Bull City Syndicate: Horns of Plenty
Vhondy Strickland.
I had a friend’s request on MySpace a couple weeks ago, a group named Bull City Syndicate. I’d never heard of them, so I went to their profile. What a great sound! Funky, soulful, strong vocals … tremendous horns. Not long after that, I get an email from JD Cash; they’re coming to Razzie’s at 2001 in Myrtle Beach. I’m stoked. This is a band I want to see.
I head to the nightclub for the Friday night show on April 3 and I wasn’t disappointed. First and foremost, this is a horn band.
Clarke Egerton is on trombone and vocals. He also serves as the group’s musical director. Vhondy Strickland plays tenor, alto and soprano sax as well as the flute. If a soulful sax solo grabs you, chance are it’s Vhondy. Louisiana boy Steve Baker, who handles most of the MySpace contact, plays trumpet and flugel and handles some lead vocals. His singing voice is as smooth as his horn. According to the band’s website, Steve was also a founding member of the Raleigh Jazz Orchestra. Completing the horn section is Rodney Ogden, who also plays both trumpet and flugelhorn. Simply put, he’s a powerhouse.
With a line of horns like this, you can’t get by with a wimpy rhythm section. Bull City Syndicate’s tight four-piece rhythm section drives the group easily from R&B to funk. Matt Kanon’s dynamic guitar work is solid, and the band credits him with keeping the dance floor full. Larry Woodard from Raleigh is one of the most sought after drummers of North Carolina. Bassist Jeff Nelson lays down some of the funkiest basslines I’ve heard. Rounding out the rhythm section is soulful Charlie D’Agostino playing keyboard. Bull City Syndicate is a band with chops and soul. Lead singer Dan Lantier brings on da funk in a big way. His vocal range must be off the scale. Covering Earth Wind & Fire, his falsetto is right up there with Philip Bailey. The group recently added Charlotte Renee Gregory to their front line, sharing shares lead vocal chores with Dan. Charlotte has performed with nationally known acts such as Rhett Akins, Trisha Yearwood, Ricochet, Ken Mellons and Charlie Monk. In the Carolinas, you may have seen her with Raleigh-based jazz/funk group Café Mars; Myrtle Beach’s Rockin’ Country; Heart’s Desire, reincarnated last year as Mark Roberts and Breeze; Sugardaddies; and the Flabbergasters.
Band History
Bull City Syndicate came into this world in 1993 – as a blues band called Soul Kitchen playing clubs in the Raleigh/Durham area. After adding Clarke Egerton and Vhondy Strickland, the Bull City Horns were born, and now it was Soul Kitchen & the Bull City Horns playing around the Triangle of N.C. The next addition was Steve Baker in 2001, who the band credits with bringing lead trumpet chops on board along with another lead vocal. The band was now able to perform more sophisticated horn arrangements, Now they were a horn band. Trumpet player Rodney Ogden joined the group three years ago, making this top drawer horn section even tighter. The addition of lead singer Dan Lantier in 2007 was the next big change for the group. He brought a vocal range equal to the breadth of the horns. Grappling with trademark infringement issues arising from another Soul Kitchen band, the group finally evolved into the Bull City Syndicate, giving a nod to their hometown of Durham, N.C., even as the band continues to build its fan base and reputation throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Bull City Syndicate released their first CD, You Make Me Feel (2007 SMB Music Group), which is a tribute to composers either born in or living in North Carolina. The 13-track disc includes originals by John Custer, who produced the album and is responsible for the horn arrangements. It also includes “(I Wanna) Testify,” written by George Clinton and Deron Taylor; “Go Up Moses,” written by Roberta Flack, Jesse Jackson and Joel Dorn and “Supernatural Thing, Part 2” by Ben E. King, Patrick Grant and Gwen Guthrie. Today, this funk rock horn band plays special events, corporate gigs, weddings, clubs and festivals. They cover Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, Chicago, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and many others. In addition, they’re also committed to developing their own original work, and their fans support it. This is one group you’ll want to experience for yourself. Visit their website at www.bullcitysyndicate.com or one of their two MySpace pages: www.myspace.com/bullcitysyndicate or www.myspace.com/bcshornbandtribute.
A version of this post will be published in Beach Newz in Coast Magazine and Alternatives NewsMagazine, issue April 9 – 23, 2009, p. 24.
Johnny Cox -From His Sisters
Johnny Cox (courtesy Randy Humble)
I received this from Johnny’s sisters and they have given me permission to post it here.
Memories of Our Brother, Johnny- by Jill Cox Parris and Debbie Cox Sloan
Many people only knew the musician, Johnny Cox, a member of The Jays, The Sparkletones, The Barons, The Swingin’ Medallions, Sassy, Rhythm Brothers, Griff & Johnny, The Out-of-Towners Band, and many more. We would like to honor his memory and introduce you to more about him as a son and a brother- the Johnny we knew and loved.
Johnny’s mother lovingly called him “Junebug” and she called him this throughout his life and reminded him (and us) many times that his favorite book was still “The Pokey Little Puppy.” In the first grade, he was asked to be the director of the 1st grade musical group in the school program, but had to relinquish the title of Director and play the cymbals instead because he was the only one who could “feel the beat” and play the cymbals at the right time. He loved playing midget football and idolized his daddy who was the coach of his team. “Johnny Rex”, the apple of his grandmother’s eye and the apple of many of his aunts’ and uncles’ eyes, would put on his “Davy Crockett” coonskin cap, and go “hunting” behind his home with his Daisy BeeBee rifle, accompanied by his beloved dog Rags. He would take his little sister to Sunday school with him and try to make her comfortable by sitting in her class with her until he could “sneak out” to his own class. Johnny’s first “normal” job was behind the soda fountain at Stinson’s drug store, where he made the best cherry cokes in Woodruff. He spent his first paycheck on a jacket with a fur-lined hood for his little sister, but in the next moment would send her screaming as he terrorized her by chasing her as he pretended he was “Frankenstein”. By the way, speaking of scared, the movie that always terrified him was “The House of Wax” starring Vincent Price.
