Mr. Cobb

Mr. Cobb was as good as anybody could be heard playing the sax. Tone, articulation, selection of notes and song selection.

Ike on the Mike

Just another attempt to pray for a brother

instead of prey on one in these last days

I was real close to playing in his band in LA in '07

Doc pete

713-882-7209

Ike We Miss You too

IKE Wister Turner
Ike Wister Turner (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, talent scout, and record producer, best known for his work with his then wife Tina Turner as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo. Spanning a career that lasted half a century, Ike's repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2001 was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Biography
Early life and career
Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on November 5, 1931, to Beatrice Cushenberry and Izear Luster Turner. Ike got his first taste of pleasing an audience at the age of eight working at the local Clarksdale radio station, WROX, located in the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. A man in charge of the station put Turner to work as he watched the record turntables. Said Turner:
“
I got a job driving the elevator in the Alcazar and the radio station was on the second floor. It was very exciting to me, a radio station. I'd run up to the second floor and look through the window at the guy spinning records. He saw me and told me to come in and showed me how to 'hold a record.' I'd sit there and hold it until the one playing stopped, then I'd turn a knob and the one I was holding would play. Next thing I know, he was going across the street for coffee and leaving me in there alone. I was only eight. That was the beginning of my thing with music.
”
Turner was soon carrying amplifiers for blues singer Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX. Ike was mesmerized by Nighthawk's playing, but nothing could equal the experience of hearing Pinetop Perkins on piano for the first time. Growing up, his idol Pinetop Perkins helped teach the young Ike to play boogie-woogie on the piano. Ike soon was enamored of other blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Little Walter[1].
Many sources state Turner's real name to be "Izear Luster Turner, Jr." however, in his autobiography Takin' Back My Name, it is stated as "Ike Wister Turner." In the book, Turner explains about this confusion. His father, Izear Luster Turner, was a minister for the local church. Turner had thought he was named Izear Luster Turner, Jr. after his father, until he found out that his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner while applying for his first passport. He never got to discover the origin of his name, as by the time he discovered it, his parents were both dead. Furthermore, Ike Turner converted to Judaism later in his life.
Music career
Ike Turner's actual music career began in earnest in the late-1940s where he formed a group whom he christened The Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, the band recorded what historians have debated as "the first rock and roll record" with "Rocket 88", credited to Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (this band did not actually exist). Brenston was both the band's saxophonist and the lead vocalist of the song, and on the original Chess release was listed as the song's writer. "Rocket 88" was produced at Sun Studio in Memphis by Sam Phillips. The record was one of the first examples of guitar distortion, which happened by accident when one of the amplifiers dropped before the recording.
Ike and the Kings of Rhythm settled into local fame in St. Louis where the band locally recorded for a St. Louis label and even appeared on local television shows. Throughout this early period, Turner became a recording scout and A&R man for independent record companies including Sun Records - where "Rocket 88" was recorded, helping the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and Otis Rush get signed. He also became a sideman playing guitar for these blues acts and more. Musically, Turner was known for his hard-hitting guitar style. He was known to put the whammy bar of his Fender Stratocaster to frequent use.
Turner's music career changed drastically after meeting a teenage singer from Nutbush, Tennessee, named Anna Mae Bullock, who demandingly grabbed a microphone during a singing session at one of St. Louis' nightspots and sang a BB King song in her now-trademark throated raspy vocals. Bullock's performance impressed Ike so much he allowed Anna to join his band as a background singer. However within a year, Ike's plans for Bullock changed after Anna recorded what he originally stated was a demo for a song that was to be sung by a male vocalist. After hearing her vocals, he let it be released under an independent label and in the process changed the name of the singer from Anna Mae Bullock to Tina Turner - naming her after Sheena - and the name of the band to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. That song, "A Fool in Love", became a national hit in early 1960, reaching the top three in the R&B charts and becoming a top thirty pop hit in the process. From then until 1976, Ike and Tina Turner became one of the most explosive duos in rock & soul music. The creation of the revue also led to the soul revues of the 1960s. Inspired by Ray Charles, Turner created a trio of sexy background singers and dancers who were named The Ikettes who often had their moves choreographed by Tina and Ike. The Turners eventually scored several hit singles including "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "River Deep - Mountain High", "I Want To Take You Higher", "Proud Mary", and "Nutbush City Limits" over thirteen years.
The success the duo contributed eventually led to the creation of the Los Angeles-based Bolic Sounds studio, founded by Ike. However, after Tina abruptly left Ike after a violent altercation in 1976, Ike lost ground in the national music market. As a solo artist, he struggled to find success after Tina and after releasing two failed solo albums, had found himself facing drug and weapons charges, of which he was convicted in 1989. Shortly after Ike's release from prison in 1993, the musician went back on the road and back into recording music, which continued until his death. In 2001, Ike released the Grammy-nominated Here & Now album. Three years later, he was awarded with an "Heroes Award" from the Memphis charter of NARAS. In 2005, he appeared on the Gorillaz' album, Demon Days, playing piano on the track, "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead". He played live with the band on the band's world tour to that particular song. In 2007, Ike won his first solo Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for the album, Risin' With the Blues. Before his death, a collaboration between Turner and the rock band, The Black Keys, by Gorillaz' producer Danger Mouse was expected for release next year.
Personal life
Turner is said to have been married 14 times but he has only been known to have married four times publicly. Turner's first marriage was to Lorraine Taylor, who had two sons with Ike. The facts surrounding his second marriage, to Anna Mae Bullock (otherwise known as Tina Turner), have been hotly debated. It is believed that Ike married Tina in 1962 due to worries over being sued for child support and alimony payments by Taylor. The ceremony is claimed to have taken place in Tijuana, Mexico, and Tina had a son with Ike. However, their marriage was overshadowed by Ike's constant abuse towards her. Tina filed for divorce and it was finalized in 1978, with Ike keeping every asset attained during the marriage. Ike is said to have openly cheated on Tina with other women, one of whom was former Ikette, Ann Thomas, by whom he had a baby and whom he later married in 1981. In 1995, he married yet another Ikette, Jeanette Bazzell. Ike has four known children: sons, Ike Jr., Michael and Ronald and daughter, Mia.[2]
In the mid-1980s, Turner suffered a brush with the law when he was convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to several years in a California state prison. Turner was still in prison pleading parole when he and Tina were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, which Tina accepted on his behalf.
In 2001, Turner's long-awaited autobiography, Takin' Back My Name (ISBN 1-85227-850-1), was published. In Tina Turner's 1986 autobiography, I, Tina, later filmed as What's Love Got to Do with It?, Tina accused Ike of violent spousal abuse, which Ike repeatedly denied for many years. However, in his 2001 autobiography Ike admitted, "Sure, I've slapped Tina... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."
Turner has attributed many problems off the stage to his drug and alcohol addiction and intense use of cocaine, resulting in his abusive behavior and relationship with his wife and children. When Turner was released from prison in 1993, Turner began where he left off in his career with a busy touring and recording schedule.
In 1996, in an interview with NPR's Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Ike claimed that he and Tina Turner were never actually married, and that she originally took his name in order to discourage a former lover from returning to her.[3]. On October 17, 2007, in a telephone interview conducted by radio personality Howard Stern, Ike reiterated his claim that he and Tina Turner were never actually married.[citation needed]
Death
Turner died on December 12, 2007 at 76 years of age at his home in San Marcos, California, near San Diego.[4] On January 16, 2008 it was reported by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office that he died from a cocaine overdose. "The cause of death for Ike Turner is cocaine toxicity with other significant conditions," such as hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema, Supervising Medical Examiner Investigator Paul Parker told CNN.[5]

