2009 Chicago Soultrip USA

By Pamela and Charlie Horner
(Photos by Pamela Horner)

For more than sixty years, the Windy City has been a home for acclaimed Blues, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, Doo Wop and Soul music. There has long been an appreciation in the U.K. (and elsewhere) for sixties and seventies soul dance music affectionately referred to as “Northern Soul.” From March 4 through March 11, SoulTrip USA 2009 celebrated “Northern Soul” music in Chicago with a last day side trip to Detroit. Close to 200 people crowded the event, mostly from the U.K. but many others from Spain, Belgium, Australia and the U.S. Kev Roberts and his staff from Gold Soul in the U.K organized the event. We were able to join the event in Chicago.

FRIDAY
We arrived on the afternoon of Friday, March 9, expecting traditional Chicago winter weather but were greeted unexpectedly with sunny skies and 60° F temperatures. It was the last good weather we would see there.
We checked into the Ambassador East Hotel, a historic landmark in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood since 1926, just north of downtown. The hotel’s restaurant, the Pump Room, has been a favorite haunt over the years for celebrities from Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood, Liza Minelli and Judy Garland to David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Olivia Newton-John and Mick Jagger.
We took advantage of Friday’s good weather to take a walk along Lake Michigan, where the melting chunks of ice filled the water.

Friday evening, we made our way to the Second Floor Lounge to hear some great Northern Soul music spun by disc jockeys and to meet some music celebrities. The heart of any Northern Soul meeting is its dee jays, spinning great, rare soul dance 45’s. We don’t have the qualifications to say which dee jays were the best but we do know we heard many superb sides over the course of SoulTrip Chicago.

One of the first people we ran into was soul music historian and writer Chris Laylor from Belgium.  We knew Chris from his outstanding articles for There’s That Beat magazine and have been corresponding with him by email for some time.

We then met Bobby Thomas and Clifford Curry from the Notations. The Notations were a great Chicago 1970’s soul harmony group. Their first record, “I’m Still Here” was one of our favorites. It was written by Clifford Curry and produced by Syl Johnson whom we’d see at SoulTrip the next night. The Notations went on to record quite a few other great harmony sides for the Gemino and Mercury labels.

In the hallway, we were surprised to meet Jeronne “Jerry” Johnson. Jerry sang with the great 1950’s doo wop group, Ze-Majestics who recorded “Bobbi Ann” for the Fox label. He was also with the group as they evolved into the soul group, the Trends, who recorded many superb sides for the Smash and ABC Paramount labels in the 1960’s. Jerry and Bobby Thomas are now singing together in the soul group, Chanel 3.

Barbara Green of “Young Boy” fame (Vivid label) was also present. She was very nice and we enjoyed talking to her several times during the weekend.

SATURDAY
Germinia Place was designated the original location of the Saturday night meet-and-greet plus performances by soul stars, but we understood that Germinia Place was closed. We all met upstairs at The Ambassador Hotel instead. The crowd in the main room was jam-packed and the “green room” across the hall was overflowing with soul stars. The first singer we met up with was John Carter from The Kool Gents and El Dorados. We had previously met him at The Black Swan concert in New Jersey. Charlie had interviewed The Kool Gents/El Dorados along with Todd Baptista. The band for the evening, The Willie Henderson Band was relaxing in the green room. They were the band that backed many of the soul performers on OKeh and Brunswick labels during the 1960’s.

We were very happy to meet our friends James “Zeke” Brown and Curtis Campbell from the Blenders on the Aladdin label. Zeke had also sung with Calvaes and Accents and was another person we met in New Jersey at The Black Swan concert. [For more information on the Calvaes, Blenders and Accents, see our recent article on them in Echoes of the Past.]

We met a very friendly gentlemen dressed in a red suit. We thought he might have been a celebrity and to our pleasant surprise it turned out he had been a member of the Ebon-Knights on Stepheny, who recorded “The Way The Ball Bounces” in 1957. We had a great time talking with Mack Jay Jorden and hope to write an article on The Ebon-Knights in the near future.

While we were talking to Mack, we noticed that Marshall Thompson of the Chi Lites entered the room. Like many people, we’re big fans of The Chi Lites and love all of Marshall’s records from The Desidero’s and Hi-Lites, to the Chi-Lites.