At 13, he cut his first record with the Barons. It was called “Jaywalk”, a song he wrote and played on his saxophone. He was recruited by a band called the “Sparkletones”. The group had a hit called “Black Slacks” and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Johnny toured with them in Canada, playing sax, at the age of 14. Upon his return home, his 6-year old sister kissed his hand over and over because it was the hand that shook the hands of Ricky Nelson, Fabian, and Paul Anka!!! However, if the truth is known, his sister adored him much more than those other stars and grieved every time he went away!! He loved getting his mother to hum or sing a song to him, and then he would play it back to her on his sax…….Always amazing her!
He loved taking pictures of his sisters with his black and white film camera……..posing his little sister like Zorro or a dead cowboy, and taking pictures of his baby sister because he said “She looks like a baby model.” He taught his little sister to shag and loved bouncing his baby sister on his knees.
Johnny had many girlfriends, or those who wanted to be his girlfriend. His aloofness (which was really shyness) seemed to make him a good catch…but there were a few (Janet, Jean, Nancy, Martha, Becky, and Kay) who really captured his interest and attention. Back then, he did not like the fact that he wore glasses, so he would wear prescription sunglasses at night. When he was asked why….he would say, “Because the street lights hurt my eyes!” Johnny was the lead in the school play, and his little sister practiced his lines with him diligently. He drove a school bus, was in the Beta Club, and was voted Best Looking AND Most Talented out of his senior class……a fact he never let his family forget. He talked of taking his dates home ON Saturday nights in time to get back up to the “Wenoka” to watch “the Fugitive” on TV with his friends! On a couple of occasions, we witnessed a few of his buddies making fun of him on Sunday afternoon because he always took a Sunday afternoon ride or picnics with all of us and then went back home with us to watch Bonanza together as a family. He said it didn’t matter, because that was what he wanted to do. Daddy liked “Pa”, Lorne Green…Mama liked Brother Adam, Johnny and Debbie liked Little Joe, and Jill liked “Hoss Cartwright”….that was our favorite show.
As a Furman student, he wanted his mother to see how he had arranged his dorm room. Before he would let her in, he turned on the lamp beside his bed and started a jazz record by Dave Brubeck on his record player. This prompted his roommate to say, “Johnny, you would think you were bringing Marilyn Monroe in to see your room”, to which Johnny replied, “No, I just want Mama to like it”…he loved his mother deeply. Johnny came home on weekends to teach the 13-year old boys in Sunday school. One Sunday, as the family got ready for church together, his baby sister could not find her Sunday black patent leather shoes….so someone had to stay home with her….it was Johnny, who then promptly fell back asleep while his baby sister rode “round and round” him on her tricycle, trying to wake him! He also orchestrated a Christmas Eve service at home, directing his family members to read the Christmas Story from the Bible, and to kneel around the Christmas tree together to hold hands and pray.
Years later, when his baby sister yearned to drive the family car, Johnny took the opportunity to teach her all he knew about driving. Johnny was 29, and Jill was 13. Nearly 10 years had passed since Johnny had lived at home with the rest of the family, but he still had a big brother’s heart. Not surprisingly, he managed to get the family car and his baby sister home safely. After only 30 minutes, Johnny was sitting in the passenger seat while baby sister drove as they rolled up in the driveway. Our parents were not surprised at all….. that was typical “Brother Johnny.”
We were always proud of Johnny and the fact that he was a great musician. We’ve always held a soft spot in our hearts for musicians, since both our Dad and brother played music. You know, most “normal” families back when we were growing up had formal living rooms where the mothers kept the nicest furniture in the house… you know, the room where children were not allowed to play? Well, our home’s living room was filled with guitar amps, a Hammond organ, a Farfisa keyboard, a saxophone stand, and drums. Our family’s house is where our Dad and brother’s band rehearsed many times. While we rode bicycles up and down the street outdoors, or did homework in the adjoining room, we could hear the sounds of our Daddy and Johnny playing their songs, laughing and talking with their band mates. That was what occupied our mother’s living room (it takes a special breed also to be a musician’s wife)! We can’t help but smile when we remember the smells and sounds of laughter, leather guitar cases, cigarette smoke, and chord progressions being discussed and shouted out above the tunes. Over and over again, they would play, until the song was perfect. Looking back now, we laugh about how we never realized this wasn’t “ordinary.” We never stopped to think that other living rooms in Woodruff were not filled with bulky music gear, microphones, and long, black, winding cables plugged into amplifiers. It all seemed normal to us then, and we never thought otherwise….. until now.
A very early memory of our brother is of him performing at the American Legion Hut in Woodruff with a group of teenage boys. He was playing his beloved saxophone, of course, and we were in the crowd watching the band and swaying to the music as he played the song, “Last Night”. His baby sister was 3, his little sister was 11, and Johnny was 19 at the time. At one point he came down from the stage area and began to hold our hands, dancing with us and laughing. We also were privileged to be with him and see him play the last time he performed on his beloved sax in December, 2008…..a memory we will cherish forever. We now realize with the passing of our brother (and our Daddy 3 years ago), that their presence in our lives made our family’s life as extraordinary and un- typical as you might imagine. Looking back on these memories, we wouldn’t have had our lives any other way!
By the way, no one will ever play “Danny Boy” as good as our big brother did!
Hey Johnny, Wanna Sit In?
Flash, Michael James, Griff, Michael Stallings and Johnny at Papa's Restaurant, The Breakers, Myrtle Beach.(Photo by Babs Ludwick)
Music lovers throughout the Carolinas are reeling from the loss of saxophone player Johnny Cox, who died in Charleston, S.C. last Saturday afternoon, March 20, 2009. Musically and personally Johnny threw a bright light from the upstate of South Carolina to the Grand Strand. Well-known for his time with the Swingin’ Medallions, he’s also played with the Out of Towners, Greg Moseley & the Carolina Players, Griff and just about every band that passes through. It was a year ago this week that I sat down with Johnny and blues guitarist Michael Stallings, at Deckerz Saloon in North Myrtle Beach.
What struck me then … and what I remember now … is his smiling face as he spoke about his career and his early days in music. “My daddy really kept me in line,” Johnny said. “At 13 I was wanting to teach these other guys how to play their instruments. Imagine, I was trying to tell the guitar player how to play ‘Rebel Rouser!’
