WAMMIES - the Same Old S**t

Arguably the premiere jazz vocalist in the Washington DC area, Sharon Clark was not even nominated in the Jazz Vocalist category for the 2010 WAMMIES.

I have been increasingly disenchanted with the WAMMIES, which are supposed to recognize the best in the Washington DC area music scene.  This year's awards are no exceptions.  Steve Kiviat, who like me has found these awards flawed presented his usual take on the Wammies in his Washington City Paper blog.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/02/22/same-ol-same-ol-at-25th-wammies-awards/

Steve observes that “With the long-troubled Wammies, the artists who do not win or even get nominated are as important as those who do. WAMA leaders have said they sometimes consult "experts" to fill out the nominations slots, and in recent years they have, indeed, reached out to Washington City Paper writers (including me). But they've then largely ignored those suggestions.”

To illustrate Steve’s point I note that neither Bobby Parker (for blues) nor Sharon Clark (for Jazz vocalists) were even nominated. I could easily provide other names Steve also mentions categories of music and musicians that are ignored by the Wammie nomination process. Steve observes “While those artists have received media and public attention here and elsewhere, the dues-paying, voting members of WAMA are apparently not interested or aware of them.”

I might suggest that some of the nominations and results reflects folks voting for friends as opposed to having familiarity with a category of music and voting for folks who might deserve their vote. WAMA members solicit nominations and votes from other members and the results reflect that. It might be suggested that WAMA consider changing voting procedures so folks actually know something about categories that they vote in and the nominees in that category. Maybe limit categories any one person can vote in.

I also share Steve’s observation that the WAMA Board has again passed on honoring some of the old school soul and blues legends while giving themselves an old boys club, self-congratulatory special citation. Maybe someone from WAMA can explain, why none of these following are in the WAMA Hall of Fame: Bobby Parker, Sonny Warner, Lloyd Price, Bill Boskent, Ronnie Wells, and Little Royal are not in the WAMA Hall of Fame. Francis Scott Key, who is not from DC, is.

I really wish I could actually say something positive about the Wammies and WAMA but they make it really difficult to. Maybe when those running WAMA realize that Evans Grille in Forestville was at least as important as the Alexandria Roller Rink, you will show you get it and make yourself relevant to a portion of the great Washington area who view you as any but relevant.

Since I wrote the above, I realize I omitted Will Marion Cook from the list of folks who WAMA has yet to properly honor.  Do yourselves a favor and do a Wikipedia search on this amazing person.

Specialty Profiles Evidence of Art Rupe's Hall of Fame Career

Art Rupe was just honored as one of the two Ahmet Ertegun honorees (to non-musicians for contributions to Rock and Roll) by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and will be honored along with Dr. John, Neil Diamond, and Tom Waits. Rupe was an important independent record company pioneer whose Specialty Records label produced some of the classic jump blues, gospel and early rock and roll recordings. As Billy Vera says in the booklet accompanying the 5 CD box set, The Specialty Story, “If Art Rupe and his Specialty Records, had done nothing more than give us Little Richard, he would still deserve a place in the rock ’n’ roll triumvirate along with Sam Phillips (Sun Records) and Leonard and Phil Chess (Chess Records). … In little over ten years activity, Specialty Records growth paralleled, and perhaps defined, the evolution of black popular music—from the “race” music of the 1940s to the rock ’n’ roll of the 1950s.”


Specialty issued some amazing recordings. The core of the label’s output can be found on the afore-mentioned The Specialty Story which includes (among its 130 recordings) recordings that charted as well as recordings by artists or are of songs that would later become important. The box, specifically does exclude Specialty’s jazz recordings and only provides a token representation of the important Gospel catalog of the label. After Fantasy acquired the Specialty catalog (in 1990 I believe), they began issuing a great number of reissues from the Specialty catalog. Concord Music acquired the Fantasy catalog and have some new reissues of such material as well as many of the fantasy reissues remain still available. Concord did in 2006 issue some budget reissues that I reviewed initially for the December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 289), which I am posting today in part to salute Mr. Rupe.

Those purchasing these budget reissues may well wish to check out the prior excellent reissues of these artists as well as releases by such important performers as Guitar Slim, Little Richard, Brother Joe May, The Pilgrim Travelers, Don & Dewey and Wyonna Carr.


