Most studios had a group of musicians that they could call on to play regularly on recording sessions. Some were freelance and played in a variety of places. Others, especially at studios that belonged to a specific record company, were under contract and played at one place. These musicians were usually highly skilled and versatile, able to switch styles and genres, to suit the requirements of a particular artist or producer.
Chess Records had its own recording studio and put together a formidable session band in 1964, thanks to the influence of Billy Davis, the Head of A&R who had joined from Motown. These musicians played together on many of the recordings artists on the Chess roster, covering the company’s collection of labels: Chess, Checker, Argo, Cadet, Checkmate etc. The main members of the band were Maurice White and then Morris Jennings (drums), Louis Satterfield (bass), Bryce Robertson, Gerald Sims and (from 1967) Phil Upchurch (guitars), Leonard Caston and Raynard Miner (pianos) and Sonny Thompson (piano and organ). Gene Barge joined Chess in 1964 and added his saxophones to the mix, as well as taking on arranging and production duties.
Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1941, where he attended Booker T. Washington High School, alongside Booker T. Jones and David Porter, living with his grandmother. He moved to Chicago to join his mother and stepfather while he was still in his teens. He attended Crane Junior College and then studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. In 1962 he joined a Jazz group at the Junior College, that had been set up by Louis Satterfield (who played trombone in the group), Charles Handy (trumpet) and Don Myrick (alto sax).
Maurice White 2007
Photo: Eriik (Wikimedia Commons)
His first opportunity to play at a recording session came while he was still at the Conservatory. In 1963, he was asked to fill in at a Vee-Jay session for Betty Everett at which she recorded her first Vee-Jay hit “You’re No Good”. Imagine his excitement as a student, when his first session yielded a hit!
He soon began working on many of the sessions at Chess, playing with all the main artists. He also went on tour with the Dells as drummer in their touring band. In 1966, he joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio, replacing Isaac “Red” Holt, and stayed for three years, before leaving to form his own group, the Salty Peppers, which later became Earth, Wind & Fire. Before his departure, he played drums on Minnie Riperton’s solo album “Come To My Garden”. White later took up songwriting and record production, working with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Deniece Williams, and the Emotions.
Louis Satterfield was born in Shaw, in the Mississippi Delta area, in 1937. He learned to play bass and trombone and set up a Jazz band at college. As we have seen, he met Maurice White at the college and invited him to join the Jazzmen. He also found work as a session musician at Chess, playing bass on a number of Chess’ sixties hits, notably Fontella Bass’ “Rescue Me” in 1965.
Along with Don Myrick from the Jazzmen, Satterfield was a member of the Pharaohs, who recorded the album “The Awakening” in 1971. He later played trombone as a member of the Phenix Horns, playing with Earth, Wind & Fire, joining up with Don Myrick again (alto sax) and Michael Harris (trumpet). The Phenix Horns played on every EWF album between 1975 and 1983.
In 1981, Satterfield joined his Phenix Horns bandmates at Phil Collins’ recording sessions for the “Face Value” project, Collins’ first solo album. It was the start of a profitable association, as the Phenix Horns went on tour with Collins and worked with him on later recordings. The Horns broke up in the early 1990s, but Satterfield continued working until his death in 2004, at the age of sixty-seven. His career was a varied one, supporting many well-known performers including Muddy Waters, B.B. King, the Emotions, Ramsey Lewis, Rotary Connection, Donny Hathaway, the Dells, and the Gap Band.
Pete Cosey was born in Chicago in 1943. His parents were both musicians, so it wasn’t a surprise that Cosey took up the guitar. When his father died, Cosey was still young and his mother decided that they would move to Phoenix, Arizona. Ten years later, Cosey returned to Chicago and started out in the music industry.
Cosey joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which had been set up in 1965 by Muhal Richard Abrams and some of his colleagues. He later played with the Pharaohs and followed the example of Satterfield, Myrick and White in becoming a session musician at Chess. He played guitar on “Rescue Me” and worked with Etta James, Chuck Berry, Billy Stewart, Rotary Connection, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Cosey was an important member of the session band for the experimental albums recorded under the direction of Marshall Chess by the last two names listed above, the top two Blues artists at Chess.
