Caesar Frazier is an American musician, keyboard player, producer and jazz, funk and soul recording artist who is best known as the former keyboard player for Marvin Gaye. [1]
Frazier specializes in the Hammond B3, organ and piano and has recorded numerous albums as an instrumentalist, vocalist and studio musician. Over the years, his music has been sampled by Kanye West and Common, [1] in addition to GangStarr, Arrested Development and Johnson & Johnson. [2]
Born in The Bronx in New York City on September 26, 1947, Frazier grew up in Lake Helen, Florida and began his professional career at age 15, playing organ in R&B bands. [2] He has performed in a number of jazz ensembles, orchestras and as a solo artist over the years. [3] He discovered music at a young age when he lived a block away from a popular juke joint. [4] After earning a B.S. Degree in Music Education from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida, Frazier established himself as a national and international recording artist. [2] He also attended College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California, where he studied music and photography.
Influenced by the Hammond organ sounds of Jimmy Smith, Jackie Davis, Jimmy McGriff and Jack McDuff, Frazier focused his musical efforts on the jazz organ. [2] He cut his first album Hail Caesar! in 1972, which featured Prestige Records guitarist Melvin Sparks, drummer Idris Muhammad and tenor saxophonist Houston Person. [5] His album Caesar Frazier '75 featured guitarist Cornell Dupree and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. [5]
Frazier has described Marvin Gaye's album What's Going On as "one of the greatest albums ever recorded." [6]
After decades performing and recording, Frazier earned an Associate Degree in Radio, Television and Film from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. [2] During his broadcasting career, he specialized in news reporting and covered presidential campaigns for U.S. President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole and American entrepreneur Ross Perot. [2]
Frazier is the owner of Strickly Grooves Publishing Company and launched his own record label, Track Merchant Records and Track Merchant Media Group, in 2020. [2]
In addition to performing live, Frazier is a popular jazz radio host. He is a former on-air announcer at WLOQ Smooth Jazz radio in Orlando, Florida and currently serves as a feature interview contributor for the jazz radio station at The University of Central Florida. [2] He previously produced and hosted "The Saddleback Forum" talk show at KSBR inMission Viejo, California. Frazier is also an accomplished photographer who has traveled the world shooting landscapes and street journalism.
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and musician. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by the American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers.
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.
"What's Going On" is a song by American singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye, released in 1971 on the Motown subsidiary Tamla. It is the opening track of Gaye's studio album of the same name. Originally inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, the song was composed by Benson, Al Cleveland, and Gaye and produced by Gaye himself. The song marked Gaye's departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. Later topping the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks and crossing over to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, it would sell over two million copies, becoming Gaye's second-most successful Motown song to date. It was ranked at number 4 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of all Time in 2004 and 2010.
"Sexual Healing" is a song recorded by American singer Marvin Gaye from his seventeenth and final studio album, Midnight Love (1982). It was his first single since his exit from his long-term record label Motown earlier in the year, following the release of the In Our Lifetime (1981) album the previous year. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is listed at number 198 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "Sexual Healing" is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of 4/4 with a tempo of 94 beats per minute.
"Got to Give It Up" is a song by American music artist Marvin Gaye. Written by the singer and produced by Art Stewart as a response to a request from Gaye's record label that he perform disco music, it was released in March 1977.
"Let's Get It On" is a song by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by The Funk Brothers. The title track of Gaye's album of the same name, it was written by Marvin Gaye and producer Ed Townsend. "Let's Get It On" became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and one of his most well-known songs. With the help of the song's sexually explicit content, "Let's Get It On" helped give Gaye a reputation as a sex symbol during its initial popularity. "Let's Get It On" is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 82 beats per minute.
"Can I Get a Witness" is a song composed by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier as a non-album single for American recording vocalist Marvin Gaye, who issued the record on Motown's Tamla imprint in September 1963.
I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.
The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye is the debut studio album by Marvin Gaye, released in 1961, and the second long-playing album (TM-221) released by Motown. The first was Hi... We're the Miracles (TM-220). It is most notable as the album that caused the first known struggle of Gaye's turbulent tenure with the label.
Romantically Yours is the second posthumous release by American recording artist Marvin Gaye, released by Columbia Records in 1985.
Isaac Larry Stubblefield was an American musician, who performed with a wide array of artists on Hammond B3 organ.
"My Love is Waiting" is a 1982 R&B/Soul song written by musician Gordon Banks and recorded and released by American singer Marvin Gaye, as a European-only single in early 1983, it was also the last track on Gaye's final album in his lifetime, Midnight Love; released in 1982.
Cocker is the tenth studio album by Joe Cocker, released in April 1986, his second on Capitol label. It features hit singles "You Can Leave Your Hat On" and "Don't You Love Me Anymore", the first made popular after its use in the famous striptease scene in the film 9½ Weeks. Released as a single, Cocker's version of the song peaked at No. 35 on Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album also features rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues", a Motown legend's classic lament to urban decay.
Melvin Sparks was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.
Lonnie Smith, styled Dr. Lonnie Smith, was an American jazz Hammond B3 organist who was a member of the George Benson quartet in the 1960s. He recorded albums with saxophonist Lou Donaldson for Blue Note before being signed as a solo act. He owned the label Pilgrimage, and was named the year's best organist by the Jazz Journalists Association nine times.
Odell Elliott Brown Jr. was an American jazz organist. He was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing soul jazz and jazz funk with his backing band as Odell Brown & the Organ-Izers.
Cory Alexander Henry is an American jazz organist, pianist, gospel musician, and producer. A former member of Snarky Puppy, Henry launched his solo artist career in 2018 with Art of Love, his first independent release. In 2020, he released his sophomore full-length project called Something to Say which included the Marc E. Bassy-written track "No Guns". That same year he released Art of Love Live and Christmas with You, both under Culture Collective management and records.
The Opening Round, subtitled The Groove Masters Series Vol. 1 is an album by saxophonist Houston Person which was recorded in 1997 and released on the Savant label.
Let's Stay Together is an album by American jazz organist Jimmy McGriff featuring performances recorded in 1966 and 1972 and released on the Groove Merchant label.
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