Concord Music Group’s release of six initial Specialty Profile budget reissues hopefully will introduce some to the great music that has been issued by Fantasy Records prior to Concord’s acquisition of the label last year. Originally called Juke Box, Specialty was one of the independent labels that emerged after World War II that was central in the release of so much rhythm’n’blues, gospel and blues as well as some of the most important pioneering rock ’n’ roll recordings. These releases have 14 performances by the featured artist and a second bonus CD with ten performances by various Specialty artists.

Roy Milton, inspired by the big bands led his Solid Senders, the prototypical jump blues band, that in its tight, punchy sound captured some of the flavor of the bigger bands on a program of blues and jump numbers. Milton was a swinging drummer and an ingratiating vocalist with a terrific band that featured the wonderful pianist Camille Howard. Milton had many charting records, which became staples of the emerging rhythm and blues music. Two of his recordings Milton’s Boogie, his version of Count Basie’s Boogie Woogie and Milton’s Hop Skip & Jump were recorded by Elmore James pianist Little Johnnie Jones while such numbers as R.M. Blues and Information Blues still appeal with the strong driving swing and superb musicianship. This is terrific stuff.

John Lee Hooker recorded prolifically between the late forties and early fifties for a variety of labels including Specialty who acquired sides produced by Bernie Besman in Detroit. The 14 selections presented by Specialty capture Hooker on his driving one-chord boogies such as his revisiting of his first hit, Boogie Chillen, his slow brooding lament about a cheating woman which he would later visit for Vee-Jay, I’m Mad, and the hot duet with harmonica player Eddie Burns, Burnin’ Hell, where he proclaims “Ain’t no heaven, ain’t no burning hell” as he lays down a hot boogie guitar riff.“ There is a small combo version of Rosco Gordon’s No More Doggin’. This is this writer’s favorite period of John Lee Hooker’s recording with some of his most powerful recordings to which this disc is an excellent introduction.

After Fats Domino, probably no New Orleans artist had the impact of one Lloyd Price whose recording Lawdy Miss Clawdy, was one of the first rhythm and blues hit recordings to cross over to a white audience in a massive fashion. Price went on to a celebrated recording and performing career. The 14 selections here come from two CDs of his music and is a reasonable sample of his earliest recordings, dating from 1952 or 1953 with the exception of 1956’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Dance. Price’s earliest recordings for Specialty had him backed by Dave Bartholomew’s legendary studio band with Fats Domino on piano for the Lawdy Miss Clawdy session while later sessions included pianists Edward Frank and Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and such horn players as Wallace Davenport and Herb Hardesty. These tracks are classic New Orleans R&B with tracks like Mailman Blues, or Where You At? being hot rockers. Price’s youth perhaps leads to some vocals sounding as a bit overwrought (If Crying Was Murder).


Larry Williams was Lloyd Price’s second cousin, and born in New Orleans although his family moved to the West Coast in his youth, returning to the New Orleans a couple of times, including stints with his cousin as driver and valet and then briefly with Fats Domino. He joined Specialty around the time Little Richard had quit music and with hits like Bony Moronie, Short Fat Fanny and Dizzy Miss Lizzy, which also influenced an imaginative John in Liverpool. He was a solid pianist, pounding out his boogie rocking licks backed by some of the best studio bands in Hollywood with transplanted New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer anchoring things. These were splendid rock and roll recordings. There is a nice rendition of his cousin’s Just Because along with Sonny Bono’s High School Dance and She Said Yeah, the coupling Bad Boy and Slow Down, covered by the Beatles, and Little School Girl, a reworking of the blues classic Good Morning Little Schoolgirl. Williams could not handle success leading to drug problems and an early death, but his legacy is these terrific recordings.

Percy Mayfield was labeled The Poet Laureate of the Blues, for his wonderfully crafted sophisticated blues. As a performer, he sang with an intimacy that matched the sophistication of his lyrics. Until disfigured in an auto accident he had the looks to make him a major star and still remained an major songwriter (hired by Rat Charles) as well as a performer who continued to make thoughtful and sophisticated recordings until his death. His songs, including Please Send Me Someone to Love, Strange Things Happening, The River’s Invitation, Lost Love (aka Baby Please) and Lost Mind, have become blues standards and his original recordings are terrific. Given that only 14 selections were chosen, Mayfield’s early demo of Hit the Road, Jack, might have been omitted along with the duet with Joy Hamilton, Sugar Mama-Peachy Papa, as they are below the level of these other included recordings.


