ROY GAINES / Early Recordings
Roy
Gaines was born 12 August
1937
in Waskom (
Texas)
from a large family of three sisters and five brothers, including his elder
Grady Gaines who will become the saxophonist and showman that everybody knows.
The family moved to
Houston when
Roy was six years old and
Roy
followed the musical path of Grady, learning at an early age piano and guitar thanks
to Clarence Hollomon, a neighbour who will also become a top notched
Texas bluesman.
Roy was also under the
influence of Guitar Slim, Gatemouth Brown and T-Bone Walker whom he met and get
encouragements from.
Roy
began to perform on clubs and venues with Grady's band when still a young
teenager. His guitar skills gave him quickly a strong reputation and he was
soon billed as "Roy Gaines, the 14-year old sensation".
Two
years later, Roy moved to Los
Angeles to live with his elder sister and try his luck on the
fledgling Southern California blues scene. He
soon managed to play and tour with Roy Milton's band. While touring extensively
with Milton, Roy
got musical lessons from saxophonist Jackie Kelso who taught Roy how to read and write music and
arrangements. Roy got back to Houston to record as a session guitarist for
Don Robey behind Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Big Mama Thornton and others.
While playing in Dallas, Roy Gaines was
contacted by a New York City
agent who was in need for an accomplished jazz/blues guitarist to back Joe
Morris' band for a tour including Big Joe Turner. He then became associated
during almost three years with Chuck Willis when the singer was climbing up to
stardom. Roy is on many Wills' records and hits and was the open act for Wills
during their subsequent tours that saw Wills making a crossover from R&B to
pop with more and more white audiences.
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When
Wills died suddenly in 1958, Roy who had settled in New York City became easily an in-demand
session guitarist for the main labels whether blues, R&B, pop, jazz or
whatever: Mel Waldron, Coleman Hawkins, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, Jimmy
Rushing, Little Willie John, Mickey Baker & Sylvia Vanderpool, Brownie Mc
Ghee and even Billie Holiday! Roy managed to cut many records on his own for several
labels like Chart, Groove, DeLuxe, RCA, Del Fi, CuBeAr, Uni waxing blues,
R&B, Rock'n'Roll (the frantic Skippy
is a sissie) and even Country Music (Roy said he was always an Hank
Williams' fan playing most of his repertoire, and he was managed for a while by
Hank's widow Audrey!).
At the
end of the 1950's, Roy went back to Los Angeles recording
with his former boss and friend Roy Milton, the Jazz Crusaders and under his
name before being drafted by Uncle Sam in 1962. Based in Monterey,
Roy took more
music lessons from several musicians including Woody Herman. When he was
discharged from the Army, Roy
became a most sought after session man, recording with Stevie Wonder, Marvin
Gaye, Ted Taylor etc... He was also constantly on tour with Joe Tex, Aretha
Franklin, Harry Belafonte, Diana Ross... And Roy also was hired by famous bandleader Quincy
Jones to record the soundtrack of several movies (Bob & Carroll & Ted & Alice). In 1985, Roy will also act and
play in Spielberg's Color Purple!
In 1975,
Roy toured
France with organist Milt Buckner
recording behind Milt (a fantastic version of
Green Onions) and his first whole album for the Black & Blue
French label (
Superman).. He then
toured several times in Europe, recording more albums while operating a complex
in
Los Angeles'
Crenshaw district that housed a nightclub, restaurant and a recording studio!
During the 1990's and early 2000's
Roy
recorded more great albums before passing away on 11 August 2021.
This
post gathers almost all Roy Gaines' early recordings under his name. Thanks a
lot to Alan H. and mostly Rusty for their great help in gathering those tracks.
Most of this article comes from Lee Hildebrand's work published in Living Blues 227.
Gérard
HERZHAFT