“I learned some respect with the Swingin’ Medallions, too. One of the best lessons we ever learned, in fact . . . We were playing Augusta, Ga. with Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces. I must have been 22 or 23. This old station wagon with an old U-Haul trailer pulls up and this bunch of ‘old 60-ish guys’ get out and introduced themselves. It was Bobby Moore and his group. “We took one look at them and said to each other, ‘We’re going to smoke ‘em.’
“Well, we didn’t smoke ‘em. (One guy was playin’ a Birdland guitar.) They smoked us! We learned respect.”
The more I talk to people about Johnny, the more I realize that these early lessons stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Saxophone player and vocalist Tony Kennedy, formerly with the Rickey Godfrey Band and now playing with the Out of Towners and Freshwater – knew Johnny through his family. “Johnny was my wife’s second cousin.. He was just a great human being. It’s a sad note to see him go.”
Susan and Donny Trexler have also been close friends, “It’s hard to accept that we won’t see Johnny come in the door of the club where we’re playing and start unpacking his sax. What a joy when he joined us to blow that horn! We will both miss his smiling face and sweet sax.” says Susan, and Donny adds, “We’ve known Johnny since he was with the Medallions and he’s always been such a true, honest, and great friend. Never pretentious, just down home good people.”
Singer songwriter Calabash Flash echoed that, “Johnny was such a humble guy. Babs and I met him ten or 12 years ago, and he never even mentioned that he had been in the Swingin’ Medallions. He was just a regular guy … never bragging… just happy to play.”
At The Pad in NMB, for Johnny's 60th (courtesy Randy Humble)
I’ve been talking and reminiscing with a lot of folks about Johnny, and every last one of them talks about Johnny’s positive attitude.
Rickey Godfrey was in his teens when he first met Johnny. “I remember Johnny Cox as always having a positive attitude, and a compulsive love for the music. Years ago, Johnny used to play with Alan Pearson, a great drummer, who was later in my band, Garfeel Ruff, during the 1970s. Wherever Johnny went he always carried his saxophone with him, he loved sitting in and jamming with everybody. It was always a great time.”
Guitarist Randy Humble goes way back with Johnny. In fact, he and Johnny were both members of the Rhythm Brothers AND Griff’s Clyde Miller Blues Band (named for Griff’s two black labs, Clyde and Miller). “I love Johnny,” says Randy. “He’s down to earth, a good person and a super friend, a super person.”
Singer Pam Russell from Shaggie Maggie adds to the accolades, “The thing about Johnny is, he was always out there in the scene, lovin’ life, playin’ music. The first time I met him, we were playing in some little spot in High Point. Johnny showed up with his sax, ‘Hey, can I sit in?’ That was Johnny.”
Griff, Pam & Johnny at Bar Fly's (now Deckerz) in NMB.
When I talked to Michael Stallings he reminded me of the stories he and Johnny first told me at Deckerz. “I still remember the exact first night I met Johnny,” he said. “I was playing at the Bushes in Greensboro, maybe ‘92 or ‘93, and of course Johnny wanted to sit in. Well I heard him play and didn’t want him to leave! In fact I invited him to join up with us that same night. Eventually, we started working together some.” Next he told me a story about a three-day marathon recording session in Griff’s “little deathtrap studio” that had me laughing out loud.
Hack Bartley has known Johnny Cox since the late 60s. “We joined the Medallions at almost the same time,” he says, “In fact, it’s just 42 years ago to the week that we met, I think. Johnny was a great musician, a great friend and a great team player. From the beginning, he was my musical mentor. I took all my sax playing cues from Johnny. I mean, I was 13 when I got my first horn. When Johnny was 13, he was already touring.
“Another thing about Johnny,” Hack continued, “is that he always made sure everyone got their turn in the spotlight. He’d step in to play, but he always knew when to step back, too. Very generous. If you ask me to say something about Johnny Cox, it’s that he was always positive … it was always, ‘let’s get out on stage and have some fun!’” Hack laughed at this point in the conversation, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “This is a sad time,” he commented, “It’s a sad time for music lovers.”
Founder of the Medallions John McElrath feels much the same. “Johnny was one of my favorite people in the whole world, and as a musician, he was a perfectionist … always practicing … always playing.”
Johnny Cox affected everyone he met. From Internet deejay Bill Swanke, better known as Willie C, comes, “Johnnie was a friend to all, and everyone loved him.He loved the music and loved playing his sax with anyone and everyone for the love and fun of playing the music. He will be truly missed by all. The great band in Heaven now has another player.”
Sea-Cruz keyboard player Dino Fair added, “Beach music has lost one of its true icons. Not only was he a great musician, he was a good friend and one of the last good guys.” Fellow saxophonist Butch Barnes calls him “one of the most giving musicians in the business.”
Gotta love the dogs! (courtesy Randy Humble)
Two of his best buddies are blues musician Griff and 94.9 The Surf deejay Billy Smith. Both wanted to talk about him, but clearly were having a tough time. “Johnny and I could sort of read each other’s mind,” Griff said. “You know, he could improvise as well as anyone I’ve ever known. He was a great musician and a great friend. … We were just on the same page.”
“I just loved to be around him,” Billy Smith told me, “And I can’t believe I’m not going to see him again. Johnny I would get together for a cocktail (we called it a cup of coffee) and sit and reminisce every day. We’d talk about movies, about music, about everything… He was so talented … so good … God bless him, at the Christmas Eve show, right around the time he was diagnosed [with cancer] and I pushed him to play ‘Silent Night’ and it was hard for him. That was a sad moment, sad for me to remember.” He adds, simply, “I loved him.”
It might be Susan Trexler, who summed up Johnny Cox the best. “He was happy. Johnny was a happy guy who lived every day as if it were his last.”
I hadn’t intended to call Linda Cox, Johnny’s wife of 15 years. I didn’t want to intrude, but when she heard I was writing this piece, she wanted to say a few words.“Please thank people for me … for all their worrying. Everyone misses Johnny, I know.
“It’s hard, but I’ll be all right. I’ve got my little business to run and I’ve got lots of friends to help take care of me.
Linda went on to tell me, “I met Johnny 20 years ago at Big E’s in High Point. We’ve been there for each other… supporting each other. He was my best friend … and the love of my life. I know how sad everyone is.”
