Sit back, relax and listen to Bobby Scott, the leader of my band as we pay tribute to the great ones in the Rhythm & Blues field - not to copy, just to pay tribute." That's Chuck Jackson's invitation at the beginning of this CD which combines the albums originally released separately as Tribute To Rhythm & Blues Volumes 1 & 2. And pay tribute they do, with lively renditions of over 20 soul & R&B favourites from the early to middle 60s rather than the somewhat pale imitations that sometimes seemed to fill out the albums of some of Chuck's contemporaries."
As Bill Dahl reveals in his notes, Chuck had told him - We just went with my band, we didn't have an engineer. We used Florence Greenberg's son [Stan Green]. We just went in and sat down and did it. We didn't stop. We did it just like we were at a nightclub." Bobby Scott led a band that hailed from Galveston, Texas. He himself played tenor sax and the key players in the band were Chuck's mainstay on the road from 1963 until the end of the decade. Joining him for the sessions that produced the TRIBUTE TO RHYTHM & BLUES were a horn section that included trumpeters Patrick Williams and Willie Cook, trombonist Malcolm Esther, tenor saxist Philbert Lasley, and baritone saxist Clifford Cotton. The rhythm section comprised guitarist Joe L Smith, bassist Douglas McKindley, and drummer Vincent Ruggiero. Chuck earns himself a credit on organ, and Valerie Simpson, then a Scepter/Wand staff writer (along with her partners Nicholas Ashford and Joshie Jo Armstead), played piano and organ.