In 1973, Cosey joined Miles Davis’ band and his guitar-playing became more experimental. He used a collection of pedals to explore a wide variety of sounds from his guitars. He often restrung and retuned the guitars in different ways. He was a student of different musical cultures, delving into Indian ragas and modal structures. Two years later, when the Miles Davis group broke up, he worked less. He was not well-known, but he was a master of his trade. Pete Cosey died in 2012.
Gerald Sims was born in Chicago in 1940, but grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He returned to Chicago in 1959 to find work in the music industry. He was a self-taught guitarist, who became a singer, songwriter, arranger and producer.
He started out by joining the Daylighters as lead vocalist and writing “Cool Breeze” and “Oh What a Way to Be Loved”. The first of these, arranged by Johnny Pate, sold well locally. He later worked with the Radiants, co-writing “Voice of Choice” and also provided songs for Gene Chandler, Jackie Wilson, Jan Bradley, Jerry Butler, Little Milton, Billy Stewart and many more. Sims became a solo performer for OKeh Records and later set up his own record label for a short time, in the former Chess studio building.
Phil Upchurch was one of Chicago’s most successful session musicians. He was born on 19th July 1941 in the Windy City, where he learnt to play the guitar while he attended school.
His career started at Vee-Jay Records, where he worked on sessions for the Kool Gents, the Dells and the Spaniels, whilst still a teenager. One of Upchurch’s first landmark recording sessions produced the classic hit song performed by Dee Clark entitled “Raindrops”, recorded and released in 1961 on Vee-Jay Records. The single became a million-seller. On the recording Upchurch played acoustic guitar and shared creative ideas with the legendary Bruce Swedien, who was sound engineer on the session. In an interview with Christopher G. Feldman (author of the book “The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles”), Phil Upchurch described how the song came about: “Myself and Dee Clark were driving home during a stormy night from New York City on the way to Chicago with the road covered with water, and it inspired Clark to compose a song relating to the weather condition with the creation of thunderclaps and the illusion of falling rain.”
The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart week-ending 16th June 1961 (1 week). It was kept from the number one position by Gary U.S. Bonds’ track “Quarter To Three”. Vee-Jay’s recording base was mainly at Universal Recording Studios, where many of their classic hits were recorded. Upchurch remained a member of the studio band at Vee-Jay Records for several years.
In 1961 Upchurch had another major success, this time as a recording artist, playing bass and lead guitars. He had formed a group, the Phil Upchurch Combo, with David Brooks, Mac Johnson, Joe Hoddrick and Cornell Muldrow. In 1960 they decided to record a cover of a 1959 instrumental called “You Can’t Sit Down” by the Bim Bam Boos on which Upchurch and Muldrow had played. Side A is a version of the original, while Part 2 on the B-side is a reworked version, showing the Combo’s playful skills. The tracks were recorded in New Orleans and released by Boyd Records, which Bobby Boyd had recently set up in Oklahoma City. The single sold well, reaching number twenty-nine on the Billboard Pop chart.
After Vee-Jay Records went out of business, Upchurch became a member of the house band at Chess Records and played extensively on many of the Soulful Strings sessions. The Soulful Strings was a group of musicians who played at Chess, put together by the late Richard Evans, a classic strings arranger, who was a key member of staff at Chess. The group’s recordings were released on Cadet Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records. The group’s membership consisted of Upchurch, Lenny Druss (flute), Charles Stepney (organ, vibraphone), Cleveland Eaton (bass, cello), Morris Jennings (drums) and Bobby Christian (vibraphone, percussion). Billy Wooten later replaced Stepney. Other contributions came from Johnny Griffiths and Donny Hathaway (both keyboards) plus harpist Dorothy Ashby.
The Soulful Strings recorded six studio albums and one live album between 1966 and 1971. The group’s aim was to take well-known popular songs and give them an orchestral twist. They covered a wide selection of hits, reworking them to add a new dimension drawing on Jazz, Funk, Soul and Psychedelic sounds. Evans chose to use violas instead of violins alongside cellos to give “a very dark sound”, in his description.
Under Charles Stepney’s creative leadership, Upchurch also started to play with Rotary Connection, a multi-genres group which incorporated fusion of psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock, blues and jazz. He also participated in recording sessions for Ramsey Lewis’ jazz fusion projects, produced by Charles Stepney.