The last of the reissues is devoted to the legendary Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers and includes of a nice sampling of his early gospel recordings along with several of his earliest pop recordings. Nine of the selections are Cooke as a member of the Soul Stirrers in which he shares the lead with Paul Foster whose vocals are as remarkable as Cooke’s. Listen to the closing I’m Gonna Build Right on That Shore, where Foster takes the first lead with Cooke taking the lead mid- song and then the two trade lead verses. Its a remarkable performance but just one of several classic gospel recordings here including renditions of Thomas Dorsey’s Peace in the Valley, Cooke’s Touch the Hem of His Garment and Jesus Gave Me Water. The five pop performances by Cooke include I’ll Come Running Back to You, Lovable and I Don’t Want to Cry, but Cooke’s mostly are overshadowed by his later pop recordings. Still, this is a fine overview of early Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers recordings that sound fresh even today.

Looking Back at Some Classic Specialty Rhythm and Blues Reissues

Specialty Records was one of the great labels of the late forties through the fifties documenting the classic jump blues and gospel of the time and the emergence of rock’n’roll. These reviews appeared as a composite review back in the April 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 190).I have updated the review to include the CD title in the body of the review and other info as apprpriate. The Wyonna Carr is currently available on amazon as a download or CD, the Camille Howard is available used or as a download while the Lloyd Price reissue may be difficult to find.

Three more reissues from the Specialty catalog make some classic 50’s rhythm and blues available. While none of these might be termed indispensable, the releases by the women, Camille Howard and Wyonna Carr, are particularly valuable in making available recordings by some of the women who have been unrepresented in such reissues.


Lloyd Price should be familiar from his highly successful recording career, starting with Lawdy Miss Clawdy that was recorded at his first Specialty session with Dave Bartholomew’s band which included Fats Domino, Ernest McLean, Herb Hardesty and Earl Palmer. This collection, Vol. 2 Heavy Dreams, is the second collection of Price’s Specialty recordings and includes a couple of songs from the March 1952 session that produced Lawdy Miss Clawdy (including an alternate take of Chee Koo Baby), and surveys his recording career for Specialty which ended in April 1956. Most of these sessions were recorded in New Orleans with many of the same musicians, except other pianists replaced Domino while Lee Allen’s booting sax is added to some of the later recordings. Much of this is stomping R&B, full of that Crescent City Bounce with Earl Palmer riding the cymbals while rocking out a second line rhythm, and some is Roy Brown influenced blues although by the time of his last session, some of the songs clearly are oriented to the rock and roll market, for which he would have many hits on for his own labels and ABC-Paramount. Most of the Specialty hits are on the earlier collection.Generally this is solid stuff, although there are a few lesser titles here.

Best remembered as Roy Milton’s pianist, and sometimes vocalist, Camille Howard was a formidable member of Milton’s Solid Senders, one of the more popular and influential rhythm and blues groups of the late forties. She sang on several of Milton’s hits, and made a number of recordings under her own name on Specialty, many with Milton and members of the Solid Senders. Many are included on Vol.1 Rock Me Daddy, the first album devoted to her music. She is still alive (actually when I wrote this, this was not true as she passed in March 1993 at the age of 79), although her current religious affiliation leads her to be reticent in talking about the rhythm and blues heyday. Camille Howard certainly was an excellent boogie woogie pianist, on a level with Sammy Price, Lloyd Glenn, and, dare I suggest, Jay MacShann. Her clean, deft touch helped her providing an easy rocking, solid foundation for her recordings, and those with Roy Milton. A relaxed singer, she handles the easy going blues and jump tunes along with ballads. Compared to Hadda Brooks, her vocals on ballads and torch songs strike me as less melodramatic, although I have only heard a smattering of Brooks’ recordings. The 25 recordings here are solid performances and makes this more than simply a fine supplement to the two Roy Milton collections on Specialty. (Specialty did issue a subsequent compilation of her recordings, X-Temporaneous Boogie, and of course she can be heard on those classic Roy Milton jump blues, also on Specialty. She was truly a wonderful pianist and singer).

