Roburt

Tom Ingrassia is an award-winning author and radio personality, motivational speaker, and the former creative director of Mary Wilson Enterprise's Supreme Legacy merchandising division. His extensive collection of Motown memorabilia is highlighted within this book, alongside vintage imagery of the artists who had everyone dancing in the streets ! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Detroit-Motown-Images-Modern-America/dp/1467114383

......... AND them doing "Wade In The Water" ..............

The Blind Boys do an old Impressions track .............

Shot over the last 10 years, there is a new documentary coming out that features the career of the Blind Boys of Alabama. The likes of Roscoe Robinson and many more have been members down the years and they have certainly made a lot of good music over their 75+ year career. They even got involved with a top rated US TV series via this theme tune ......... Details of the documentary can be found here .......... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3546590/ It's doing the film festival circuit at the moment, I hope this is another show that the BBC eventually buy to show on BBC4. The movies Facebook page .......... https://www.facebook.com/howsweetthesoundmovie

Yes, but back in the 60's (& then into the 70's) sheet music was published even for songs that didn't become hits. After that period, officially printed sheet music dropped away quickly as less & less people were buying it. By the early 80's (when the FW 45 was first released) I believe it was only Top 10 hits that the sheet music was usually printed up for (here in the UK at least). I also have loads of soul related sheet music, both US & UK. A posting on this topic could prove interesting.

Another Ola Anabule fave of mine is one of his early cuts. His cover of "Every Kind of People" which he cut for Warners (before he went out on his own label). ......... I believe this only escaped on vinyl in France (on a 12" single with mixes that excluded the rap which is on the above version). Think it was put out on vinyl in France after his tune was used on a TV ad there.

Ola Anabule (out of Bedford !!) has been making great music for at least 20 years. Lots of his older stuff goes down great on the dance floor (at MS events at least). Can't recall the title of my fave dance cut by him at the moment (from 10 years or so back) but Rugged Ram put out a limited edition white label remix 12" of it that I gave to our kid (who was a Prestatyn W/Ender Modern Room DJ at the time). This used to go down really well whenever he played it. Maybe he'll post up what the track title was as my memory is totally shot these days.

Very much doubt this song ever made it to sheet music, in the US or UK.

Much happening for Mavis in the near future .............. There is a documentary out on her that HBO will screen in the US ............ ....... https://variety.com/2015/film/news/hbo-acquires-sxsw-doc-mavis-1201470235/ Hope the BBC buy it for screening on BBC4 .............. ALSO .......... She has a new 4 track EP coming out (including 10" vinyl format ) ............. ....... https://consequenceofsound.net/2015/04/stream-mavis-staples-new-ep-your-good-fortune/ I like the 2nd track ("Fight") best !! BTW, she's just back from an Australian tour, the lady is keeping busy.

Sharon McMahan was cutting in California in 1973 ............

One of Jock's Detroit cuts ..............

Jock's trip is also making news back in Florida .... http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150402/ENT/150409965?tc=cr

Sonny Thompson was signed to King Records through the first half of the 1950's, the same time period that Henry Stone was associated with King. Sonny would tour all over the US with his band, playing venues like Cleveland's Ebony lounge for a two week stint in early March 1952. I'd guess it was Henry Stone that hooked Beacham and Thompson up, Beacham himself having been signed to a deal with King Records by the mid 50's. But in 1955, Stone had a big bust up the King's Syd Nathan and so he quit King to start up his own Chart Record label back in Miami. The two artists he took with him to Chart were Rufus Beacham and Sonny Thompson. There are no other mentions for a Rufus Junior in Billboard mag apart from the two record reviews that relate to the songs that Beacham wrote .....

A club date that Rufus Beacham (& his Orchestra) undertook in Miami in January 1959 .... "Insulated Sugar" (see ad) was a song that Rufus (+ Sonny Thompson ?) had written some years earlier that pianist & band leader Sonny Thompson had recorded for King Records in 1953. The cut featured vocals from Rufus Junior ..... .................................. was this perhaps a young Rufus Beacham .... ?? ... anyone know ? Later in 1953 (October), King released Sonny Thompson's "My Heart Needs Someone" which again featured Rufus Junior on vocals. Yet again the song is credited (on the label) as being penned by Beacham & Thompson. This track seems to have been cut (from the matrix numbers) at the same session as "Insulated Sugar".

