LITTLE MILTON Tintin atcaa ANN | ARBOR Postmortem Eyer ULC) Item Neyo)Vik Bue B/S freer 74 Blues = the Big Apple CHARLES WALKER (left) & BOBBY ROBINSON. ree Honest Archives photo, courtesy Honest Tom Pomposello & Charles Walker. by Honest Tom Pomposello “My name is Charles Walker. Iam sz years old; I was born in, Macon, Georgia on July 26, 1922. My father was a blues player. ¥is'naine was Freeman Walker, but everyone called him “Boweavil’ “Guitar was inherited to me through in my father. But my musical career started back in 195. At that time I was playing ata club called Ben 29 in Newark, New Jersey. We had a three piece band ~ a piano man by thé name of Larry, a tub bass player called Cooper, and myself. 1 had made a foot-clapper which I played along with guitar and singing. We played there three nights a week: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I really ‘enjoyed playing and the people enjoyed the music. “One of the bartenders there had a lady friend who lived in New York. He told her about the live music they had where he worked at. So when this lady came over to the club, she brought ‘another girl friend with her. Her name was May MeKay. After we had finished playing that night, Miss McKay called me over tothe table and asked me have I ever recorded? So I told her no. She told me she managed groups and that she knew all the right people in New York and she could make me a star. She told me that was just wasting my talent playing and singing in these honky-tonk joints in Newark. ‘$0 talked it over with the piano player, and the tub player. ‘They said they didn’t want no part of leaving their old ladies in Newark and moving over to New York. I told her what they said, and she said ~ ‘So the hell with them, Backup men are a dime a dozen. Iwill et youua band to aecompany you. lam interested in youand your guitar, and your voice.’ I told her OK, Twould take ‘a chance at it. And that was how I come to say goodbye to Newark, New Jersey, New York City here I come. “When [came to New York, she got me a room in this hotel on 125th Street and 5th Avenue. And she also got me an audition at the Baby Grand Club, also on 125th Street. They had a house band there and they gave me some nice backup. So I got @ booking at the Baby Grand, but as my luck would have it, T never did make the booking. Because when I went back to ‘Newark to tell my friends the good news, I wound up getting my jaw broken. (See, I was quite a ladies’ man in them days.) But! did recover quickly enough and when 1 finally got mysel together again, [cut my first record, Driving Home Part I & IL Charles Walker made his recording debut forthe New York based Holiday label, which was owned and operated by Danny Robinson, brother and “competitor” of Fire/Fury Records ‘owner Bobby Robinson, The record, released in late 195, did fairly well for the times. Robinson had managed to secure some airplay and distribution for his reeords partly because he was handling a hot R&B group called The Love Notes, who ad hit it big with a tune called United. Driving Home was a (worpart instrumental, not unlike Bill Doggett’sthen-popular Honky Tonk. The label credit featured Maurice Simon on sax. The late Dd dack Walker (no relation to Charles) of WLIB used the record ofthe in-theme for his mor- hing sfow, "Wake Up New York,” which was broadeast live 14 from the Palm Cafe on 15th Stret Although Charles was not to record again for another three years, he was working regularly and managed to put together a top-notch band, “'s0 T could sound as good live as I did on my records.” In 1959 the band he brought into Danny Robinson's, studio was a tight one. The resulting record, issued on the Vest label, is perhaps Charles’ best known, It Ain't Right™ coupled with the’ instrumental Charles Walker Slop» (featisring’ the harmonica of B. Brown) “The band also included a young, incredibly gifted pianist- composer named Lee Roy Litile whom everyone affectionately called “Bluebird”, in reference to his song of the same title. B. Brown, the featured harmonica man, is not to be confused with Buster Brown of Fire Records and Fannie Mae fame. It seems though that B. Brown (no one seems to recall his real name) adopted the pseudonym to cash in on the reputation and popularity of Buster Brown, And in actuality, their harp styles Were not dissimilar, (B. later even did a record called Fannie Mae Is Back:)Drummer Danny Q, Jones rounded out the group with Charles handling the guitar and most ofthe vocals. But Charles also saw the band in a different perspective: ‘You know, I always wanted to have an all-star blues band. Because Bluebird was a very good vocalist as well as piano player. And B, Brown and Daniny Q. could also hold their own on vocals.” In theory, this might have been an ideal arrangement. But in practice . " . “Everything was going fine,” recalls Charles, until each one made a record oftheir own, Then each one went cut on their own, and I was left alone.” But Charles is not the type to begrudge a fellow musician anything. And when Lee Roy and B, Brown wanted to cut records under their own names, Charles was more than willing to keep the band together for their sessions. In 1960 he even wrote the “A” side of Brown’s first record, Hard Workin’ Man *, which was backed with My Baby Left Mex. The Vest label credited “B. Brown and h Rockin’ MeVouts.” B. Brown recorded. at least two other records and then left New York for the South. Charles believes he is still active musically in Tennessee. Lee Roy Little on the other hand cut two records (and two only, as far as I know) for the Cee Jay label in New York (no ‘conmeetion with Carl Jones's Chicago C.J. label). Charles played guitar again on Lee's first record, and both sides, were magnificent examples of bluesy New York R&B at its besi: Vm ‘A Good Man But A Poor Man*and Your Evil Thoughts * (The second record, without Charles, was Hurry Baby, Please Come Home * and iet Me Go Home Whiskey.) ‘Throughout this time Charles managed to stay busy and in 1968 he was again invited to record under his own name. Tommy Robinson (name coincidence again, since this man is no relation to Bobby or Danny Robinson) operated the Atlas /Angletone labels. He took Charles to a studio in the old CBS Building, Walker had put a new band together for the occasion, as he recalls: “I had a young boy named Bubba on piano, a drummer ‘we called Peanuts, and Henry Copeland on bass.”” The session yielded one record, Nervous Wreck/Down Hearted Blues, but the band was a short-lived