Johnny collecting dollars for Camp Kemo. (Photo by Babs Ludwick)
A memorial service is tentatively set for11:30 a.m. on April 5 at the Pavilion in North Myrtle Beach with Rev. Beaver. A celebration of Johnny’s life will follow immediately next door at the O.D. Beach Club located inside the O.D. Resort. Sure hope they’ll be jammin’, ’cause I know Johnny will show up to sit in.
If you have a Johnny Cox story you’d like to add, feel free to leave a comment. If it’s too long for a comment, email it to darielb1@gmail.com and I’ll either add it to this or another post. Thanks for stoppin’ by!
(courtesy Randy Humble)
Interview: Don Wise (Dec. 2008)
My Long Awaited Interview With Don Wise
[Note: this interview took place in December, 2008. An edited version of this was published in my Beach Newz column that runs in both Coast Magazine and Alternatives NewsMagazine, the two independent fortnightly papers in Myrtle Beach, S.C.]
The first time I heard Don Wise play saxophone was with the Nashville-based Rickey Godfrey Band at Nightclub 2001 in Myrtle Beach. I became an instant fan, and I’m not alone. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Rickey Godfrey says, “When you hear a couple notes from his sax, you immediately know it’s him playing. Don is a technically skilled player, but he emphasizes ‘feel’ over ‘technique.’ He sounds like one of those guys from the 50s, Sam “The Man” Taylor and Fat Head Newman – in terms on tone. But his style is uniquely Don Wise.” I wanted to know about his time with Delbert McClinton, his propensity for old WWII horns and his plans for the future.
DarielB: You played sax with Delbert McClinton for 22 years. Can you tell me how it began?
DON WISE: In the Summer of 1985 I was in a recording studio in Lubbock, Texas, with a band named Radio Zebra from Germany. We were rehearsing and recording almost daily at this time and I got a phone call at the studio. The voice, without saying who it was, asked what I would be doing in September. I said, “It’s June now and I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow, why?”
It was the then bass player for Delbert. Someone had told him [Delbert] about a sax player in West Texas and he was calling to see if I was available.
Here is the storied part: I was sent cassette tapes of about 50 songs to learn. With no rehearsal under my belt, I received a plane ticket to be in Houston to play on the 25th of September. I wrote out scads of horn parts and even on the plane to Houston had headphones on and sheets of music manuscript spread all around to make sure I had it down.
At the gig, having never met any of the Delbert band, I was introducing myself and trying to get a feel for what the first four or five songs were going to be. (Delbert didn’t get to the club until about 15 minutes before show-time!) All the band guys were saying, “Well, Delbert will just start calling songs.”
“Surely he’s gonna start with something he usually opens with?”
“Nah, something different every night.”
I set up a makeshift music stand with all these sketched parts and suddenly realized that he doesn’t even do the songs any more that I’d spent months committing to memory.
Maybe 80% of the songs I’d learned we have NEVER played with Delbert!
Of the other 20%, and since they didn’t send a list of the songs on the tapes, I would write down a title that cued it for me. So, the first line became the title “It’s 3 O’Clock in the Morning,” but is actually “Back To Louisiana”! I had the titles wrong, so even when he called a song I had learned, I kept asking, “How does that one go?”
To reverse any goodwill I may have brought with me, the makeshift music stand with the 75 pages of circles and arrows got knocked into the crowd about 20 seconds into Delbert’s first song!
I guess he liked my playing because I didn’t miss a show for 17 years and only then because I was caught in a blizzard in the mountains of Tennessee.
DarielB: What was touring like for you?
DON WISE: In the beginning we would go out across the country for or five weeks at a time. The last few years the money was a lot better and we played less, which is what most of us aspire to.
It seemed that no matter where we played the audiences were super and excited that Delbert and the band were there! We could play in a rural area in Finland and 8,000 people would show up singing the lyrics in English along with him.
DarielB: Why did you leave the band?
It was a total of 51 years since I started playing in clubs in Westerly, Rhode Island and I had been with Delbert’s band for the past 22 + years. It was the perfect place for a honking tenor sax guy like me to be, but over the course of time the music changed…leaning a different direction than we played before. Ultimately, it became too much like ditch digging. The hardest part wasn’t the playing. It was the getting in the car to drive three hours to Nashville to get on the tour bus and ride 12 hours to Texas or Kansas or Connecticut to play two hours and go home.
For several years I was feeling a bit frayed around the edges and THIS year I simply decided it was time to vacuum the dust and cobwebs accumulating between my ears and breathe some fresh clean air that wasn’t already breathed twice!
DarielB: Are you playing any gigs with Delbert now?
DON WISE: I have not played any with Delbert since leaving in July [2008], but I am going on the Sandy Beaches Cruise [January 2009] as a guest with my lovely wife Pamela. If all goes well I will be honking a few notes during the week on the cruise!
DarielB: With Delbert, did you have artistic control over your parts?
DON WISE: Most of the time we were a two-horn section of trumpet and tenor, and it is indeed fortunate when you and your section partner can read each other’s phrasing intentions before they’re played.
Some of the horn parts were already a part of the musical fabric when I came on. I had freedom to be creative enough with my parts on a nightly basis to keep it interesting. Some songs have horn parts that HAVE to be played very much the same as when I played them in 1985 for the first time. Other songs can be experimented with some and still not lose the feel or intent. I like to think I was able to interpret the Delbert music as well as anybody out there and was consistent to his genres over those 22-1/2 years.
DarielB: You produced at least one of Delbert’s CDs, didn’t you?
DON WISE: I was producer on Live from Austin (Alligator Records) mainly because I absolutely wanted to have control over what those horns sounded like on the final release.
My solos, of course, but mainly the glorious horn section that played on that Austin City Limits show! Horn sections had been used as dull-witted background for a long long time (from when everybody realized they could play a guitar and turn a knob to be LOUD!).
I wanted it to sound like those great late 40s R&B records with their pure section horn sound. I still think, for overall quality of music, it’s Delbert’s best recording! [Editor’s note: This CD earned Delbert McClinton his first Grammy nomination. Four of Don’s solos from this project were later included in the recording produced for the John Laughter book, “Contemporary Saxophone.”]
