The Man Who Impacted The King of Pop (Part 3)

Recording Engineer Extraordinaire over Four Decades

A career that has impacted Jazz, Pop,Blue, R&B and Soul to the Signature Sound of Michael Jackson.

 Bruce also collaborated with another person who gave creative support to Calvin in the early years. This was Al Smith, the leader of the house band at VeeJay from 1954 to 1959. Al was responsible for rehearsing and preparing VeeJay acts for recording sessions; on many occasions he held rehearsals at his home. Under the leadership of bassist Al Smith a powerful and dynamic studio band was established in 1954 which created many of the early hits, such as “At My Front Door” by The El Dorados, released in1955, which made it to R&B and Soul number 2 on the Billboard chart single listing. This single became the first entry into the national Pop charts for the label.

The rhythm section usually had a main core consisting of veteran Chicago musician Quinn B. Wilson (bass), William “Lefty”Bates (guitar), with Paul Gusman, Vernel Fournier, and Alrock “Al” Duncan sharing drum duties. The piano parts were mainly handled by Horace Palm and Norman Simmons, with James “Red” Hollway playing the tenor saxophone and McKinley “Mac” Easton on baritone saxophone. Al and his musicians participated on approximately one fifth of the recordings released by VeeJay from 1954 to 1959. The recordings were always conducted at the Universal Studios on Chicago North Side.

The studio band did between three and six sessions in a day. Al Smith and his band were so excellent that several other local labels hired them to improve the quality of their recordings, including labels such as Chance, Parrot and United/States. These are now-defunct labels that once operated in Chicago during the 1950s.

Carl Davis. The master mind behind Brunswick Records
great successes during the 1960s and 1970s

Bruce Swedien was the main recording engineer on most of the singles and albums released by Brunswick Records. With the talents of Bruce Swedien as engineer and Carl Davis as producer, with arrangers and producers Willie Henderson, Sonny Sanders and Tom Tom Washington, Brunswick Records sold millions of records between the late nineteen sixties and the early nineteen seventies. In the late ’60s, Swedien became a freelance recording engineer so that he could do more album projects and work on film soundtracks. It was in this way that he began working for producer Carl Davis, head of the Chicago branch of New York-based Brunswick Records. While there he engineered hits by The Lost Generation (“Sly, Slick & the Wicked,” a number 14 R&B hit in the summer of 1970 which features some startling pre-sampling effects),The Chi-Lites (“Have You Seen Her,” number one R&B and Soul  for two weeks, number three pop, late 1971; “Oh Girl,” number one R&Band Soul and also  two weeks, at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles Chart (Pop Singles Chart) , summer 1972; “A Letter to Myself,” number three R&B and Soul , early 1973; “Stoned out of Mind,” number two R&B and Soul  summer 1973), All the remaining hits were listed on Billboard Singles Chart listings. Swedien had great success while conducting sound engineer for Jackie Wilson,Barbara Acklin , and other Brunswick acts.



                                   Researched and compiled by               
                                   Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                  ©RCM Music/Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014

                                  

Quinton Joseph (Part 3)

  "The R&B and Soul Music Drummer with a Signature Touch"

The Chicago Years

One of the best selling
 soundtrack of the early 1970s

During his time as a studio musician at Brunswick Records, Joseph found time to participate in recording sessions at Curtom Records, also located in the “Windy City”. He is featured on all the gold-certified soundtracks produced by the late Curtis Mayfield which include the Billboard Pop Hot 200 Albums and Billboard Top Soul Albums Chart number-one album “Super Fly”, which generated over $20 million for the music industry in North America. In 1975 he did session work for Mayfield playing drums with his friend Phil Upchurch on the soundtrack album and title track  “Let’s Do It Again”, Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart number-one on the 22^nd November 1975 (2 weeks) and Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart  number-one on the 27^th December 1975 (1 week). The single was also certified gold for one million plus units sold in America, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Natalie Cole's first studio album 
to be certified gold.

While he was working with both Brunswick and Curtom Records, he also played on Natalie Cole’s three gold and platinum-certified albums produced in Chicago at Universal Recording Studios and Curtom Recording Studios. These albums were “Inseparable” “Natalie”, and “Unpredictable”.  These three albums grossed approximately  $15 million during the mid-1970s for the now-defunct Capitol Records, with both “Inseparable (1975) and “Unpredictable” (1977) topping the Billboard Top Soul Albums Chart.

