike]

Article on Tommy Wills who sadly passed away recently

Tommy Wills' million labels
Kyle Long  Nov 9, 2017

Intro from the article...

Midwest music legend Tommy Wills passed away on October 20. 

While Wills enjoyed a prolific career as a performer, I believe the saxophonist’s most enduring contributions to music were achieved through his work as a recording artist and record label entrepreneur. Wills was a pioneer of independent music in the Midwest, developing innovative distribution strategies for the many labels he founded in Ohio and Indiana. The music Wills released on labels like Gregory, Terry, Airtown and Juke has gone on to attract a large international cult following.

Full article here 

https://www.nuvo.net/music/tommy-wills-million-labels/article_6a635c30-c4c0-11e7-9846-0b8fe00d0521.html

 

 

 

[Triode]

Very sad news, I had contact with Tommy "the man with the horn" probably 15 or more years back he always came across has a nice guy,

I made enquires about the Vondells "Hey girl you've changed" (he was the producer) like many had done before me ,

He attempted to broker me a copy through a former band member but the guy wanted far too much for a very rough copy,

He later offered me the master tape in the hope of possibly getting a UK release but sadly nothing transpired,

Until quite recently he was still on the road as band leader of from memory of the Duke Ellington Orchestra,

during the years he owned a number record labels as Mike mentioned plus performing, producing several groups at the same time as running a large juke box business.

We only ever had contact by phone and he was a larger than life character who I regret never actually meeting in person....RIP TOMMY

 

Edited November 10, 2017 by Triode

[Soul-slider]