DarielB: When and how did you learn to play? What instruments?
DON WISE: I started clarinet lessons when I was nine because I aced some type of tonality test early on (probably more because the band director needed warm bodies). My mother always liked saxophone music, so the decision was made and I liked it.
DarielB: You seem to always play tenor sax? Is there a reason for that? Do you not care for alto and soprano sax sounds?
DON WISE: I am not a big fan of soprano sax, though I have one. I started playing alto after clarinet and still like to play it. I recorded “America the Beautiful” on my first CD playing alto and tenor, and I’m on various recordings playing all three saxes over the years including flute as well. I played tenor exclusively with Delbert because it fit his music better than the other saxes.
DarielB: Rickey Godfrey told me you have an interest in older saxophones, and that you own a sax with thicker metal in it from the World War II era. What are the differences between newer saxes and older models like yours?
DON WISE: Most musicians are interested in trying out new instruments and for a long time I did just that.I’ve bought several different makes of horn that sounded great in the store, only to find it didn’t speak the way it should when we were in high gear on stage. I kept going back to the horn I bought in 1964 from a guitar player in New England. I gave him $55 for it and it’s the horn I still rely on to make my life enjoyable! It’s called “The Martin” and it was made in 1951 from left-over brass howitzer shell casings from WWII.
In California a few years back, BB King’s drummer, hearing me getting ready to go to the stage, said I was the loudest tenor player he’d ever heard without a mic. I always took that as a compliment to my horn! I have a “The Martin” alto, too.
A few years ago I found and bought another “The Martin” tenor made in 1947 and silver plated. Heavier, bigger bore and so consequently it can wear me out. But what a sound. I believe the quality of the metal was better on the older horns. The mechanism on newer horns may be easier to get around on, but the sound coming out the of the bell has to resonate through a lot of things, including the reed, mouthpiece, pads, the type and thickness of metal in the horn and even the resonance in your own head.
DarielB: Who has inspired you – musically?
DON WISE: For sax inspiration there were several that stand out because of the raw energy AND facility on their horn. I was there with my ear to the radio when sax was the centerpiece. I spent long hours working loooooooong tones because I was going for that big, fat, rattle-the-roof sound that I liked to hear.
Red Prysock, Sam “The Man” Taylor and Sil Austin were early on favorites and later King Curtis. He played on all the Coaster hits and later with Aretha Franklin. I liked Jr. Walker somewhat but none of them had the intensity of Red Prysock for sound AND fury! Red Prysock was from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Illinois Jacquet was more a big band swing guy from Texas and I think the players I named earlier developed their style from him and brought it into the jump-blues/r&b era.
DarielB: Any best-loved gigs? Delbert or otherwise?
DON WISE: I’d pick the best-loved one this way. When my kids were little and I would come in from playing late at a club, they knew the rule was “Don’t anyone wake me in the morning until at least noon!”… and I always tacked on, “unless Ray Charles is on the phone!”
In 1997 he finally called and I played on national TV and got the solo on “Let the Good Times Roll.” [The video of this performance can be seen on Don’s MySpace page: www.MySpace. com/donwisemusic.]
DarielB: Anyone special you’d like to work with?
DON WISE: If I had to pick just one, there’s a fantastic band out of Austin, Texas, named Mingo Fishtrap that I’ve played a few times with on the Delbert cruise and they’re as rockin’ as any band I’ve heard in my life. Original songs, powerful horn section, super vocals AND at the beginning of their careers!
DarielB: Are you doing any songwriting now? If so, do you write just for yourself or other artists, too?
DON WISE: As far as song writing I think the ability to say the same old story but in a unique way is what separates the great song writers from the lesser talents. I still don’t consider myself a songwriter by any stretch but I think my songs are unique by virtue of using the language differently. I think that came from being around Delbert for all those years. I have bits and pieces and half-finished songs, plus a few songs that are ready to record. I occasionally have written with the singer in mind, for instance “Deeper Shade of Blue” for Teresa James.
I don’t like the sound of my own voice when I hear it recorded and until “You Don’t Have to Be Lonely,” I wouldn’t let my voice (other than the few comedy type things like “Hold the Mayo”) be put on my own CDs. Everybody, including Delbert, told me my voice was perfect on that song (“You Don’t Have to Be Lonely”) but I still regret letting Don Wise sing it.
DarielB: You seem to have a lot of fans in Norway. How did that come about?
DON WISE: I’m not exactly sure why the fans of Norway like my music. I will say that Norwegians and Europeans in general are very good listeners. By that I mean that when you’ve played a good solo, it is reflected in the response you get back from them immediately.
Or if the band has had one of those one in 500, “This is the best we’ve sounded in a long time!” the Norwegians are right there with you!
It cuts both ways also, when you’re having a mediocre night, you know that THEY feel that, too.
Have you ever tried to play a song that you liked for somebody and they talked all the way through it? They are the opposite of THAT…. and it’s more than the over-simplification that their applause is getting you over the hump, they truly are knowledgeable, indepth, music-loving listeners.
DarielB: You and I have spoken about concept CDs in the past, in particular Genuine Snake . . .
DON WISE: My first CD was like a shotgun approach. Musically In Wise Hands is all over the place. Sure, they’re all good songs, but musically scattered because I had so many ideas and I wanted to get them all out.
PLUS I thought I was just going to make ONE CD. I’d better give it everything I’ve got! It was given a great response by DJs especially in the Beach market, so I thought I’d do another, On the Verge of Survival.
More positive reinforcement from DJs, dancers etc. so by then I was geared up to make the best record of my playing, EVER!
The third CD was Genuine Snake!
From one end to the other … the photos … the poem under the disc…the SHAPE of the poem under the CD, Teresa James singing “Deeper Shade of Blue” was in answer to “Big” Joe Maher singing the song that precedes it named, “Lots of Flame (but no heat)”… In fact every song was part of the story told in order. “Genuine Snake”” referred to the shoes as well as the depiction of evil in a relationship.
It, too, got fantastic reviews and write-ups, but not one reviewer or listener has mentioned any intent other than the individual songs.
And to prove it was a mistake to get so deep, it has been the CD that sold the least for me.