Don Robey

Don D. Robey (1 November 1903, Houston, Texas - 16 June 1975, Houston) was a record label executive, songwriter and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for nurturing the careers of many rhythm and blues artists in the 1950s and 1960s.
Career
Robey's entrepreneurial spirit developed while growing up around Houston's black business community, where he began as a professional gambler, then a taxicab business manager. He managed a nightclub in Los Angeles, California before returning to Houston, where he opened the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club in 1945. Soon he began to promote dances. The Peacock was soon featuring stars such as Ruth Brown, Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton, and T-Bone Walker.
In 1947 he became manager for blues singer Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and two years later started Peacock Records, with Brown as his first artist. He found success both with Brown and with other R&B artists, the biggest success coming with "Big Mama" Thornton's # 1 hit "Hound Dog". The label also recorded Little Richard at the start of his career.In 1952, Robey merged his Peacock label with Duke Records of Memphis, and Duke-Peacock was born. Robey took over full ownership of the label the following year. Initially the company's biggest star was Johnny Ace, but after Ace's death the gap was filled by other artistes including Junior Parker, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Johnny Otis. He co-wrote "Farther Up The Road" with Joe Medwich Veasey which was initially a hit for Bobby "Blue" Bland in 1957, and later became a live staple for Eric Clapton.
Besides blues and R&B, Robey's label was responsible for issuing much gospel music, with successful artistes such as the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and the Swan Silvertones. Robey also started Back Beat, an R&B label that had hits with O.V. Wright and Roy Head. He sold his labels to ABC Dunhill Records in 1973.

