Results for “fame”

A compiler’s answer to the most frequently asked question among Ace collectors…

I only ever met George Henry Jackson once, but it was an occasion I’ll never forget. In January 2010 my Ace colleague Dean Rudland and I left our Muscle Shoals hotel in the small hours of the morning, to drive several hundred miles in weather conditions that ‘appalling’ would be far too kind a word to describe, braving snowdrifts and sub-zero temperatures at an ungodly hour to keep a 10AM appointment to interview George and Harrison Calloway at Malaco’s famous Jackson, MS studios. We were nervous and excited at the prospect of meeting a couple of our musical heroes, and the fact that we were a little late in arriving made us even more so – particularly as both men were already sitting in the Malaco lobby waiting for us when we got there.

Joe Bihari’s death on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 88, now leaves Art Rupe and Phil Chess as the sole survivors of a unique group of post-war independent record men. Their efforts created a body of music which remains a major influence on popular music.

2007

A year of deaths, celebration and buying catalogues.

In March, Hy Weiss of Old Town / Barry Records died in Florida. The idea of deaths as ‘burning libraries’ certainly applied to Hy, a fount of insider knowledge about the music business from the mid-50s onwards. He was frank about it being full of scams and dodges. Most of his artists we met had no illusions about him, but also real affection. Plus, he could tell you a thing or two about them, too. He featured in many books, some more discreetly than others and it is a shame he never did tell his own tale. What tales he had to tell: tall, frighteningly honest and often very funny.