DEEP #1/2022 (April)

This short column features one book and two CDs from almost the opposite ends of our music. The book delves deep into the entertainment history of Atlanta, Georgia, and one CD offers bluesy music recorded live in Finland while the release of the other one, the soulful 60 went almost without any fanfares in January.

BLACK BOOKCASE

ATLANTA MUSIC SCENE

One of the main points that Libby Anthony wants to raise in her book is the competition the black promoters have to face with their white colleagues. It goes back to the early Motown packages and it’s a losing battle for black enterprises. Also most of the A-1 black artists seem to favour more and more white managers. Elizabeth Anthony if anybody knows her subject. She has been active in the Atlanta entertainment business for over 45 years as a frontline promoter, booking agent and the founder of the National COPE (Club Owners, Promoters & Entertainment Entrepreneurs and Executives) in 1994.

In her book titled Atlanta Entertainment History (200 pages, 44 black & white photos, ISBN-13: 9798593596932), Libby writes that “Atlanta’s entertainment history is the history of black entertainment in America.” Indeed, she goes back to the early days of juke joints, vaudeville and chitlin circuit, but after that focuses on clubs, theatres, nightspots, venues, record companies and radio stations in the Atlanta region.

Understandably such prominent local promoters and impresarios as J. Neil Montgomery, Henry Wynn and Teddy Powell are spotlighted, but there are also tens and tens of artists featured that either were born close to Atlanta, Georgia, or got their breakthrough there. And here I must mention one big shortage in the book: no index! Libby goes through different genres of black music starting from blues and jazz (Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Thomas Dorsey, the Peachtree Strutters), all the way to doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll (The Cashmeres, the Blue Dots, Billy Wright, Little Richard) and finishing with funk and rock (S.O.S., Brick, Hamilton Bohannon, Mother’s Finest) and new jack swing and rap (Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds & Antonio “LA” Reid, Kilo).

Soul artists got my biggest attention and I was delighted to find out that alongside many big names like Gladys Knight & the Pips, William Bell, Otis Redding, Jean Carn and the Tams, such lesser-known artists as Lotsa Poppa, Herman Hitson, Sandra Hall, Zilla Mayes and Keisa Brown are equally presented. The bios are seemingly correct, but in the case of my favourite girl, Millie Jackson, I have to mention that A Child of God was not her first release (but her second) and her ground-breaking albums, Caught Up and Still Caught Up, are not listed among her memorable LPs. Trivialities aside, this book gives you a good overview of Atlanta’s music scene throughout the years.

NEW CDs

FROM ROY HYTOWER TO DOKTU RHUTE MUUZIK

Born in Coffeeville, Alabama, in 1943, Roy Hytower cut his first single in Chicago at the age of 22. Although gaining reputation mainly in blues circles in Chicago in the 60s, soul music fans cherish some of the singles Roy cut on Brainstorm and Expo labels in the late 60s and early 70s. Later he has performed in musicals and movies, and his first album named Root Doctor was released in 1988. That title is the inspiration for his current stage name, Doktu Rhute Muuzic and his own label, Root Doctor Music, where he has released numerous CDs (https://doktulatrice.com/).

On his latest CD, Live in Helsinki (Backbeat Records, BBCD024), Doktu is backed by Highway, a 4-piece roots band out of Helsinki comprising of the singer-harpist Kari “Good Rockin’“ Kempas, the guitarist Jonne Kulluvaara, the bassist Jan-Olof Strandberg and the drummer Köpi Toivanen. In the liner notes to the CD there’s more info on each player as well as Doktu’s earlier career.

Kari Kempas is the producer of the set. Kari: “I first met Doktu Rhute Muuzik, then Roy Hytower, in Helsinki in 1992-93, when he toured Finland with his band Motif. Then I met him in Chicago and I made an interview with him at the old Chess Records studios, now Willie Dixon’s Heaven Foundation, where he performed with his band. A couple of years later I met him at a southside brewery, where they have live music on weekends, and asked if he wanted to come to perform to Finland with Highway. We made a short tour with Johnny Drummer in 2016, and Roy used to play in Johnny’s band in the 1960s and 70s.”

“Doktu came to Finland for a week in 2017, and then he was interviewed for a national radio broadcast. His next tour in Finland took place two years later, and this Live CD was recorded in Tenho Restobar in Helsinki by the staff of the restaurant and mixed by our drummer later. Lately Doktu has been performing in Chicago with his own band Motif and with Willie Dixon’s Original Chicago Blues All Stars. They made an Australian tour in late 2019. Covid has slowed down gigs around the world, but Doktu is hopeful he can come back to Finland again in the fall.”

As one would expect, the music on this live CD is leaning heavily on the blues side, but the overall sound is easily rolling and quite hooky, at times even boogie-woogiesh. The total playing time for these ten tracks on display is over 70 minutes, so - as you can guess - each song features a lot of improvised solos, be it Kari’s harmonica or Doktu’s or Jonne’s guitar. Doktu’s rough and seasoned baritone dominates on seven tracks, whereas Kari takes the lead on the rest three.

Doktu wrote half of the songs. No Nonsense and I’m in Your Corner are easily swaying, strutting mid-pacers, while L-O-V-E.com, Squeeze Me (the Lemon Song) and Love by Design are slower jams. More familiar covers include Willie Dixon’s I’m Your Hootchie Cootchie Man, B.B. King’s Rock Me Baby, A.C. Reed’s My Buddy Buddy Friends and Little Walter’s Up the Line. This rootsy and swinging live CD is distributed in Finland by Texicalli or to purchase it you can contact Kari directly at kari.kempas@welho.com. (Acknowledgements to Kari Kempas and Juhani Laikkoja).

THE TEMPTATIONS

Initially I planned not to review The Temptations’ latest CD, 60 (UMG 00602438524860), at all, because I thought it’d get all the exposure it needed. But no! Released already in January, it’s strangely surrounded by mysterious silence. It’s all the more peculiar, because the CD is a good one.

In the line-up of Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Willie Greene and Tony Grant, the group is still going on strong after these 60 + years, and the notes on this celebratory CD were written by Berry Gordy and Otis Williams. For me there are many highlights. Produced, arranged and co-written by Narada Michael Walden, When We Were Kings is a nostalgic mid-tempo recollection. Smokey Robinson’s Is It Gonna Be Yes or No is a beautiful, smooth and slow song. After a couple of funkier cuts we are treated to a melodic and soulful ballad called My Whole World Stopped without You, and Calling out Your Name and Breaking My Back are equally pleading ballads, like from the golden era. I Want it Right Now is a melodic ditty and Come On is the cover of Otis’ Distants single on Northern in 1960. I hope that my short review at least inspires you to listen to this elegant CD.

© Heikki Suosalo