The group projects described above ran alongside the regular session work that Upchurch was undertaking at Chess. During the sixties, he played on many recording sessions, some of which produced major hits. The Dells’ first Soul and R&B number one on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles Chart, week-ending 10th August 1968 (3 weeks) came with the release of “Stay In My Corner”, a re-recorded version of their Vee-Jay recording from 1065. The band featured on this session featured Upchurch, plus Louis Satterfield on bass and Morris Jennings on drums, with the strings section provided by musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Stepney. The following year another single performed by The Dells, “Oh, What A Night”, peaked at number one, week-ending 27th September 1969 (1 week), with Upchurch featured on rhythm guitar, accompanied by strings from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with music arranged and conducted by Charles Stepney.
Phil Upchurch 2012
Photo: Christopher B.E. (Wikimedia Commons)
Before his departure from Chess Records, Upchurch was involved in other important recording sessions. He participated in the Muddy Waters experimental album “Electric Mud” (1969), playing guitar. The album went on to sell over 250,000 copies in America and is now regarded as a classic body of work. He played on the follow-up studio albums by Muddy Waters called “After The Rain” (1969) and “Father and Sons” (1969), playing mainly bass guitar on the second of these.
When he finally moved on from Chess, Upchurch was in demand! He went to work at Curtom Records with Curtis Mayfield and at Mercury and Brunswick Records (See later chapters).
Leonard Caston Jr. was born in Chicago in 1943. His father, Leonard Senior, was a Blues musician from Mississippi who played piano and guitar. Leonard Jr. started his music career in 1964 by joining the Radiants, the group that had been formed in 1960 by members of the Greater Harvest Church and signed for Chess in 1962.
Caston Jr. was also a member of the same church, playing the organ for the services. After contributing to two hit singles with the group, Caston Jr. left the Radiants and went on to become a session musician, songwriter and producer for Chess Records. In the mid-1960s he co-wrote new lyrics to “I Had A Talk With God Last Night” with Billy Davis. Mitty Collier recorded the secular lyrics as “I Had A Talk With My Man”, which became a hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart at number forty-one and also reached number three on the Cash Box R&B and Soul Singles Chart. Caston Jr. also co-produced another R&B and Soul classic recorded Mitty Collier entitled “Like Only Yesterday” (1966), under the creative direction of the legendary Billy Davis.
Caston Jr. has over four hundred credits to his name, as either songwriter, arranger or producer, including Jackie Ross’ “Full Bloom”, a studio album released on Chess Records in 1964. He played piano on Fontella Bass’ “Rescue Me” and also worked with Jan Bradley and Laura Lee.
For the Vashonettes, a female vocal and dance group at Chess, Caston Jr. produced “A Mighty Good Lover”, issued on Checker Records in 1968, with Charles Stepney responsible for arrangements. This is a true classic from some less-well-known ladies from the Windy City, who provided vocal support for many artists, including Donny Hathaway on his studio album “Everything is Everything”.
Caston Jr. also scored a big hit for the Radiants in 1968 with his song “Hold On”, which became a Top Forty hit on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles Chart listing.
As he developed his music production and song-writing skills, Caston Jr. also became an important member of the rhythm section at Chess, contributing especially to the Dells’ recording sessions. In 1968, he produced a funky composition for the Dells called “Show Me”, which has a Gospel groove that reflects his musical training in the church during his early years. The track was the B side to “There Is”. The intro to “Show Me” starts with piano (possibly played by Caston Jr.) in unison with the drums, played by Morris Jennings. The rhythm guitar leads into the vocal call and response by members of the group, led by Marvin Junior. It is a very original up-tempo piece.
The quality of Caston’s work helped him move to Motown later that year.
Morris Jennings was hired by Chess Records to play drums in the rhythm section of the studio band that was led by Gene Barge, a staff arranger, musician and producer at Chess Records.
Jennings was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and moved to the City of Chicago with his family when he was a child. He received his first drum set as a gift from an aunt and spent a good part of his childhood practising and developing his craft as a drummer. In the later years of his career, he conducted free lessons to inspire youngsters who were interested in drumming.
Jennings played on wide range of studio albums while at Chess as a full-time staff session musician, the first being “Groovin’ With The Soulful Strings” in 1967. He went on to work with Muddy Waters, Ramsey Lewis, Marlena Shaw, the Dells, Little Milton and other Chess R&B and Jazz artists.
