The Roots of Georgie Fame: R & B, Soul, Ska, and Jazz

In one of those infinite universes out there, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones never made it big. Instead, the sounds of the British mods—1950s R & B, 1960s soul, ska, and hip jazz tunes—swept the world, led by my man Georgie Fame. I wouldn’t really want to do without the British invasion, but…

Because we have to operate in the universe we’re given, Georgie Fame, aka Clive Powell, remains a fine but relatively unheralded (at least in the U.S.) singer and organist who had a bunch of hits in the 60s and an excellent musical career in the years since. I’ve been a Fame fan since I first heard Yeh-Yeh, his biggest U.S. hit aside from The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde (not a favorite of mine). Years later, I picked up the U.S. pressing of his first studio album and subsequently have collected as many of his LPs and CDs as I could. I recently ordered an elaborate, five-CD box set of all of his 1960s recordings via Juno Records in the UK ( a good price and excellent service, I might add) and will be talking about it here in the near future.

Meanwhile, Ace Records has assembled a first-rate collection of originals that Georgie covered in his heyday: Georgie Fame Heard Them Here First. From soul (Sweet Thing by the Spinners in their lesser-known Motown days) to R & B (Pink Champagne by Joe Liggins and the Honey drippers) to obscure funky instrumentals (Soul Stomp by Earl van Dyke), and including Jamaican sound system classics (Dr. Kitch by Lord Kitchener—risqué!) and King Pleasure’s version of Eddie Jefferson’s jazz anthem Moody’s Mood for Love, Fame covered the best. Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, Paul Anka (!) and more—this is a great anthology whether you dig Georgie or not. Ace does its usual fine job of annotating each track with interesting info, with lots of photos.Here are a couple of my personal favorites, from Mose Allison and Joe Hinton.

The Dark Tree: Horace Tapscott, the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, and the Community Arts

A few months ago I picked up a copy of Stephen L. Isoardi’s The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles at our local library’s semiannual book sale.  I hadn’t heard of the book, but it was about  Horace Tapscott, a legendary figure in the West Coast avant-garde, came with a CD, and was only four bucks, so why not? Having just finished it, I’m here to say it’s an important read for anyone interested in the culture and politics of the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond; the evolution of spiritual jazz; and the ongoing racial and political issues it reflects. Beginning with a brief history of L.A.’s Central Avenue jazz and R & B scene in the 1940s, it recounts Tapscott’s lifelong commitment to the arts in the African-American community, his bringing together the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA), and their participation in a host of arts projects and organizations from before the Watts riots through the early 2000s.  The book, based mainly on interviews with about 100 Arkestra/UGMAA participants, also provides a glimpse at the personality of Tapscott himself, a charismatic yet modest person who was both a devoted family man and night-wandering bohemian (his wife Cecelia must have been a very patient woman).

This story resonated with me because of my own knowledge of how all of the arts became weapons in the Movement of the 1960s and 1970s against war, racism, and imperialism. The abundance of groups and efforts that were born and died in the struggles of those days come alive in Isoardi’s narrative, which also demonstrates how little I knew about this important segment of the jazz world —one that continues in various forms today. In a period of time during which the perennial issues of race, class, and the arts continue to haunt American society, it’s both depressing to see how little progress has been made and uplifting to see the persistence of efforts to make this country what it professes to be.

The accompanying CD contains a number of previously released recordings of the Arkestra and its various components.  It made me want to hear much more of this fine music. Here’s a sample.