Cleveland native, Wyonna Carr, originally recorded for Specialty as a gospel singer, enjoying some success with The Ball Game. In 1955 she convinced Specialty’s owner, Art Rupe, to record her on pop material. Jump Jack Jump! brings together 23 of her pop tunes along with one gospel song. The opening three songs, the title cut, the rocking ;Till the Well Runs Dry, and Boppity Bop (Boogity Boog), shows that Specialty at first envisioned her as their answer to Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker, while Hurt Me, sounds like an effort to capture the sound of the Platters, and It’s Rainin’ Outside, has a strong gospel flavor. Her rendition of Should I Ever Love Again is a nice version of a ballad some will associate with New Orleans’ singer Tommy Ridgely, and probably her biggest record. Carr was a strong songwriter as well as a fine singer, and certainly of her many songs these hold up as well as some of the better known hits of the times. Her Please Mr. Jailer where she entreats him to treat her man all right, is fairly memorable as is her clever lyrics on the perky Nursery Rhyme Rock. Most of these were produced by Art Rupe or Bumps Blackwell, although some later sides were produced by Sonny Bono. Some of Bono’s songs such as, I’m Mad at You, are forgettable. For a variety of reasons including lack of luck, her career never took off, and she did not have a rhythm and blues smash. After Specialty, she recorded an album for Reprise Records, and eventually moved back to Cleveland. Billy Vera mentions she suffered depressive periods, and ‘retreated into her shell and faded from sight.’ When she died in 1976, she generally had been forgotten, but this collection will certainly generate a reassessment of her music. (Specialty also reissued a fine album of her gospel sides that is well worth checking out.)




For FTC purposes, Fantasy Records sent me the review copies of these.

WAMA, Can someone explain why?

Can someone explain why none of the following still have yet to receive any recognition by the Washington Area Music Association: Sonny Warner, Bobby Parker, Little Royal, Curtis Pope, TNT Tribble, Frank Motley, Lloyd Price, Bill Boskent. I mean Lloyd Price's lack of recognition is especially curious given that he was based in DC for several years and during this time set up his own recording label, recorded some of his most important recordings and even had a CD of DC area R&B performers. I mean are the folk in charge of WAMA that ignorant of DC's musical history.

My two-year old comments are still pertinent.
http://inabluemood.blogspot.com/2008/03/wama-when-will-you-shoe-blues-some.html

Also, Steve Kiviat's had an interesting write-up of this year's WAMMIEs in his City Paper Blog that is well worth your consideration:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/03/01/the-wammies-are-good-performances-and-good-intentions-good-enough/#more-19413

Haywood 'Little Sonny' Warner 1930-2007

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Originally uploaded by NoVARon.

I already have expressed my appreciation for the late Little Sonny Warner, but felt it useful to place a lengthier obituary for this wonderful singer and person.

Haywood, ‘Little Sonny’ Warner, one of the greatest blues artists to emerge from the Washington DC music scene passed away on April 12, 2007 from the effects of prostate cancer. Warner, born October 30, 1930, grew up in Falls Church, Virginia on Shreve Road, behind what was then Peacock Buick. As a teen he was part of a gospel group "The Four Sons" who sang at the Second Baptist Church in Falls Church. This was the beginning of his lengthy musical career. This group went up to New York and as the Rockets, backed legendary Atlantic Records session pianist Van Walls on Walls' single releases, "After Midnight" and "Open the Door."

Sonny became part of the DC music scene, singing at various area clubs while holding down a day job. In the mid 1950s he became valet for the legendary Lloyd Price in Prices’ touring band who had established the Washington DC based KRC label with Harold Logan and Bill Boskent. Being a valet also included some part-time vocal duties, Initially he shared duties with Price’s cousin, Larry Williams but Specialty Records' Art Rupe got Williams to sign with Specialty and start on his own career. Warner wasn’t unhappy, telling blues scholar Larry Benicewicz ““You see, Larry was also a hairdresser, which gave him an advantage, because Lloyd would always want to look good for his public. I could never compete with that.”

Benicewicz noted that Warner tired of Price’s grueling road itinerary and returned to the Washington area where still popular as a local entertainer he began hanging out at various clubs, including the legendary Maryland venue, where he would sit in with the locals. he recalled to Benicewicz, ““I met Jay McNeely at a place called Evan’s Grill in Forrestville, MD, and his singer wasn’t doin’ nothin. The crowd egged me to go on, so I got Jay to agree. I never saw that vocalist again.” Jay asked Sonny to go on the road with him and a few months later he Sonny left his day job and small local gigs behind to join McNeely in Seattle where Big Jay was based. He fronted McNeely’s Band, scoring with his Ray Charles influenced vocals. In Seattle, they were recorded at the Birdland club which McNeely later issued on his Swingin’ label (and this is available today on Collectables) which mixed a number of wild instrumentals showcasing McNeely’s honking tenor sax along with Warner’s soulful singing which included an early version of “There is Something on Your Mind.”