RUFUS BEACHAM BACKING MUSICIAN @ TROPICAL --- BOB TEBO Luckily, I have been able to touch base with Bob Tebo who today works in the DC area as a Digital Media video producer (his day job). He's a drummer in a modern funk band for a hobby and lives in Alexandria, a southern suburb of DC (though it's over the river in Virginia). Back in the day, he was in a 4 strong band of white kids that got to play on some recordings for Tropical Records artists. He recalled those days for me …. The whole Rufus Beacham episode was an experience and lots of fun.!! I started playing drums about 1966 and I'm still having fun playing, performing and recording. The Miami soul sound was unique and I just played a small part in it. However, the experience with Rufus was one of the many reasons why I continue to play drums. I was born and raised in Miami so right up front that's why I happened to be there in the first place. I actually grew up in Miami Springs and I had some friends that lived in Coral Springs (he made mention of this as Coral Springs is where we stay when in the area). My time with Tropical. At the time of the recording I was playing drums in several high school dance bands, doing Santana and 3 Dog Night stuff at high school sock hops etc. The other band I was in was a gospel / soul band for an older guy by the name of William Gerome Vickers (who has 12 songs registered with BMI). Some friends and I met Bill in a record store one night and we got talking. I had only been playing about 4 year up till then and wasn't really all that skilled. But I was always learning and listening to the latest pop music and trying to imitate what I heard. Bill Vickers was an aspiring black gospel singer / producer who lived with his family close by Tropical Records. He led a group of four singers that had a similar sound to the Staple Singers, they were called "The Creative Voices and the Faith". Just picture 4 black singers dancing with purple suits on, looking kind of like the Temptations .... and then 4 white kids playing behind them (David Todd on bass, Don Marinelli on guitar, Joel Stein on keyboards with me on drums). When we would get together with Bill for rehearsals and planning, he was always playing Staple Singers records to us. Anyway, we met several times with Bill and he expressed the need for a young funky / soul sounding band to play behind him and his singers. We all got along great too. When we played, we were just average but we tried hard to sound something like Motown musicians and yet get the sound that he wanted. Bill wrote original material for us to play, some good, some bad. We (me and my mates) felt like we were doing something cool and yet a little different than the usual rock and roll that we had been used to. We ended up going on a few limited tours with him into north Florida and Georgia. So all in all it was fun and really interesting. He wanted to do some demo recordings in hopes of shopping them to labels up and down the east coast. We were intrigued to say the least, so we started rehearsing with him on a regular basis. There was a lot of rehearsing and group meetings that went on before we were ready. Over a few months, he pulled enough funds together to record our first demos at Tropical studios at the 7th Ave. address. They were basic but not too bad and so were pressed up on the Tropical label as well. I still have a few of the 45 pressings in my home vault. As for the studio,Tropical was in a rough neighbourhood (Overtown) and it wasn't a fancy place. The inside was pretty modest and limited compared to the bigger studios I'd been to in Miami. It was old and had a real 1950's industrial look about it. But it was studio and did the job. We recorded on a 1/2 inch ampex 4 track machine. The console looked very basic and home-made, probably built by the resident engineer. I cant remember the monitors but they sounded real muddy and didn't have much high end. I was a kid at the time and didn't have much knowledge about studios. I was just excited I was even in one. That all went on for about 6 months. We then hooked up with Rufus one night when we were scheduled for a Creative Voices session. We (the band) arrived early, so we set up and started warming up with some basic funky jams. The engineer was getting levels and placing mics as we were jamming. Low and behold to our surprise Rufus Beacham came strolling in and heard us. He liked our spirit and asked us if we were playing with anyone and if we wanted to so some session work for him. Of course we all said YES, just like that ! I recall that one of his comments was that "we played like funky black boys". He couldnt believe we were white kids playing like black guys. It was a politically incorrect time and we were all just brothers together in the studio. We had no Idea who he was at the time, but again it all sounded like fun so we went for it. We talked a little more and hit it off and he set up a time for us to come back and cut one song with him and his guitarist Bobby Sands (or was it Sam?) That song was "Do You Have a Good Woman". We 'white boys' were so excited about the idea that someone heard us and