The studio musicians used by Carl Davis at Brunswick Records, particularly in the early days of his tenure, were musicians he already knew from his years at OKeh Records. He also continued to use Columbia Records Studios, located at McClurg Court, where the OKeh sessions were conducted. That arrangement was in place until 1967, when Brunswick took over the old Vee-Jay building, which had a small studio on the second floor. Jackie Wilson recorded “Whispers (Getting Louder” and “Higher And Higher” at the Columbia Studio).
The main session musicians used for the Brunswick recordings were Danny Reed, Danny Leake, Byron Gregory and Phil Upchurch on guitars, Floyd Morris and Tennyson Stephens on keyboards, Bernard Reed on bass, and Quinton Joseph on drums. The horn section was made up of John Avant and Morris Ellis on trombones, Willie Henderson, Cliff Davis and Steele Seals on saxophones, plus Lionel Bordelon and Maury Watson on trumpets.
Danny Reed had worked as a session guitarist for Carl Davis at OKeh Records and continued at Brunswick. He was also a songwriter and arranger, working with Jackie Wilson and others. Danny Leake was a guitarist, who played on many Brunswick recordings. He teamed up with Ian Levine in the seventies to write songs and produce Chicago disco hits. He later became a successful sound engineer. Byron Gregory often played alongside Phil Upchurch and Pete Cosey from the late sixties, developing a subtle style that was especially suited to the recordings he made with Ramsey Lewis. Tennyson Stephens was a talented pianist, equally happy playing Soul or Jazz. He recorded a Jazz album with Phil Upchurch in 1975 entitled “Upchurch/Tennyson”. Bernard Reed was born in Chicago. He sang bass in a school doo-wop group and took up the tuba. He later formed the Constellations, who found work as a backing group at Chess Records. Reed was fascinated by the musicians he saw in the studio, especially Phil Upchurch and Johnny Pate, and decided to follow his brother Danny into session work. Bernard fixed on bass guitar, which he had seen Upchurch playing, and set out on a long career. He played on many sessions for Brunswick, recording with all the headline acts, until he failed to get a production post to which Eugene Record was appointed. Reed felt that he deserved the job and so moved on, working with Peter Wright and Pieces of Peace.
Quinton Joseph was born in 1946 in Chicago. He is one of the few studio musicians during the golden era of R&B and Soul music to have played on hit records from two different cities, with distinct signature sounds. The two cities were Chicago, where Joseph started out, and Philadelphia, where he went at the invitation of Gamble and Huff. In his local neighbourhood he got involved with two future in-demand session musicians who also made a name for themselves in the music industry in Chicago. These men, guitarist Danny Reed and his brother bassist Bernard Reed, became very close friends of Joseph. As a close unit they began playing for singer/songwriter Billy Butler, who was the brother of the legendary Jerry Butler (known as the “Ice Man”). This led to the opportunity to work on the road with the The Artistics, best known for their Chicago Soul classic hit of 1966 “I’m Gonna Miss You”, that sold almost a million copies in North America. With this success under their belt, they began to develop a reputation for being extremely tight which helped them increase their offers of work. They started to support various local recording acts such as Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites, Major Lance, Gene Chandler and Tyrone Davis. The first million-selling record that Joseph played on was Barbara Acklin’s gold single “Love Makes a Woman”, released by Brunswick Records in 1968. The following year, he played on the first gold single of Tyrone Davis’ career, entitled “Can I Change My Mind”, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart on 1st February 1969 (2 weeks). He repeated the same success with Davis on his second chart-topping single, “Turn Back the Hands of Time”, which became the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart number one on 2nd May 1970 (2 weeks) and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, selling a million-plus copies in the process. Joseph found time in his busy schedule of recording activities to arrange and assist Eugene Record with the track “Have You Seen Her”, which became the first million-seller for both Eugene Record and The Chi-Lites. He also played on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart number one single “Turning Point”, 7th February 1976 (1 week). On a few occasions, he composed songs for The Chi-Lites, such as “We Are Neighbors” on their studio album “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People” (1971) and “We Need Order” on the “The Letter To Myself” (1973) studio album. During his time as a studio musician at Brunswick Records, Joseph also found time to participate in recording sessions at Curtom Records. In addition, Joseph later played on Natalie Cole’s three hit albums released by Capitol Records in the late seventies. Overall, he was one of the most successful drummers from the Windy City, with a long list of credits numbering close to two hundred for arrangements, songwriting, conducting, performing and production.
John Avant was a trombone player, with a BA and an MA in music. He studied at Chicago Musical College and DePaul University, later combining session work with teaching jobs in Chicago’s public schools. He became an assistant principal. Morris Ellis was born in Chicago in 1929. He played trombone at Chess Records and then at Mercury and Brunswick. He was a graduate of Howard University. Steele Seals received credits for playing saxophone on many of Tyrone Davis’ sessions, plus several Chi-Lites’ recordings. The string section was more fluid. The Brunswick arrangers usually contacted Sol Bobrov to discuss requirements for any particular session. Bobrov would then book the musicians needed. Bobrov was born in Chicago in 1911. He played strings and acoustic guitar. He and Bruce Hayden were the string player members of Richard Evans’ Soulful Strings. He also played on Curtis Mayfield’s “Super Fly” album, receiving special thanks from Mayfield on the record sleeve.
The songwriters at Brunswick were largely there in other capacities as well. An interesting aspect of Chicago’s Soul music is just how many of the songs were written by singers, musicians, arrangers and producers. At Brunswick this was especially true, with Carl Davis leading the way, followed by Eugene Record, Barbara Acklin, Otis Leavill, Willie Henderson, Quinton Joseph and many others.
The key sound engineer at Brunswick was Bruce Swedien, who worked at Chicago’s Universal Sound Studios. Together with his talented African American audio assistant and sound engineer Craig Barksdale, he helped to define the sound coming out of the Brunswick studios. When Nat Tarnopol and Carl Davis organised Brunswick’s purchase of the Vee-Jay Records offices in 1967, Swedien was brought in to design and build the new studio that replaced Vee-Jay’s rudimentary set-up. He maintained and up-graded the equipment as needed. With Swedien at the controls, the quality of the recordings was assured.