I believe the landmark album by Marlena Shaw “The Spice of Life” (1969), which features the combined creative efforts of Richard Evans and Charles Stepney in the roles of co-arranger and co-producer, is one of the best studio albums to come out of Chess on the Cadet label. The moods and musical styles range from Blues to Jazz, Soul and R&B, with sweet emotional Gospel vocal backing in some places. The studio album features a brilliant interpretation of the classic track “California Soul” with Jennings performing a remarkable drum pattern accompanied by other members of the rhythm section, which was led by Gene Barge (sax) and included Cash McCall (background vocals and rhythm guitar) and Louis Satterfield (bass and trombone). On the album’s opening song “Woman of The Ghetto”, Jennings sets a steady mid-tempo beat combining beautifully with Louis Satterfield’s groove bassline throughout the track.
Another landmark recording featuring Jennings on drums is the song “Stay In My Corner”, performed by The Dells and released in 1968, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles Chart week-ending 10th August 1968 (3 weeks). Jennings plays the drums softly with brilliant timing and great care. This song, which was extracted from the studio album “There Is”, runs over a full six minutes with a heavenly smooth groove. The lush strings arranged by the late Charles Stepney and performed by a string section drawn from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are the icing on the cake.
The Dells’ follow-up single was just as outstanding. “Oh What A Night” spent one week at number one on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles Chart week-ending 27th September 1969. Jennings’ drumbeat is heavier this time, with a strong bottom end to the sound, executed in balance with Louis Satterfield’s dynamic bass line. Jennings’ drumbeats underpin a full, rich rhythm sound that is perfectly augmented by the outstanding arrangements provided by Charles Stepney’s creative and extraordinary signature touch on the strings. What a sonic masterpiece indeed.
During the final years of the 1960s, Morris Jennings’ main contributions came in the fields of Blues, Jazz and instrumental recordings. In the 1970s he continued to make an outstanding contribution as a session musician to several other Chicago record companies.
Gene Barge was born in 1926 in Norfolk, Virginia. His interest in music started when he played clarinet in his school band and developed further when he took up the saxophone at college. After graduating in 1950, Barge began playing professionally, making his first recording in 1953 as a member of the Griffin Brothers. Two years later he released an instrumental entitled “Country” on Chess Records’ Checker label, which entered the R&B chart, reaching number one hundred! He joined Chuck Willis’ band and later collaborated with Gary “U.S.” Bonds on his hit single “Quarter To Three”, which went to number one.
During this time, Barge was also teaching English and instructing his school’s band aat0ast Suffolk High School in Suffolk, Virginia. Then, in 1964, he was appointed as a session musician, arranger and producer at Chess. For the next seven years, he worked with the Dells, Fontella Bass, the Radiants, Little Milton and others. He was in the horn section that played on Fontella Bass’ hit “Rescue Me” in 1965.
Soon after that success, he recorded an instrumental album “Dance With Daddy ‘G’” that was released on Checker. It was a time of great success for instrumental tracks, based on the latest dance crazes, and the album highlights Barge’s smooth, stylish technique on the saxophone.
He was also able to work outside the Chess labels, with occasional session work at Brunswick Records, where he sat in on recordings by Jackie Wilson and the Chi-Lites.
When the work at Chess came to an end in 1971, Barge went to Stax Records, joining their Gospel label Gospel Truth. He later worked in films and helped launch the career of Natalie Cole.
There were other musicians who played on sessions at Chess. Many of them also played at other studios and had successful careers as songwriters, arrangers, producers or solo artists. They included pianist/organist Sonny Thompson, who wrote “Anything To Say You’re Mine”, the opening track of Etta James’ “at last!” album. He also played organ on “Rescue Me”. Trumpeter Charles Handy and songwriter/pianist Raynard Minor also made many varied contributions. Charles Stepney was an extraordinary studio musician on vibraphone, keyboard and piano, who played on many sessions. Fontella Bass’ hit “Rescue Me” features Stepney on vibraphone. Ramsey Lewis also made many contributions to recording sessions, including the album “Come To My Garden”, which Charles Stepney arranged and produced for Minnie Riperton.
These exceptionally gifted and versatile musicians were the main reason for Chess records’ success, as they consistently rose to the challenges they were set by many different artists. They fully deserve iconic status.