wanted us on a session that we were ga ga the whole week back at school! Well, the session came off and we worked for several hours on a handful of takes. We worked hard and never got a penny, but it was fun to say the least. The pressing doesn't have a good sound at all, but my bandmates and I didn't care. We were young and excited to be part of the whole process. I had a modest drum kit compared to today but it didn't matter ! It was all about the sound and getting the beat right. We were getting our studio experience early. Rufus was a good very flashy keyboard player and singer and was kinda like a Sly Stone / Marvin Gaye character. A tall skinny dude all dressed up with lots of attitude. I would estimate him in his late 30's, maybe 40 when we met him. He had done a lot of work down the years, but we didn't know much about this and him. He was very skilled at session work and how to underplay to make a good pad for his voice. Rufus acted as the producer on "Good Woman". It was his arrangement and he directed the whole sound on every take (we did 4 to 6 takes in all) He giving us orders for feel, emphasis and style etc. The 3rd guy that was there in the studio, he did the narrative intro on the cut but acted more like a manager / biz kinda fellow. He didn't seem very knowledgeable about arranging or playing music, he just dealt with logistic matters with the engineer. Rufus gave us tips on how not to overplay and clutter the overall sound. I was learning how to dump the fills and just stick to a solid consistent beat. He worked us hard but he liked what he got from us. Bobby Sands (who was about the same age as Rufus) was pretty good too. Neither of them would tolerate any slack playing. They played solid and knew what they wanted. It was a good learning experience for a young pup drummer and bass player (both David and I played on the track). Don tried some to put in some background chords and Joel just sat it out. The funny thing about the track that we could never get over was, when the producer did the verbal intro to the song and then mentioned 'Bobby Sands on Guitar', it sounded a little corny to us. But it was their song and they were paying the studio time so we just shut up and played. We figured it was just some kind of thing that he put on all his demos. We were young and having fun in a studio. After the session wrapped, we listened to the playbacks and everyone seemed to like what we had put down. We all left the studio and we never heard from Rufus again. It was way back when there were no cell phones and texting. After that I never heard the song played again anywhere. I just figured the tapes ended up in the great dumpster in the sky. So you can imagine my reaction to seeing it up on Youtube as a 45 all these years later!!, my jaw dropped. After all that recording and playing ended, I never went back to Tropical after that. The next year we did some more demo's and two 45 singles for Bill Vickers with a new singer, 'Queenie Bell'. We used Criteria Studios in Miami this time. The legendary Carl Richardson was our engineer. We learnt a lot from him too. Once again, not to overplay, keep the beat solid; less is more! The tracks that I played on for Vickers that were done for the Tropical label are were follows :- Stop Playin With the Lord – Bill Vickers on lead vocal. Recorded at Criteria Time For Peace – Queenie Bell on lead vocal. Recorded at Criteria (these 2 recordings I have on tape. They were transferred from an acetate reference disc about 25 yrs ago). I Want To Be an Angel -- Queenie Bell on lead vocal. Recorded at Tropical Sincere People -- Queenie Bell on lead vocal. Recorded at Criteria (these 2 recordings are pressed up on a 45 rpm disc on Tropical) All 4 songs were written by William Vickers and are registered with BMI. We recorded maybe another 2 or 3 titles for Vickers but I don't have copies of those recordings and can't remember the titles. Bill Vickers was stocky black guy about 40 to mid 40s.Queenie Bell was a thin black woman about in her mid twenties, maybe 30. She was a good singer but not highly motivated in the studio. Vickers tried pushing her, but she never seemed all that interested. We would see her at the rehearsals a lot. She alternated between backing vocals and lead vocals depending on the song. I don't know about any other groups or recordings that she was involved with. All of Vickers material was gospel and so many of his singers were church friends. They all had that gospel singing style. Bill would rotate the guy singers almost every month to the point where we couldn't keep track of their names. Some of the vocals on the recorded songs were not very good, being rough but some were actually very good. It just depended on the song. We white boys just rolled with it all because Bill was paying the bills. It was fun, however, those recordings never went anywhere. So like many bands, we split up and went our separate ways. After that I went back to school and then onto NY and LA and did studio and club work for a while. I still have a copy of the 45 single "Sincere People" which we recorded at Criteria as I recall. BOB TEBO

