The rankings were gleaned from Joel Whitburn‘s book, Billboard’s Top R&B Singles.
Featured artists include Aretha Franklin, James Brown, The Ohio Players, Tyrone Davis, The Spinners, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Al Green, Joe Simon, The Stylistics, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Barry White and more.
The March 20 edition of Daybreak Jazz paid tribute to Bobby Caldwell — a veteran contemporary jazz, funk, soul and R&B artist — who passed away on March 14 after a long illness. He was 71.
Hosted by Kevin McCabe, the program featured the music of Caldwell, including a recording of his performance at the 2002 Hartford Jazz Festival where he fronted a 12-piece band before a crowd of 25,000 at Bushnell Park.
Caldwell rose to prominence with “What You Won’t Do For Love” from his self-titled 1978 debut. The single went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would go on to be a radio staple for decades. The track has been reportedly sampled or covered more than 400 times.
If you’ve ever been buffaloed in Buffalo, entertained in Houston and know when it comes to New York, New York, you have to choose one, then the Little Feat spotlight on the March 18 edition of Greasy Tracks will make complete sense.
In addition to music from across the legendary band’s catalog, interviews with keyboardist Bill Payne and guitarist Scott Sharrard are included.
Little Feat brings its “Boogie Your Spring Away Tour” to College Street Music Hall in New Haven on April 21. The band returns to the area for an appearance at the Green River Music Festival in Northampton, Mass., on June 25.
The March 4 edition of Greasy Tracks featured the debut release from Dose Hermanos, music from San Francisco Bay Area bands and tributes to Wayne Shorter and David Lindley.
Persistence of Memory is the recent offering by the long-running duo of improvisational piano maestros Tom Constanten and Bob Bralove who are connected via their association with the Grateful Dead.
Constanten played keys in the band during the height of their psychedelic explorations, 1968-70. Bralove was an engineer with the group during their later era, 1987-95 — much like a chef adding “flavors” to the band’s sound, especially during the drums and space portions of their live shows.
Interviews with Bralove and Constanten were featured throughout the program.
WAYNE SHORTER
The program also included music from across the career of the jazz innovator Shorter who passed away at the age of 89 on March 2.
The recipient of 12 Grammy Awards, Shorter released 25 albums as a solo artist, but is best known for his work with some of the most famous lineups in jazz history: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet and Weather Report which he co-founded with Joe Zawinul.
An interview with Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne was included as Payne talked about Little Feat and Emmylou Harris co-hosting a 1977 episode of “The Midnight Special” which included performances by Weather Report. Payne shares some memories of Shorter and reflects on his immense contribution as a musician.
DAVID LINDLEY
When not working on his own projects, multi-instrumentalist Lindley, who passed away on March 3, was an in-demand session player who brought his distinct sound to scores of artists ranging from Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon and Ry Cooder to Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and David Crosby and Graham Nash.
WRTC hosts began airing Jeff Beck tributes following the confirmation of the passing of the innovative guitarist at the age of 78 on Jan. 10.
Jeff Beck on stage in Chicago 1980. (Paul Natkin photo)
The Jan. 21 edition of Greasy Tracks presented a three-hour spotlight on Beck, including interviews with some of those who knew and worked with him as well as music from across his diverse catalog.
Check out the archive, while playlists are here. The Hartford Courant reported how WRTC and others in the local music community responded to Beck’s passing.
Beck’s ability on the fretboard garnered widespread attention when he joined the Yardbirds in 1965 as Eric Clapton exited to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Before leaving in 1966, Beck’s remarkable playing had fostered a whole new, more varied and certainly genre-bending sound for the Yardbirds.
Like many of Beck’s musical relationships, his term with the Yardbirds was short-lived as he was dismissed from the band while on tour in the United States. Despite the crushing low of being without a band and technically jobless, Beck would go on to do what would be characteristic of him over the next five-plus decades: reinvent himself as a player.
After releasing a handful of singles, he linked up with out-of-a-job singer Rod Stewart, Beck would assemble a new band including the highly sought after session pianist Nicky Hopkins along with Ronnie Wood (bass) and Micky Waller (drums). He released his debut solo album, Truth, in July 1968, ushering in a new, heavy blues sound that would jumpstart such bands as Led Zeppelin who released their debut the following year.
The bulk of that line-up released Beck-ola a year later as the Jeff Beck Group, but by 1970, Beck had changed the line-up. Continuing on the blues-based path, but one accented by a hint of things to come as Beck started incorporating a more soulful and funky feel to his sound.
Spurred by Billy Cobham’s Spectrum, Beck entered the mid-1970s with the heavy blues sound well in the past as he now favored jazz fusion.
His curiosity would lead him to blaze new trails as a guitarist, collaborate with scores of top musicians over the year and ultimately, be awarded eight Grammy Awards.
The sounds of Stax Records have recently been all over the airwaves as Greasy Tracks presented a six-hour, two-part tribute to Jim Stewart — the co-founder of the iconic label — who passed away at age 92 on Dec. 5.
Jim Stewart in front of Stax studios in Memphis. (David Reed photo)
Part 1 aired on Dec. 24. Check out the archive by clicking here. Part 2 aired Jan. 7. Listen here, while playlists are here.
Included was music from across the history of the label as well as interviews with some of those who worked with and knew Stewart, including William Bell, Steve Cropper, Robert Gordon, Don Nix, Deanie Parker, Tim Sampson and Vaneese Thomas.
Sam Phillips, who founded Memphis Recording Service — later known as Sun Studio — in 1950, is the one who got the recording studio ball rolling in the city and where the likes of Ike Turner, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, Johnny Cash, Bobby Bland and Roy Orbison all recorded.