one. Nonetheless the record did well enough that the producer called Charles in again later that year.CHARLES WALKER (photo by Fred Seibert); BILL DICEY (photo by Roy Langbord); LEE ROY LITTLE (photo by Fred Seibert). Studio musicians were utilized and the record issued was Wrong wd of Woman, backed with Louise ‘Around this time Walker also had a booking as the featured attraction out on Long Island, in Huntington Station at the Colanial House. Located just south of the train station, the club was quitea popular night spot. Charles says, “My recotd was on the juke box, and people would wait for me to perform it on stage, live. Theyhad a house band that backed me up but they could not play my song good enough. They didn't sound nothing like my record.” Nomatter, forthe Colonial House soon burned down, This, combined with other musieal frustrations, caused Charles to re evaluate his life in music. “I decided 1 would give up show business because I was not getting the sound T wanted land I wasn't making no progress. It seemed like people were losing interest in the blues and 1 couldn't even Keep a band together, So sized up my life I felt I didn’t do too bad. When I ceame to New York I didn't have nothing. But now Thad a wite, a ‘woman I loved and who loved me. I had a home, a nice bank Account and a new car. So I decided to retire from musie.” But in 1968, the day after Christmas, Teresa Harrison, the woman Charles was soattached to died. They had met in New ‘York in '58, shortly after he had come to live in the city. They were married three years later and their life was evidently quite ‘happy one. Charles found it hard to earry on without her. "By {9701 had lost home, money, and everything, grieving over the loss of my wife. So [sold all my furniture and decided to leave New York. And that’s when Mr. Bobby Robinson came into the icture with me. Bobby told me he wanted to record me again. I told him it ‘idn't make no sense and that it wasn't worth It. So he said to ime, ‘Charles, you are ready to record now more than you have ever been. People bought all those records you did befare because you had a style and you were a new face. But now ‘you're just like a new whiskey that's been aged and now people ‘who tasted you before are ready to taste again, and they'll find how you've improved with age like that whiskey. Charles, 1 am going to be honest with you. Elmore James was my blues player ‘when he was alive. But now he's dead and gone, and I feel you are qualified to be next, [am very willing to invest my money in you. Yousee, when you had your wife, your home, and your new ar, show business was not something you took serious. But now Youtawe ot everything and you've realy ving wih the blues every day.” in 1971 Bobby produced one extended session with Charles and ‘a band they together assembled which included Lee Roy Little fn plano, Bobby King on drums, and Larry Johnson on har- ‘monica along with a bassist and second guitarist. The proposed album never did materialize, but Robinson dd issue a single on his reactivated Fury label: Rock Me Mama, and a new version of Charles’ original hit, You Know It Ain't Right. But Robinson, ‘widely known for his guile as a producer/promo man, failed to do justice to his reputation. The record went virtually unnoticed ‘except in his Harlem record shop and a few isolated Southern towns, where Bobby still has contacts “from the old days.” Robinson's concept of “marketing a blues record’ had not changed: he felt that he should sell almost exclusively to a black audience, While to a small extent Bobby probably realizes that ‘much of today’s blues audience is young and white, he made no ‘attempt to send review copies 0 LIVING BLUES or BLUES UNLIMITED for instance, nor to underground and college FM rradio stations which regularly feature blues shows; but this is another matter. Charles got another chance to record later that year for the P&P label. Producer Peter Brown's desire was to recreate a lot ‘of music in the 80's and update it for the 70's. Charles assembled ‘a band once again that featured drummer Bobby King, guitarist Bob Malenky and an astonishingly fine harp man, Bill Dicey, ‘whom Charles had met playing in a bar and who had worked with Louisiana Red & John Hammond, among others. Two singles resulted {rom those sessions. Charles has a penchant for Muddy Waters- Little Walter material, and he cut a fine version of Forty Days and Forty Nights backed with My Babe. The other ‘record was eredited to Bill Dicey, since he was featured up front ‘on both sides; instrumentally on Juke and voeally on Hootchie- Kootchie Man. Both Charles and Bill were more than displeased with this one, “They tried to make me sound like a 60-year-old black man," commented Bill. “They did all this weird rechanneling to my voice . . I did all I could to even prevent them from issuing the damn thing.” Both records, however, were “pick hits” in a December '71 issue of RECORD WORLD magazine, But this didn't help either the records or the mysterious Peter Brown, who vanished from the scene almost as suddenly as he had originally appeared ‘Last year, while talking with Larry Johnson, I asked him what had ever happened to all the old blues bands that used to abound in New York City. Larry admitted that New York blues had really gone underground but that a lot of the older bluesmen still gol together at house parties from time to time and that “one ‘man in particular, Charles Walker, he’s still tryin’ to hold a band together and he sometimes plays around town and in the bars around Harlem.” Tmet Charles soon after, got to know and like him, and had hhim up on my radio show a couple of times. subsequently, we produced a couple of recording sessions for radio with very gratifying results Oblivion Records will be issuing BLUES FROM THE APPLE: ‘The Charles Walker New York City Blues Band this fall. Strangely enough, this will be the first New York City urban blues band album in nearly 15 years! Featured prominently along with Charles on the album are Lee Roy Little and Bill Dicey as well as many of Charles's old (and new) cronies. This isa record we're all quite enthused about, but noone so much as, Charles, who says itbest: “All Tknow is that I want the world to hhear me now ‘cause I'm deeper in the blues now than I've ever been before.” See SSS ‘song titles marked with an asterisk* in this article have been reissued by Flyright Records in England and, in the cases of Charles Walker and Lee Roy Little, royalties have been paid. 15