For my fourth CD, Swingin’ Up A Storm, I wanted to put all the best dance music from my previous CDs plus four new songs that I wanted to do on one CD.
DarielB: Are you working on a new CD now? In the future?
DON WISE: I keep getting the urge to get started, but the enormous work, time, not to mention the money that goes into the making of a good CD has kept me from going beyond having good ideas for songs!
We’re in a time where anybody with $900 can buy enough equipment to put a CD out so the world is flooded with mediocrity.
DarielB: Are you gigging now? Any plans to come to the beach?
DON WISE: I’ve turned down way more than I’ve taken just because I have really liked sitting still, with no obligation to anybody except my wife Pamela and our rescued Pit Bull, Gigi.
After Winter I may be ready to play some with Rickey Godfrey or maybe just go over and visit my friend Paul Craver. I’ve made a few good friends over at the beach because Terry White from Charlotte liked my CDs right away and more or less grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and made me go around to radio stations and talk about Don Wise.
I probably owe any attention I’ve gotten to he and his wife Judy!
DarielB: I remember a piece by you in the old Beach Reporter about DJs putting together their own homemade compilations and selling them. Is this still a problem? Can you talk to me about industry piracy in general?
DON WISE: [Take a big deep breath here!] Beyonce, Britney or 50Cent making in excess of 150 million dollars a year through appearances and endorsements are not overly concerned about this. Here we’re talking about the artists that play the dances and clubs and are basically supporting families and trying to stay afloat. Perhaps one-third of their income may come from selling CDs at the shows and dances. We’re talking about the musicians and artists in the trenches here. Some of them are your friends and neighbors perhaps.
Even though most digital downloads are about 99 cents per song, if someone wants 20 songs all from different artists that would cost $20. So they may give the list to an unscrupulous DJ (who may have been given CDs by the artist in exchange for playing it) who then burns the songs to disc from HIS collection of freebees and pockets the $20!
1. Stealing music is the same as stealing anything else. It’s illegal and the consequences are real – for you and for the music. 2. Stealing music betrays the songwriters and recording artists who create it. 3. Stealing music stifles the careers of new artists and up-and-coming bands, not to mention individual career musicians wanting to record. We’re not all headliners making big bucks at the concerts. 4. The problem is that since no one is watching while the songs are pirated, then the perception is that there’s no crime.
Now, thanks to technology, anyone can get whatever whenever…I said it would change the quality of the music and it has. No musician at the level we’re speaking of here is going to risk what it costs to make a premium CD, knowing that it’ll be impossible to recoup the investment. Can’t afford to use real horns? Let’s use synth horns or synth strings or synth Hammond organ…Studio time’s expensive so instead of re-singing the background vocals and changing it, let’s just loop the one we did earlier over and over.
When anyone tries to make a quality CD using A-Team players in an upscale recording studio, the money goes out in rivers. Everything is on a cash basis and not just studio time is expensive.
Later, when you’re trying to sell the results, whether it’s from the stage at Fat Harold’s during SOS [Society of Stranders annual gatherings of Carolina beach music artists, shag dancers and fans] or through a distributor via digital download, the money comes back to you in droplets!
There are still, I imagine, innocents out there that don’t realize mass downloading is hurting anything or anybody. However, there are those who DO know that what they’re doing amounts to thievery and don’t particularly CARE that those band guys have families to take care of.
Can anything be done to stop it? I doubt it. People still rob banks don’t they?
The average person would regard going into a store and pocketing a tangible piece of physical property as something essentially different from copy piracy.
Most players and writers I’ve talked to at the beach DO know that just like leaving your weed whacker in the front yard too long, if you put out a new CD some low-life will come by sooner or later and throw it in the back of his pick-up.
Here’s a true story that pretty well sums it up for me: I was having lunch with some friends, one of whom, was a private airplane pilot for a large company. We were having a spirited conversation about free downloading of songs, the pilot not seeing any wrong in copying whole albums to have AND share with his friends. And, of course, me trying to tell him how it hurts musicians and creativity in general. We reached an impasse and the conversation changed to other topics. Later in the meal he was reminded of the time when driving somewhere he saw a man roll down his car window and throw an empty drinking cup out on the highway. The pilot followed the litterer for several miles honking and yelling at him.
I said, “So you’re telling me that it really upset you that someone littered, but when no can see you, it’s o.k. to steal music?”
A man making probably in excess of $100,000 a year, making CDs to share with his cohorts.
DarielB: You seem to enjoy MySpace i.e. changing your status, mood, default photo. Is MySpace keeping you in touch with people who love your music?
DON WISE: A friend of mine named Robert Eriksen in Norway convinced me to use MySpace to get a little more attention for the projects I was doing, but I thought it would take up too much of my time, which the computer already does.
He offered to do it for me, because he loves music. As it turns out, I do enjoy putting up new pics and finding “friends’ that are either truly friends or people that have music interests similar to mine.
They don’t have to be an actual acquaintance for me though quite a few of my MySpace friends are actual friends of mine. If I get a request to add someone just looking to add numbers to their tally, then I will probably deny them.
Finding tribute sites to past originators like Albert Collins or Wynonie Harris is an honor for me to put up as MySpace friends and now that they’re gone, it’s a great way to keep these names alive. It seems the true innovators hardly make it into any “History of Music” or Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Without the contributions of the Red Prysocks, Louis Jordans, Earl Bostics and Wynonie Harrises of the music world, Rock N Roll couldn’t have been conceived.
To learn more about Don Wise or to hear his music (and legally download it), visit his website, www.donwise.com . And be sure to check out his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/donwisemusic. As far as I know, he isn’t Twittering yet, but it’s just a matter of time.
CD Picks: Daddy, Davis Coen, Pat Pepin
Daddy
(2005) http://www.myspace.com/daddytheband
Daddy At the Women’s Club
Genre: Roots Rock
Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, who are the backbone of Daddy, may be flying under the radar of the mainstream public, but alternative and roots fans know them well. Kimbrough was the 2005 American Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year. Womack has twice won the Nashville Scene Best Song Award.