We were fortunate to see the Spellbinders perform at the New Jersey SoulTrip USA in 2006 and happy to meet Eller Weas Pennington of the Spellbinders who flew in to Chicago from New Jersey.

Chess label recording star Jackie Ross, known for her hit, “Selfish One,” was happy to talk about her career and pose for photos.

We met a young looking Redale Israel who informed us he was a later member of The Esquires.

One of our favorite soul groups is The Steelers. We were thrilled to meet Alonzo Wells an original member of the group. The Steelers have a new CD coming out with an anti-violence, anti-drug message. When it becomes available, we’ll let you know on this website.

Our main contact for Chicago groups, Richard Murray, was at SoulTrip Chicago. Robert Pruter who wrote THE book, Chicago Soul was also in attendance.
We saw the legendary Willie Henderson Band setting up, so we knew it was time to move to the main room. Kev Roberts introduced the band and it was show time!

We managed to get close of the front of the stage just in time to hear Lou Pride singing “I’m Coming Home in the Morning.” The audience was standing throughout the show.

Jimmy Burns is said to be active now in the Chicago Blues scene, but he took the time to sing his Northern Soul Classic “I Really Love You” for us. We’ve never been fortunate enough to own a copy on the Erica label but we understand this record belongs in the heavy box.

Jackie Lance, Major Lance’s daughter stopped by to say hello.

Holly Maxwell was next, dressed in a studded black dress and headdress with silver outer garment. I took many photos of her and enjoyed her animated performance. She sang, “Only When You’re Lonely” which is a northern soul collectable.

Next up was Jo Ann Garrett who was captivating. As group harmony fans, we’ve always enjoyed the recordings she made backed up by the Dells. On this night, Jo Ann sang a Northern favorite, “A Whole New Plan”.

Bobby Hutton also dropped by. Bobby’s best known to Northern Soul fans for songs like “Come See What’s Left of Me” and “More Today Than Yesterday.”

Two of the Opals made a quick appearance. They were Rose “Tootsie” Addison and Myra Tillotson. The Opals, from East Chicago, Indiana, recorded on the OKeh label as well as doing backup work for Jerry Butler and Gene Chandler.

Cicero Blake, whom we’d met and interviewed in New Jersey at The Black Swan show was here for a brief appearance. Cicero sang with The Goldentones who evolved into The Kool Gents after he left. He’s now a famous Blues and Soul singer.

B.B. King’s daughter was introduced. The Vows/Major IV also came on stage for a quick introduction.

Barbara Green gave us a nice rendition of her song, “Young Boy.” Barbara was only 13 when she recorded this song for Vee Jay’s Vivid label subsidiary in 1964. The backup group at the time was the Dells. The song was re-released in 1968 on the Renee label and became a hit all over again.

Willie Henderson’s band then entertained us with “The Chase Is On.” The song was very appropriate since Willie’s band had supplied the instrumental to that song by the Artistics in 1967. The next guest was Marvin Smith, well known lead of the Artistics! Marvin Smith made his first record with the post-Perkle Lee Moses “Four Eldorados” on the Academy label in 1958. He joined the Artistics in time for their last for records on the OKeh label and sang lead on the Artistics biggest hit, “I’m Gonna Miss You” (Brunswick).

Somatta Acklin, the daughter of Barbara Acklin, sang her mother’s song, “Love Makes a Woman”. She is a fabulous singer. Marshall Tompkins came up on stage and the two singers talked about how Marshall came over to the Acklin home to rehearse. (Somatta’s stepfather was Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites).

Singing next was Syl Johnson who gave his rendition of the Al Green composition, “Take Me To The River”. The record was a Top 10 R&B hit for Syl on the Hi label, his biggest record.

Eddie Sullivan of the Classic Sullivans was introduced to the crowd, though we weren’t able to get a photo of him. Like Marshall Thompson, Eddie Sullivan began singing with the Desideros.

Last to sing was Ruby Andrews who began singing backup on records by the C.O.D.’s and then did her first solo record as Ruby Stackhouse. Of course, everyone knows her big record “Casanova”. She sang “Just Loving You,” a Northern Soul favorite. The show ended in the early morning hours but lots of energy remained in the crowd.