Big Jay’s recording of “There is Something on Your Mind” with Little Sonny’s vocal was the big moment in Sonny’s career, with the record going gold. The record, issued on the Swingin' label of Hunter Hancock, Roger Davenport and McNeely became a major R&B smash in 1959, even reaching #44 on the Pop Top 100. Sonny’s wonderful delivery of the lyrics and his ad-lib scatting towards the vocal’s end is still appealing almost five decades later. It was a classic recording of a terrific song and has been covered by numerous performers including Bobby Marchan, James Cotton, Kenny Neal, Professor Longhair and B.B. King. Over the next couple years, several more singles, some simply instrumentals, were waxed by McNeely and band but none reached the success of the song that took Big Jay, Little Sonny and band across the country playing some of the great venous and sharing the stage with other R&B giants.
Eventually, Sonny left McNeely and returned to the Washington DC area. He was able to hook up with Bill Boskent who Sonny would have gotten to know when he was with Lloyd Price because Boskent was Price’s road manager. Larry Benicewicz notes that Boskent recorded Sonny producing a pop flavored ballad “Wallflower” backed by the bouncy “That’s For Me” (both Boskent compositions) for the first Bee Bee (for Bill Boskent) release in 1961, and two more sides (duets with Marie Allen) in 1962. Benicewicz stated the recordings had an impact in the Mid-Atlantic region, but did not break out as had been hoped. Then Boskent recorded Warner for a band new Lloyd Price enterprise, Concertone records, but again the recording did not meet expectations. Later in 1966, Sonny recorded what was possibly his best know post-Big Jay recording, the single “Bell Bottom Blue Jeans” and Been So Long,” which was produced by Ted Bodner. The former tune remained a staple of his repertoire until the end.

Over the next few decades, Sonny continued to perform, being one of the most highly regarded artists in the region. He evoked Ray Charles as he sang blues and soul songs, and was always backed by a crack band. He continued to play the top venues in the region, and when Lamont's opened in 1990, was its opening act. He performed at The Taste of DC and twice was featured at the DC Blues Festival (1992 and 1998) where he captured his audience with his singing and his stage presence, being a whirling dervish on the stage. And as former DC Blues Society President Bob Gray would say, no one could sing “There is Something on Your Mind” like Sonny Warner could.

One highlight of recent years was being reunited with Big Jay McNeely at the August 1997, Hot August Blues event in Monkton, Maryland. It may have been the only time since he split from McNeely in the early sixties that the two shared the stage together. Brad Selko, who with his late wife Marcia, produced the event, mentioned that people still tell him that Sonny’s performance that day was among the most memorable shows they had ever seen. This writer also remembers Sonny as one of the acts at the 2000 Gator Blues Festival at Lamont’s where he left the stage to wade into the enthusiastic crowd.

Sonny continued performing, but slowed down his pace. He was discovered by Falls Church community activist David Eckert. Eckert, who had worked vigorously to recover the civil rights legacy of the Falls Church area, earlier helped the region appreciate the role of Piedmont Blues pioneer John Jackson. Eckert helped arrange performances for Sonny at the City’s First Friday celebration, the annual Tinner Hill Festival (a celebration of the first rural NAACP chapter in Virginia) and at the City of Falls Church’s"Concerts in the Park" series held Falls Church's Cherry Hill Park.

In more recent years Sonny endured some health ailments. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and received treatment and slowed down his performances. Some of his last performances were as part of a revue, The DC Allstars that included Pookie Hudson & the Spaniels, The Jewels, The Velons, The Orioles, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals, and The Winstons. Still the health problems limited his ability to perform. When Big Jay called Sonny to join him in Italy to help Jay celebrate his 80th Birthday, Sonny was unable to join his fellow legend.

I happened upon Sonny and his wife Catherine on several occasions the past couple years, and it would always bring a smile just to chat with him. Even when last summer at a Safeway parking lot, when he told me his was undergoing chemo for the prostate cancer, he still had the infectious smile and optimism about the future. Sonny was as nice a person as he was one of the finest blues singers ever to come out of Washington. And he was so good that if there is ever a DC Blues Hall of Fame, he will be one of the charter members.

Sonny was survived by his wife, Catherine, seven children and two stepchildren; sister Jessie Mae Simmons and brother, Joseph Hunter; 13 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, eight sisters-in-law, six brothers-in-law, numerous nieces and nephews, other relatives and many friends. To his family we extend our condolences.