Back in the eighties, Kimbrough was the frontman for Will & the Bushmen. About the same time, Womack was part of Government Cheese. They would go on to earn kudos as the post-punk Bis-quits. Together they bring cynicism, humor and needle-sharp song lyrics together with guitar mastery and rockin’ licks. This 14-track CD was recorded live in Frankfort, Ky. and the energy is through the roof. Daddy ranges from a gospel sound on “Glory Be” to the NPR humor of “I Miss Ronald Reagan” to full-on rock ‘n’ roll with “Nightmare.” Also playing on the CD are Dave Jacques on bass, John Deaderick on keyboard (who also handles engineer chores) and drummer Paul Griffiths.
Davis Coen
(2008)
Blues Lights For Yours and Mine
Label: Soundview Records
It’s hard to pigeonhole this CD. It’s both contemporary and traditional; kinda funky and kinda country. Whatever, it is, it’s the blues and I like it. The 11-track disc features a mix of covers and originals. The opening track is a fast paced original tune titled “Basement With the Blue Light.”
Right out of the gate, the musician hits us with a voice you’re either going to love or hate. Coen’s gravelly voice is ideal for “Jack of Diamonds” and the original “Accelerated Woman.” My favorite track is probably “Mambo Jumbo,” another original by Coen.
The Charleston musician is a regular on the blues circuit. In fact, he’s playing at the Lowcountry Blues Bash going on in Charleston as this goes to press. He’s also one of the contributors to “The Blues,” Martin Scorsese’s PBS television series.
The CD was mixed and recorded by Chris Wimberley at Nightsound Studio in Carrboro, N.C. in Dec. 2007. Davis Coen handles guitar and vocals; drummer is Joe Izzo; Trevor Coen plays electric bass and piano; Adrian Duke also plays piano; Ben Palmer is on doghouse bass; and Lance Ashley is playing organ.
Pat Pepin
(2004)
Blue Stories
Genre: Blues
I was lucky enough to catch the raw vocals and saxophone of Pat Pepin live at the 2008 National Women In Blues Festival in Wilmington, N.C. last Sept. She blew the roof off the room. Pepin is the daughter of a trucker; she grew up in Maine, one of five kids in a small home with no running water. Her music swells with the hardship and humor of her life.
The 13-track CD includes five originals and eight covers, including a somewhat subdued version of “I’d Rather Go Blind,” penned by Ellington Jordan and Billy Foster and still associated with Etta James. She does a super job with the E. G. Kight-Richard Fleming tune, “A Woman Can Tell.” Originals “Year of the Blues” and “Personal Ad Blues” showcase her ever-present sense of humor. Guitar work by Steve Jones and piano/organ by Bob Colwell.
My Long-awaited Interview With Don Wise
The first time I heard Don Wise play saxophone was with the Rickey Godfrey Band at Nightclub 2001 in Myrtle Beach. I became an instant fan, and I’m not alone. Rickey Godfrey says, “When you hear a couple notes from his sax, you immediately know it’s him playing. Don is a technically skilled player, but he emphasizes ‘feel’ over ‘technique.’ He sounds like one of those guys from the 50s, Sam “The Man” Taylor and Fat Head Newman – in terms on tone. But his style is uniquely Don Wise.” I was thrilled to have this chance to talk with him and I wanted to know all about his time with Delbert McClinton, his propensity for old WWII horns and his plans for the future. Here’s the interview:
BENDIN: You played sax with Delbert McClinton for 22 years. Can you tell me how it began?
DON WISE: In the Summer of 1985 I was in a recording studio in Lubbock, Texas, with a band named Radio Zebra from Germany.
We were rehearsing and recording almost daily at this time and I got a phone call at the studio. The voice, without saying who it was, asked what I would be doing in September. I said, “It’s June now and I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow, why?”
It was the then bass player for Delbert. Someone had told him [Delbert] about a sax player in West Texas and he was calling to see if I was available.
Here is the storied part: I was sent cassette tapes of about 50 songs to learn. With no rehearsal under my belt, I received a plane ticket to be in Houston to play on the 25th of September. I wrote out scads of horn parts and even on the plane to Houston had headphones on and sheets of music manuscript spread all around to make sure I had it down.
At the gig, having never met any of the Delbert band, I was introducing myself and trying to get a feel for what the first four or five songs were going to be. (Delbert didn’t get to the club until about 15 minutes before show-time!) All the band guys were saying, “Well, Delbert will just start calling songs.”
“Surely he’s gonna start with something he usually opens with?”
“Nah, something different every night.”
I set up a makeshift music stand with all these sketched parts and suddenly realized that he doesn’t even do the songs any more that I’d spent months committing to memory.
Maybe 80% of the songs I’d learned we have NEVER played with Delbert! Of the other 20%, and since they didn’t send a list of the songs on the tapes, I would write down a title that cued it for me. So, the first line became the title “It’s 3 O’Clock in the Morning,” but is actually “Back To Louisiana”! I had the titles wrong, so even when he called a song I had learned, I kept asking, “How does that one go?”
To reverse any goodwill I may have brought with me, the makeshift music stand with the 75 pages of circles and arrows got knocked into the crowd about 20 seconds into Delbert’s first song!
I guess he liked my playing because I didn’t miss a show for 17 years and only then because I was caught in a blizzard in the mountains of Tennessee.
BENDIN: Why did you leave the band?
DON WISE: It was a total of 51 years since I started playing in clubs in Westerly, Rhode Island and I had been with Delbert’s band for the past 22 + years. It was the perfect place for a honking tenor sax guy like me to be, but over the course of time the music changed…leaning a different direction than we played before. Ultimately, it became too much like ditch digging. The hardest part wasn’t the playing. It was the getting in the car to drive three hours to Nashville to get on the tour bus and ride 12 hours to Texas or Kansas or Connecticut to play two hours and go home.
BENDIN: Are you playing any gigs with Delbert now?
DON WISE: I have not played any with Delbert since leaving in July, but I am going on the Sandy Beaches Cruise as a guest with my lovely wife Pamela. If all goes well I will be honking a few notes during the week on the cruise!