Natalie Cole's second gold 
certified studio album.

In 1976 Joseph played drums along with Phil Upchurch on two chart-topping singles on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart in succession; “Turning Point”, performed by Tyrone Davis and “Inseparable” performed by Natalie Cole. Following the success of the first of these two singles, he also played on one final chart-topping single from Cole’s “Natalie” album entitled “Sophisticated Lady (She’s A Different Lady)”, 19^th June 1976 (1 week).


                                  Researched and compiled by               
                                   Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                  ©RCM Music/Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014

Quinton Joseph (Part 2)

 "The R&B and Soul Music Drummer with a Signature Touch"

    The Chicago Years

This was the group's
 first million seller

His signature style drumming techniques is heard on other Chicago soul classics such as “Have You Seen Her”, a one million plus selling single performed the Chi-Lites and produced and co-written by one of the key members of the vocal group, the late Eugene Record and on the following gold-certified single performed by the Chi-Lites, “Oh Girl”. 

This was the only studio album of the group's career
to have achieved the number-one position on
 Billboard Top Soul Albums Chart. Joseph conducted
arrangements and played drums on the album

Joseph conducted arrangements for the group on several singles including the two gold singles mentioned above. The track “Oh Girl” became both a Billboard number-one on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart on 3^rd June 1972 (2 weeks) and on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart on 27^th May 1972 (1 week), preceded by “the First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, performed by Roberta Flack and succeeded by “I’ll Take You There”, performed by The Staple Singers. The parent album “A Lonely Man” peaked on top of the  Billboard Top Soul Albums Chart on 10^th June 1972 (5 weeks), which was very interesting because it was preceeded by Roberta Flack’s album “First Take”. During the 1970s, Joseph played on all the number-one singles and albums released by Brunswick Records in North America.

Second gold record of the 
group's career
"Oh Girl" 

                                   



















                                    Researched and compiled by               
                                   Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                  ©RCM Music/Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014 
 

Quinton Joseph (Part 1)

   "The R&B and Soul Music Drummer with a Signature Touch"

    The Chicago Years:

The legendary Quinton Joseph was born on 28^th August 1946 in the city of Chicago that is also affectionately known as the “Windy City”. 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 cities that produced distinct signature sounds between the 1960s and the 1980s. 

The first million selling record that Joseph played on .
Performed Barbara Acklin.
She was also staff song writer at Brunswick Records

According to Ed Hogan of ALL Music, “Joseph absorbed a myriad of musical influences while growing up in his multi-cultural neighbourhood. As a child, he would beat out rhythms on cereal boxes and garbage cans. At about the age of ten his mother brought him a drum set to further develop his craft and techniques as a drummer while feasting on the “Windy City’s” rich musical diversity.” 

In his local neighbourhood he got involved with future in-demand session musicians who also made a name for themselves in the music industry in Chicago. These men became very close friends of Joseph; guitarist Danny Reed and bassist Bernard Reed. 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 was second million selling single that Joseph actually 
played drums, released by Brunswick Records in 1969.
The song was performed by the late Tyrone Davis
                                   

This led to the opportunity to work on the road with the The Artistics, from the Chicago branch of the once-mighty New York city Brunswick Records, 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 become a much in-demand rhythm section, and their session work schedule increased tremendously as they started to support various local recording acts such as Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites, Major Lance, Gene Chandler and Tyrone Davis.

 

This was the second gold certified single of the
Davis' career. The entire album featured Joseph on
drums and the late Michael Jackson's sound engineer 

Bruce Swedien

The first million selling record that Joseph played on was Barbara Acklin’s gold single “Love Makes a Woman” released in 1968 on Brunswick Records. The following year , he played on Tyrone Davis’  first gold single of his career entitled “Can I Change My Mind” which charted and peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart on the 1^st February 1969

( 2 weeks ), preceded by “I Heard It the Grapevine” performed by the late Marvin Gaye. He repeated the same success with Davis on his second chart-topping single “Turn Back The Hands of Time”, Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart number-one on the 2^nd May 1970

( 2 weeks ) which peaked at  number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and became a million selling single in the process. He also played on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles Chart number-one single “Turning Point”, 7^th February 1976 (1week).

                                   Researched and compiled by               
                                   Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                  ©RCM Music/Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014