Music Producers

The Black Godfather
The wit and wisdom of Andre Williams.
By John Nova Lomax

"Andre Williams makes Little Richard look like Pat Boone."
-- Lux Interior,of the Cramps
·
Andre Williams: The OG of R&B.
Where:
Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights
Details:
9 p.m. Saturday, June 25, $10, 216-321-5588
Subject(s): Andre Williams
"Andre Williams? If he's still around, he's probably doing time."
-- Keith Richards
Nobody in the last 50 years has worn more hats -- pimped-out Stetsons all -- than Andre Williams, aka the Black Godfather, Mr. Rhythm, and the Father of Rap. In Detroit in the '50s and '60s, he recorded doo-wop and R&B simultaneously, under three or four different names, and worked as a producer for Berry Gordy at Motown, a role he later filled at Chess in Chicago and for Don Robey at Duke-Peacock in Houston, among dozens of other labels. His compositions and/or performances, such as "Twine Time," "Shake a Tail Feather," and "Bacon Fat" have been enshrined in the nation's R&B canon; his "Mojo Hannah" has become a New Orleans R&B staple; and his performance of "Jail Bait" was cited a few years ago by Keith Richards as one of his favorite records of all time. (And his spoken-word performance of the 1959 recording has led some to call it the first rap song ever.)
Williams' early promise seemed to have fizzled when 18 months spent collaborating with Ike Turner in 1971 turned, eventually, into many, many years of cocaine and crack addiction. And then, in 1996, he came roaring back, with a collection of reworkings of some of his old classics. Two years later came Silky, the collaboration with Detroit underground-rock legends Mick Collins and Dan Kroha, which reintroduced this X-rated original gangsta of old-school R&B and proto-rap to a generation of punks and garage rockers. Later, Williams released Red Dirt, a similarly raunchy C&W album with Canadian psychedelic alt-country maestros the Sadies, and has released a trio of albums for Norton.
Today, the nattily attired Williams seems like nothing so much as the living link between Cab Calloway and early Ice-T, equal parts music-maker and hustler, pimp and entertainer, poet and comedian. The recent convert to Judaism is also something of a sage, so we talked to the man and scoured out half a dozen long interviews, in order to craft from them a collection of the wit and wisdom of Andre Williams, the OG of R&B. (In addition to the quotes from our own talk with Williams, the other original interviews can be found at furious.com, ugly-things.com, franmagazine.com, cosmik.com, and nardwuar.com)
On dressing well: "My father always said, 'Always wear a shirt and tie.' So if you get uptight and have to ask somebody for something, they'll give you what you look like. If you look like a bum, you're gonna get a dime. And if you're dressed, they're gonna give you more. So I've always been a shirt-and-tie man, because you never know who you're gonna bump into."
On his bad reputation: "Get off my back about the language; I'm trying to tell a story. Dig the theme. We can't all go on the expressway. Sometimes some of us got to take the low road."
On Don Robey and Berry Gordy: "Don Robey was a very, very strict, no-nonsense, hands-on gamblin' man. He wasn't scared of nothin' or nobody, period. Can't make myself no clearer, can I? Robey told you what he thought in front of your face. Berry Gordy was a fantastic producer himself, as well as a businessman. Berry Gordy had an ear. Don Robey didn't have an ear -- he'd hire people to be his ear. But Berry Gordy could hear hits. Don Robey, if you brought him a tape, he'd have to hear somebody's opinion and he'd lay the money down. But payin' you later might be a question! You know, creative accounting?"
On Don Robey and Little Richard: "Little Richard brought Don Robey some demos, and then Little Richard said something smart to Don Robey. And Don Robey pulled out a gun from under his desk, shot it in the air, and threw him out the studio! That was when he was recording under Richard Penniman. And also, he was downtown, sellin' fish! And Don Robey drove up and seen him down sellin' fish, and took a fish out the fish cart and slapped him over the head and told him his artists don't sell no fish!"
On hanging with Ike Turner: "You know how your mother would have little porcelain elephants or whatever on the kitchen shelves, like salt-and-pepper shakers? Well, every single one of these in Ike's house was full of coke! You could either pick the neck down or move a leg and shake a gram out of it! Full of coke! When I went to work with Ike, I was weighing 185 pounds. At the end I was 85 pounds! I was hemorrhaging, and I was sitting at LaGuardia Airport wiping blood with the tail on my shirt and trying to tuck it back so I could get on the airplane -- to get home, to get well, 'cause I knew I was dyin'. Luckily, I got home, and it took me about nine months to recover from that."