Results for “Pleasure”

2012

The Fame catalogue rolled on, as did the Songwriter and London American series, Mod Jazz and New Breed danced on and there were more cute EPs and cuddly 45s. So all of the flowers in the Ace garden were being well tended.

There was a new compiler on the block, looking like he was ready to bop. Ian Saddler, a record collector who specialised in Louisiana music created a new series. The first release was “Boppin’ By The Bayou”. Essential to making the series work was accessing the seminal rock’n’roll and R&B recordings made by JD Miller out of Crowley. While Miller provided Excello with a huge amount of their catalogue, he was also responsible for a lot of great rockin’ rhythm and blues sides that he didn’t sell on. With a big helping hand from John Broven, a deal that had been sought for many a year was finally put together. Before long, the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal was doing a pretty good impersonation of the Bayou. Vince Anthony & the Blue Notes’ ‘Watch My Smoke’ was not just one of the great tracks in the deal but could well be the byword for the alacrity with which the series expanded.

Alex Chilton, the Memphis rock iconoclast best known as a member of 1960s pop-soul act the Box Tops and 1970s cult group Big Star, died of apparent heart problems in New Orleans on 18 March. He was 59 years old.

1993

Harold Battiste’s productions ran the gamut from ‘I Got You Babe’ by Sonny and Cher to Dr John’s “Gris Gris” LP. It was the latter aspect of Battiste’s talents that he brought to the label we licensed his New Orleans-based AFO (All For One) Records. This was deep, deep Crescent City, with early and many previously unreleased sides from Mac Rebennack, Dr John, Prince La La, Nookie Boy and soul chanteuse Tammi Lynn. The series title, “Gumbo Stew”, was as apt as could be. We also issued a jazz piano album by Ellis Marsalis, father of Wynton. 

Orrin Keepnews, one of the most influential and respected figures in jazz died at the age of 92 at his home in El Cerrito, California on 1 March.

Keepnews founded the Riverside jazz record label in 1953 with the help of Bill Grauer, an old college friend. As editor of The Record Changer, Orrin was already on first name terms with most of the leading figures in jazz at that time.

They say that character is destiny, so, make of it what you will, but I don't seem to have had 'adventures' in the field of black American music, so much as 'magic moments'. I remember my first-ever encounter with a recording artist was when I was still an early teen, and I also remember it to this day since it also taught me a lesson in life. When it was first issued, I had gone potty on Dee Dee Sharp's Mashed Potato Time, and, when she came to do a short promotional tour, to the mockery of my mates, I decided to miss the first part of the show and wait at the back entrance of the theatre to catch a glimpse of her in person. Eventually my patience paid off, and she arrived (with her mother, as it turned out), and I shyly introduced myself. She couldn't have been sweeter, warmer or friendlier, and before we parted, she bent over and gave me a big kiss on the cheek! I blushed to my very bones!