Record Production | All About Blues Music

ALLEN TOUSSAINT

The Godfather of funky New Orleans R&B, Allen Toussaint’s talents as a singer, pianist, songwriter, producer and arranger shaped the sound of The Crescent City for decades. As a solo artist Allen had a worldwide best-selling record with Southern Nights in 1975, but arguably his most important work was the vision he employed in the…

DAVE BARTHOLOMEW

If Rock’n’Roll is a mixture of jump-blues and R&B, then New Orleans’ own Dave Bartholomew has a claim to being the man who put them together. As songwriter, producer, arranger and trumpet player, Dave’s work gave this music the energy that got the youth of America and the whole world up on their feet and…

IKE TURNER

Years before he met Tina, Ike Turner was a big noise on the Memphis R&B scene. As a bandleader, session musician and talent scout, he was involved in recording BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Johnny Ace and Junior Parker for Sam Phillips‘ Memphis Recording Service, which later became Sun Records, and for the Bihari…

J MAYO WILLIAMS

Brown University Graduate J Mayo ‘Ink’ Williams is the only man to be inducted into both the National Football Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame. As well as being one of the first Black pro-footballers, playing for a Chicago team in the first season of the NFL, he is also remembered as…

JERRY WEXLER

Jerry Wexler was a man who knew how to make an impact. As a journalist he is credited with inventing the term ‘R&B’; as joint head of Atlantic Records he helped a lot of Black artists cross into the mainstream; as a shrewd businessman he made a lot of money; as an A&R man his…

ROBERT FRANKLIN PALMER

This son of Little Rock, Arkansas was a respected music writer and journalist, a contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine and the first Rock Correspondent for the New York Times. He taught at the Universities of Mississippi and Memphis State, at Yale and the Smithsonian; he produced Blues albums for RL Burnside among others and…

JOHNNY OTIS

Few people have contributed more to R&B than Johnny Otis. All round musician, bandleader, DJ, promoter, talent scout, song-writer, label owner and producer, he found time to become a TV host, preacher, politician, author and organic farmer. He also crossed the colour-line at a time when that was very rare. The ambitious Greek teenager from…