On July 10th, in 1939, seminal gospel musician, world-renown vocalist, former love interest of Bob Dylan, pop culture icon, Chicago/Memphis soul music innovator, Civil Rights activist, songwriter, collaborator with Curtis Mayfield-Prince and member of the Staple Singers-Mavis Staples (above-r) was born in Chicago, Illinois. She’s most known for her near 70 year career in music, going back to 1950 when she started singing with her father-Pops Staples and her siblings-Yvonne, Pervis and Cleotha in the Staple Singers. Pops acted as musical director and guitarist and co-lead vocalist with Mavis. They performed at Chicago churches and on local radio stations before getting a deal with Vee Jay Records in the mid 50s.
They had few hits on the label and began to tour the Midwest and South during the late 50s as the Civil Rights struggle was taking shape. Her father had a close association with Martin Luther King Jr, Aretha Franklin’s father-Reverend C.L. Franklin and Mahalia Jackson. In the late 60s, they signed to Stax Records, began doing folk/pop covers of positive songs or altering the lyrics to make them positive and became the musical voice of the struggle. By the early 70s, they’d branched out into ‘wholesome’ funk and got a bit risqué in the mid to late 70s when they worked with Curtis Mayfield on the soundtrack for Let’s Do It Again. By the 80s, Mavis was singing blues, gospel, soul, funk, and joined Prince’s New Power Generation in the latter part of the decade under the alias-Melody Cool. She appeared on TV and in several films as well like Wattstax and Graffiti Bridge. The Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame musician is 80 today.
| | |
On July 10th, in 1959, punk rock musician, guitarist, singer, drummer, songwriter, multi-label recording artist and co-founding member of The Runaways-Sandy West (Sandra Sue Pesavento-c) was born in Long Beach, California. TOV covered the artist’s death on the October 21st post. Please refer to it for more information. Sandy is most known for being the drummer for The Runaways-an all-female West Coast punk rock band that contained members like Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and Lita Ford. She started playing drums when she was 9 after her grandfather bought her a drum kit. She became a drummer for her elementary school (4th-6th grade). While skateboarding was taking off, Sandy became the only female drummer that played at teen parties in the budding West Coast punk scene.
She had ambitions to be a rock star in an all-female band and sought out other female artists that wanted to join. She met Kim Fowley-who became The Runaways’ manager in 1975 when Sandy was 16 (2nd r). He linked Sandy with Joan Jett and they recruited Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Cherie Currie to join them. They released their self-titled debut in 1976, and 4 more LPs after that-one of which was a live LP-Live in Japan (1977). Due to internal conflicts and poor/exploitative management of money, they disbanded in 1979. In the early 80s, she continued to play and record as a solo artist, putting together a new group-The Sandy West Band and releasing a couple 7” 45RPMs and an EP-The Beat is Back. However, they didn’t sell well and Sandy had to get a day job to make ends meet. She appeared in a documentary about the band-Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways (2004), before being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005. She passed away in 2006 when she was 47.
| | |
On July 10th, in 1967, hip hop figure, comedian, actor, dancer, rapper and co-founding member of Kid ‘n Play-Christopher Martin aka Play (above-r, inset-l) was born in Queens, New York City, New York. He’s most known as the ‘suave’ ladies’ man from the House Party film series (1990-1994). Play’s house is the setting for the the movie House Party. If you’re unfamiliar with the film, his parents go out of town and he decides to have a house party with Martin Lawrence as the DJ-Bilal and Christopher Reid aka Kid as his dance partner. Play got his start in rapping during his early teens under the name MC Playboy which was shortened later to MC Play or just Play. He co-founded his first group-Quicksilver and the Super Lovers that were produced by Hurby Luv Bug who was known for Salt-N-Pepa and Kwame.
He came across Kid aka Christopher Reid at a party/battle. Kid was then know as Kid Coolout-a member of the Turnout Brothers. They were the standouts in their groups on the dance and lyrical tip. They decided to perform as a duo called Kid ‘n Play (late 80s). They released their debut LP in 1988-2 Hype. It charted in the top 10 on the R&B Billboard and was certified gold. Their second release-Funhouse (1990) also went gold. Around the same time, they were cast as the stars in House Party which also featured Robin Harris, Full Force, Tisha Campbell, John Witherspoon and several other actors that would ‘blow up’ in the 90s. After their popularity declined, they split in 1995 and Play (above-l, inset-r) became a born-again Christian. He started his own multimedia company-HP4 Digital and continues to make cameo appearances in films and TV shows. He’s 52 today.
| | |
HONORABLE MENTION: On July 10th, in 1938, one of my favorite jazz trumpeters, sideman hard bop innovator, composer, bandleader, flugelhorn player, former member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Dizzy Gillespie Big Band-(Edward) Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia, PA. TOV has covered the artist on several posts, most notably his death on the February 19th post. Please refer to it for more information. Morgan is the man that composed the jazz standard-The Sidewinder. He also played with John Coltrane on his infamous-Blue Train LP (1957, when he was 19). His life story is one of tragedy, triumph and tragedy. He was killed at the height of his career by a former lover while at a gig. Morgan was 33 when he passed.
On July 10th, in 1941, we lost a seminal jazz musician, one of the major pioneers of Dixieland-Ragtime-and swing jazz, composer, pianist, bandleader, the first jazz musician to have his composition published (Jelly Roll Blues, 1915) and vaudeville comedian-Jelly Roll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe). Simply put, without Jelly Roll Morton’s contributions to jazz, we would not have artists like Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Billy Strayhorn, Eroll Gardner and Count Basie. He started in the Creole culture of Louisiana-free Blacks-not viewed as fully Black by Whites or Blacks. His first professional gig was as the house pianist in a brothel. He was the original one man ‘2 Live Crew’, taking his name-‘Jelly Roll’ from the Black term for the vagina. He was 50 when he passed.
On July 10th, in 1954, 80s new wave musician, guitarist, electronic dance music (EDM) pioneer, singer, keyboardist, music journalist, songwriter and co-founding member of the Pet Shop Boys-Neil (Francis) Tennant was born in North Shields, Northumberland, UK. He’s most known for singing lead vocals on the proto-House music track-West End Girls. What many people may not know about Tennant is that he was an editor and journalist for the UK based magazine-Smash Hits, as well as the editor for Marvel UK (UK division of Marvel Comics). He worked with several bands in the 90s and 21st Century as a writer and backing vocalist. He’s 65 today.
On July 10th, in 1969, the seminal Motown vocal quintet-The Temptations debuted their television show-The Temptations Show. It was a syndicated program that aired on WJBK in Detroit, MI (now a Fox network channel). They sang several of their hits with new co-lead singer Dennis Edwards who replaced David Ruffin. An LP was also released as a soundtrack which included songs like-Cloud Nine, My Girl, Get Ready, Runaway Child-Running Wild and Ain’t Too Proud to Beg. The Temptations displayed an early form of rap on the finale song-Somebody’s Keepin’ Score featuring George Kirby and Kaye Stevens.
For more information on any musician or event reviewed in posts, or for additional information on The Wandering Eyes Blog overall, use the search bar and search the artist or event using keywords. It’s like a Google search for the site. A wide variety of information, covering several topics exists on this site going back to 2013 when it was created. PEACE