Joined by his sister, Estelle Axton, Stewart — heavily influenced by hearing Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” — ultimately followed the influential Phillips with Satellite Records.
Taking over an old movie theater, the former Capitol Theatre, at 926 East McLemore Ave., in South Memphis, in 1957. Prior to the label’s formation, Axton ran Satellite Records, a record shop, adjacent the movie house. It was probably named after Sputnik which was launched the year before. In the years that followed, such legendary studios as American Sound, Ardent and Royal were formed.
Heavy hitters: (from left) Otis Redding, Jim Stewart, Rufus Thomas, Booker T. Jones and Carla Thomas in 1967. (Michael Ochs Archives Photo)
“I was converted, immediately,” Stewart said of hearing the Charles track. “I had never heard anything like that before. It allowed me to expand from country into R&B, into jazz, into gospel, wrapped all in one. That’s what Stax is!”
Perhaps not a household word like Motown, Stax proved over its often-turbulent history that it could more than keep pace with Detroit’s “Hitsville U.S.A.” Under Stewart’s direction in the studio and boosted by the likes of Booker T & the MG’s as its primary house band, the label would create “The Memphis Sound” while churning out innumerable classic hit singles as it introduced the world to some of the most captivating soul and blues artists ever to grace the stage or the airwaves.
Bell along with Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Staple Singers, Eddie Floyd and Johnnie Taylor each made an indelible mark on music, but also enjoyed their greatest success while at Stax Records.
The Founders: Estelle Axon and Jim Stewart at Stax. (Charlie Gillett photo)
Guests on the program include the veritable who’s who when it comes to Stax- and Memphis-related go-to people.
William Bell, the first male solo artist signed to Stax, released his classic debut single, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, in 1961. Guitarist Steve Cropper was part of The Mar-Keys and Booker T & the MGs as well as doing A&R, production, engineering and songwriting. Memphis-based Robert Gordon is a Grammy/Emmy-winning author/director/producer who has written six books and been involved with eight documentaries.
Don Nix was a member of The Mar-Keys, the label’s first house band. He later went on to a solo recording career as well as a producer. Deanie Parker first recorded at Stax as a high school student, but over the years would sign to the label as an artist and writer before leading the label’s publicity department. Tim Sampson is the communications director for the Soulsville Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy and The Soulsville Charter School. Vaneese Thomas is a recording artist who contributed to many sessions at Stax, often in the studio with her father Rufus Thomas and sister Carla and brother Marvel who was the first piano player at the label.
The Dec. 16 edition of Crashing The Ether featured the new Waka/Wazoo box set — a five-CD collection covering Frank Zappa‘s legendary Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo eras — and special guest Scott Parker, a noted Zappa historian who penned the liner notes for the new release.
The program, which coincided with the actual release date, can be heard on the archive by clicking here
Parker, who has written a number of books about Zappa, is the host of ZappaCast, the official Frank Zappa podcast. In addition to taking a deep dive into Waka/Wazoo, Parker discussed several recent archival Zappa releases, including Mothers 1971, Zappa/Erie and Zappa ’75.
Recent releases by The Weight Band and Maurice Tani as well as a tribute to Christine McVie were featured on the Dec. 3 edition of Greasy Tracks.
Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here.
The Weight Band appears at The Warehouse at FTC in Fairfield on Dec. 16 and Infinity Music Hall in Hartford on Dec. 17. They recently released Shines Like Gold, their first studio effort since their debut, World Gone Mad in 2018. Keyboardist/vocalist Brian Mitchell discusses the album and up-coming shows in an interview that will air during the program. There will be tickets given away to the Infinity Hall appearance.
Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Tani’s latest release is All In! (Little Village Foundation) where the veteran guitarist, singer and composer goes for a more soulful country sound with hints of rock on his album of original tracks, minus a superb rendition “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” — the Booker T. Jones/William Bell chestnut. Highlighting the album are appearances by The Sons Of The Soul Revivers who add a gospel influence to a pair of tracks.
Formed nearly a decade ago by musicians who traced their lineage to The Band and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band, The Weight Band specialized in keepingThe Band’s catalog alive and well on stage, but over the years, began to incorporate original material. Their latest effort maintains their traditional Band-influence sound, but runs the gamut from Americana/roots rock to blues and a couple of ballads. The lone cover is a wonderful rendition of Willie Dixon’s “It Don’t Make Sense (If You Can’t Make Peace)”.
Just as The Band featured a versatile collection of singers and players, The Weight Band follows suit with Mitchell, bassist Albert Rogers, drummer Michael Bram and keyboardist Matt Zeiner all handling vocal duties while guitarist Jim Weider, who spent 15 years in The Band, rounds out the lineup.
McVie, a long-time member of Fleetwood Mac, passed away at the age of 79 on Nov. 30. The program avoided playing standard FM fare when it comes to the McVie tribute.
The annual WRTC fundraising marathon concluded Nov. 11.
On behalf of the staff and management, we thank all of our generous listeners who pledged to support the station.
As the non-commercial radio station of Trinity College, we offer a diverse schedule of 60-plus programs on a weekly basis. Aside from two part-time employees, we’re an all-volunteer organization.
Much of our financial assistance comes from our loyal listeners and we rely on your backing to keep us on the air doing what we do best.
Those who pledged will receive a pledge/payment form in the mail. Just follow the simple instructions and return it to: WRTC Marathon, 300 Summit St., Hartford, CT 06106.
You can also still donate securely online, just click…
“Thank You” premiums will be mailed out in the near future.
For more information, or to make a pledge by phone, contact the station at 860-297-2450.
