Results for “Muscle Shoals”

2009

As time goes by, so more friends die. This year saw the deaths of two people very close to Ace - not just on a professional level but even more on a personal one.

Ray Topping died in January, after a long and cruel illness. His emotional connection to vernacular American music could spill over and make him difficult, but his engagement could never be denied. Rarely has anyone pursued a passion with such singularity. That passion was indelibly stamped on Ace Records, running through the company like lettering through a stick of rock. It was Ray who introduced us to the vast wealth of the Modern catalogue and compiled it in depth across LP and CD, a body of work that is his enduring legacy. But he also worked on Starday, Ace US, Combo, Specialty, Duke / Peacock. He put together two fabulous albums of “Jump Blues” from US Decca, one of Old Town blues sides, an Atlantic set that rocked from top to bottom and so, so many others. He had a keen ear for music, matching enthusiasm and boundless interest in his subject to which he brought a great intelligence. Bless him.

2014

We continued exploring Bob Thiele’s fascinating Flying Dutchman label, putting out Gil Scott-Heron’s second and third albums on CD and vinyl. Those records were as important as Marvin Gaye’s and Curtis Mayfield’s in the new wave of black awareness and commentary emerged in the US in the early 70s. Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong may not be the names that immediately spring to mind when talking about this surge of black politically inspired music but the albums they made for Flying Dutchman were, in their own way, part of this new movement. Ellington’s album was a live celebration of a century of inspirational black figures. Armstrong’s was a celebration of the jazz pioneer himself, including ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and a re-cut of ‘What A Wonderful World’ - which Thiele co-wrote.

All at Ace were deeply saddened today to hear that upper echelon Memphis musician Marvell Thomas has died at the age of 75. Marvell’s work as a musician has long been a feature of the catalogues of almost every label in the Ace family. He’s probably on more of our Stax-derived releases than almost any other musician who ever set foot in the label’s McLemore Avenue studios, given that he was there almost from the day Stax opened for business until the day that bankruptcy forced its closure fifteen years later.

Ace Records aficionados will very likely be familiar with the uniquely soulful guitar-playing which embellished such notable hits as Dobie Gray’s ‘Drift Away’ and Billy Swan’s ‘I Can Help’, as well as the ground-breaking use of electric sitar on the Box Tops’ ‘Cry Like A Baby’ and ‘Hooked On A Feeling’ by B.J. Thomas. Add to these Elvis Presley’s ‘In The Ghetto’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’, Dusty Springfield’s ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’, Joe Tex’s ‘Skinny Legs And All’, and many more significant chartbusters by the likes of Bill Black’s Combo, Joe Tex, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis, Jimmy Buffett, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard. Such an imposing list should provide an idea of the enormous contribution made over six decades by Memphis and Nashville’s most versatile and in-demand session guitarist, Reggie Young, who has died at the age of 82.

Remembered by Tony Rounce.

At the end of last week, a 99-year-old man died.

Quinton Claunch’s passing didn’t make the Friday lunchtime news, nor did it cause national networks to scrap their scheduled programming for the rest of the day, and broadcast hour after hour of tributes to his achievements.

Although it should have done.

News of Quinton’s death may have flown ‘under the radar’ - but as soon as it was announced, word quickly spread among a sad soul community that he had gone, and the subsequent tributes across soul’s social media have been many, and glowing.