Eddie Holloway, who also had a 45 out on Gem Records, would play gigs at the Continental Club as well ..........

The Human Race, who had a 45 out on Tropical's Gem label, were the house band at the Continental Club. The club was situated across the road from Mr. Walters Wig Shop (he ran Wax-wel Records) and so Mr. Walters would organise shows at the club on a regular basis. The Continental was located on 7th Avenue, a few blocks north of where Tropical Records were based (today it's just an empty plot). Before it was known as the Continental, it had operated under the name of the King O' Hearts and was the venue where Sam & Dave had started out as a duo. HUMAN RACE .... Other local (& national) artists also played the club, one of these being Mary Hylor .........

Another major establishment in the Overtown area (where Tropical Records et al were located) was the Mary Elizabeth Hotel. This place had it's Zebra Lounge and it's Birdland Nightclub. Here local acts such as the Marvells (Fabulettes) would support the likes of Little Willie John, Dizzy Jones, the Original Drifters, the Laddins (Steinways), etc. When the I-95 road was constructed through Overtown in 1967, the destruction of housing involved reduced the resident population from 40,000 to 10,000. So although the major establishments survived the demolition, their local crowd had been decimated and so they were never really the same again. The building that housed the hotel wasn't actually demolished until summer 1983 but it had long been closed by that time. The place back in it's heyday ..... A Dizzy Jones track .....

A 6 minute long video documentary about the music scene in Overtown (Miami) back in the day. Tropical Records, the (Sir John) Knight Beat Club & more were all located in the area ............ https://overtownmusicproject.org/videos/overtown-in-its-heydey

Find below a pretty incomplete listing of the 45's put out by Tropical (Miami) ......... I'd guess that most of the missing numbers relate to gospel tracks. If you can fill in any gaps please send the info along. I've also guessed that there is no Tropical T114 & that the Soul Time 45 took this number but could easily be wrong. TROPICAL RECORDS -- MIAMI Tropical 101 Eddie Taylor – Just The Way You Are / The State Song SOUL (1964) Tropical 102 Tropical 103 Tropical 104 Tropical 105 Utility Voices – What He Said He Would Do / I Got Everything I Need Tropical 106 Tropical 107 Frankie Seay & Soul Riders – Soul Food / Black Jack SOUL Tropical 108 Frankie Seay & Soul Riders – I Came a Long Way To Get You / Hold On SOUL Tropical 109 Tropical 110 Missionaires – Clouds Hanging Low Pt. 1 & 2 Tropical 111 Tropical 112 Frankie Seay & Soul Riders – Baby Please / All I Want Is Loving You SOUL Tropical T113 Queenie Bell & Creative Voices – Sincere People / I Want To Be An Angel Soul Time ST114 Alberta Baker – My Search Is Over / I Have Something SOUL Tropical T115 Tropical T116 Treetop & the Soul Branches -- Inside Out / Don't Go Away SOUL (1970) Tropical T117 Tropical T118 Tropical T119 Rufus Mr. Soul Beacham – Lead Me On / Do You Have A Good Woman SOUL Tropical T120 W.C. Keith with the Sons of Daniel – My Job / On The Battlefield Tropical T121 Tropical T122 Tropical T123 The Faithful Few – Did You Stop To Pray This Morning / Tropical T124 Tropical T125 Tropical T126 Wallace Key with Sons of Daniel – My Prayer / Jesus Died Tropical T127 Tropical 126 Tropical 29 Mt. Carmel Baptist Church Choir – Do You Know My Jesus / ? Gem 101 Human Race – Human Race / Gray Boy SOUL (late 60's release?) Gem 102 Eddie Holloway -- I Had A Good Time / I'm Standing By SOUL (Aug 70 release)

There's a photo of Treetop with his instruments (& ready to play) in this 2009 newspaper article. The piece also shows a photo of David Hudson who was performing at the establishment that night ........... https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/shantel-lounge-sunday-fish-fry-with-live-blues-and-randb-6565930 Shantel's Lounge is located on the corner of NW 7th St & 55th Terrace, just a short distance north of where the Tropical Records building is situated.

Treetop was in the house band at this club for a number of years back in the day ......

More info on Treetop .................. https://overtownmusicproject.org/overtown-musicians/tree-top

Miami based soulman Bobby Stringer (Fun City & SWAR Records) passed away last year and I don't believe the fact has been noted on here .................. https://overtownmusicproject.org/overtown-musicians/rip-bobby-stringer Bobby singing live deep soul not too long before he passed ......

This is a bit old now (the house was saved from a forced bank sale 6 months ago) but I don't recall it being reported at the time. Just shows, even a guy who had & made numerous hits and was a mainstay on the soul music scene can fall on hard times .............. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-blowfly-s-house-from-the-taxman