SUNDAY
On Sunday, there was a great record show. While there were only a few dealers, the selection of Northern Soul records was large. B.B. King’s daughter was there selling B.B.’s products (memorabilia).
We also got a chance to talk to Bob Abrahamian, whose radio program, “Sitting In The Park” had given us detailed interviews with many of the artists present at Soultrip USA. [Bob has since passed on. [His huge collection of soul records is now headed to the Stax Museum in Memphis.]

At the record show, we had a chance to meet Marvin Smith of The Artistics. We’d seen Marvin sing the night before but didn’t get to talk to him then.

At the Record Show, Barbara Green came in looking for copies of her records. We had a copy of “Young Boy” that we brought along on the trip and gave it to her.

MONDAY
Monday, we visited Record Row on South Michigan Avenue. During the late 1950’s and 1960’s this was the center of Chicago’s soul music industry with dozens of record labels and distributors. Sadly, these are all gone now.
The Chess Studio, at 2120 S. Michigan, is now a museum with memorabilia and music items for sale. It’s operated by the Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation. While most of the museum is dedicated to Blues Music, with little reference to the great vocal groups like the Moonglows and Flamingos, or to Chess’ rich legacy of Soul Music, it’s still good to see the home of Chess/Checker Records preserved. We toured the building and took photographs. While we were there, a blues singer was brought in to entertain our large group.

Next we stopped off at 1449 S. Michigan Avenue. 1449 was once the proud home of Vee Jay Records. When Vee Jay went bankrupt in 1967, Carl Davis purchased the premises and used it for his Dakar and Bashie labels and during his early days running Brunswick. Historic 1449 S. Michigan is unfortunately now all boarded up and for sale.

We also tried to find Universal Recording Studios at 46 E. Walton. We wanted to see where thousands of recordings were done, including so many Chicago R&B artists during the late 1950’s and 1960’s. The block is still there but it’s now home to numerous clothing stores.

Monday evening our friends Zeke Brown and Curtis Campbell returned to SoulTrip’s home at the Ambassador East Hotel. We had told them that Chicago soul music icon Carl Davis was scheduled to make an appearance. Fifty-one years ago, Carl Davis produced The Blenders first record “Two Loves”. We believe it was the first record Carl ever produced. Carl and the Blenders had not seen each other since then.
Kev Roberts brought Carl Davis on stage and gave a summary of his long and distinguished career. Carl recalled his first commercial success as a producer of Gene Chandler and the Dukays. He then reflected on his long music career. Carl Davis was, of course, the driving force behind the success of soul acts on the Pam, Okeh, Dakar, Bashie, Brunswick, Chi-Sound and numerous other labels. He’s a legendary figure in Chicago music.

Kev then handed the microphone to Charlie who asked Carl if he remembered producing the Blenders’ record. Zeke Brown and Curtis Campbell then came out and greeted him.

It was a great night made even better when we were told our friend Mill Edwards of The Sheppards had arrived and was asking to see us. We had interviewed Millard at the 2008 Black Swan Concert in New Jersey. Mill is the last surviving member of the Sheppards of “Island Of Love” fame. He was also the bass on “Get On Up” by the Esquires.

One final thrill for us… a raffle was held for a giant SoulTrip poster, autographed by most of the celebrities in attendance over the weekend. Proceeds were donated to a charity. Not only did the raffle raise $900 for a local children’s charity, but we won the poster!!!
The next day many from the SoulTrip took a side trip to Detroit for the day. From reports we’re received it seems that they had an amazing time.
We enjoyed meeting the “There’s That Beat” soul fanzine staff (Dave Moore, Bev Moore, & David Ferguson). “There That Beat” was one of our favorite magazines. Unfortunately it is no longer publishing.

Most of all, we want to thank Sam & Kev Roberts and their staff at GoldSoul for the concept of SoulTrip Chicago and all the preparations they did to make it a gigantic success.

This Soultrip Chicago was just so remarkable. For those who went, we hope these photos bring back some memories. For those who missed it we hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it. – Charlie & Pam Horner

Copyright © Classic Urban Harmony LLC, 2009.  All Rights Reserved.