BENDIN: You produced at least one of Delbert’s CDs, didn’t you:
DON WISE: I was producer on Live from Austin (Alligator Records) mainly because I absolutely wanted to have control over what those horns sounded like on the final release. My solos, of course, but mainly the glorious horn section that played on that Austin City Limits show! Horn sections had been used as dull-witted background for a long long time (from when everybody realized they could play a guitar and turn a knob to be LOUD!). I wanted it to sound like those great late 40s R&B records with their pure section horn sound. I still think, for overall quality of music, it’s Delbert’s best recording! [Editor’s note: This CD earned Delbert McClinton his first Grammy nomination. Four of Don’s solos from this project were later included in the recording produced for the John Laughter book, “Contemporary Saxophone.”]
BENDIN: When and how did you learn to play?
DON WISE: I started clarinet lessons when I was nine because I aced some type of tonality test early on (probably more because the band director needed warm bodies). My mother always liked saxophone music, so the decision was made and I liked it.
BENDIN: Rickey Godfrey told me you have an interest in older saxophones, and that you own one from the World War II era. How are the older ones different?
DON WISE: Most musicians are interested in trying out new instruments and for a long time I did just that. I’ve bought several different makes of horn that sounded great in the store, only to find it didn’t speak the way it should when we were in high gear on stage. I kept going back to the horn I bought in 1964 from a guitar player in New England. I gave him $55 for it and it’s the horn I still rely on to make my life enjoyable! It’s called “The Martin” and it was made in 1951 from left-over brass howitzer shell casings from WWII. In California a few years back, BB King’s drummer, hearing me getting ready to go to the stage, said I was the loudest tenor player he’d ever heard without a mic. I always took that as a compliment to my horn! I have a “The Martin” alto, too. I believe the quality of the metal was better on the older horns. The mechanism on newer horns may be easier to get around on, but the sound coming out the of the bell has to resonate through a lot of things, including the reed, mouthpiece, pads, the type and thickness of metal in the horn and even the resonance in your own head.
BENDIN: Who has inspired you musically?
DON WISE: For sax inspiration there were several that stand out because of the raw energy AND facility on their horn. I was there with my ear to the radio when sax was the centerpiece. I spent long hours working loooooooong tones because I was going for that big, fat, rattle-the-roof sound that I liked. Red Prysock, Sam “The Man” Taylor and Sil Austin were early on favorites and later King Curtis. He played on all the Coaster hits and later with Aretha Franklin. I liked Jr. Walker somewhat but none of them had the intensity of Red Prysock for sound AND fury! Red Prysock was from Greensboro, North Carolina. Illinois Jacquet was more a big band swing guy from Texas and I think the players I named earlier developed their style from him and brought it into the jump-blues/R&B era.
BENDIN: Any best-loved gigs? Delbert or otherwise?
DON WISE: I’d pick the best-loved one this way. When my kids were little and I would come in from playing late at a club, they knew the rule was “Don’t anyone wake me in the morning until at least noon!”… and I always tacked on, “unless Ray Charles is on the phone!” In 1997 he finally called and I played on national TV and got the solo on “Let the Good Times Roll.” [The video of this performance can be seen on Don’s MySpace page: http://www.My Space. com/donwisemusic.]
BENDIN: Anyone special you’d like to work with?
DON WISE: If I had to pick just one, there’s a fantastic band out of Austin, TX, named Mingo Fishtrap that I’ve played a few times with on the Delbert cruise and they’re as rockin’ as any band I’ve heard in my life. Original songs, powerful horn section, super vocals AND at the beginning of their careers!
BENDIN: You seem to have a lot of fans in Norway. How did that come about?
DON WISE: I’m not exactly sure why the fans of Norway like my music. I will say that Norwegians and Europeans in general are very good listeners. By that I mean that when you’ve played a good solo, it is reflected in the response you get back from them immediately. Or if the band has had one of those one in 500, “This is the best we’ve sounded in a long time!” the Norwegians are right there with you!
BENDIN: Are you gigging now? Any plans to come to the beach?
DON WISE: I’ve turned down way more than I’ve taken just because I have really liked sitting still, with no obligation to anybody except my lovely wife Pamela and our rescued Pit Bull, Gigi. After Winter I may be ready to play some with Rickey Godfrey or maybe just go over and visit my friend Paul Craver.
BENDIN: I remember a piece by you in the old Beach Reporter about DJs putting together their own compilations and selling them. Is this still a problem? Can you talk to me about piracy in general?
DON WISE: (Take a big deep breath here!) Beyonce, Britney or 50Cent making in excess of 150 million dollars a year through appearances and endorsements are not overly concerned about this. Here we’re talking about the artists that play the dances & clubs and are basically supporting families and trying to stay afloat. Perhaps one-third of their income may come from selling CDs at the shows and dances. We’re talking about the musicians and artists in the trenches here. Some of them your friends and neighbors perhaps. Even though most digital downloads are about 99 cents per song, if someone wants 20 songs all from different artists that would cost $20. So they may give the list to an unscrupulous DJ (who may have been given CDs by the artist in exchange for playing it) who then burns the songs to disc from HIS collection of freebees and pockets the $20!
Stealing music is the same as stealing anything else. It’s illegal and the consequences are real – for you and for the music.
BENDIN: You seem to enjoy MySpace i.e. changing your status, mood , default photo. Is MySpace keeping you in touch with people who love your music?
DON WISE: A friend of mine named Robert Eriksen in Norway convinced me to use MySpace to get a little more attention for the projects I was doing, but I thought it would take up too much of my time, which the computer already does. He offered to do it for me, because he loves music. As it turns out, I do enjoy putting up new pics and finding “friends’ that are either truly friends or people that have music interests similar to mine. They don’t have to be an actual acquaintance for me though quite a few of my MySpace friends are actual friends of mine.
Finding tribute sites to past originators like Albert Collins or Wynonie Harris is an honor for me to put up as MySpace friends and now that they’re gone, it’s a great way to keep these names alive. It seems the true innovators hardly make it into any “History of Music” or “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
Without the contributions of the Red Prysocks, Louis Jordans, Earl Bostics and Wynonie Harrises of the music world, Rock N Roll couldn’t have been conceived.
This interview has been edited for length. Read the entire piece at http://www.myrtlebeachalternatives.com. To learn more about Don Wise or to hear his music (and legally download it), visit his website, www.donwise.com . And be sure to check out his MySpace page: www.myspace. com/donwisemusic.
leave a comment