Johnny Pate

Last updated
Johnny Pate
Birth nameJohn William Pate
Born (1923-12-05) December 5, 1923 (age 100)
Chicago Heights, Illinois, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, producer/arranger, composer
Instrument(s)Bass guitar
Years active1950s–1980s
Labels
Formerly ofJohnny Pate Trio
Johnny Pate Quintet [1]
Website www.patesplace.net

John William Pate (born December 5, 1923) is an American former musician, a jazz bassist who became a producer, arranger, and leading figure in Chicago soul, pop, and rhythm and blues. [1] [2]

Contents

He learned piano and tuba as a child and later picked up the bass guitar. He learned arranging while serving in the United States Army. [1]

Career

The jazz era: Early works

Following stints with Coleridge Davis and Stuff Smith in the 1940s, [1] in 1951, Pate was recording on Chess Records with Eddie South and his Orchestra, credited on bass and arrangements. This was also the first of a series of Chess recordings on which Pate collaborated with saxophonist Eddie Johnson. [3] In the 1950s, he was also a resident arranger for Red Saunders' house band at the Club DeLisa.

Recording

Johnny Pate's trio recorded for a number of Chicago labels, including Gig and Talisman. For the Cincinnati-based Federal Records, the Johnny Pate Quintet had a hit with "Swinging Shepherd Blues", which reached No. 17 on the Billboard R&B chart in spring 1958. [1]

One of the last albums on which Pate played bass was James Moody's 1958 album Last Train from Overbrook , on the Chess subsidiary, Argo Records. [4]

Record Production

Pate, as a record producer, produced and did the arrangements for B. B. King's album Live at the Regal in November 1964. [5] Pate was also the arranger and conductor for Wes Montgomery's album Movin' Wes , released in 1965 and re-released in 1981. [6] He was the arranger and conductor for Lu Elliott's Sings Way Out From Down Under 1967 ABC album. [7]

The Impressions era

In the early 1960s, Pate was hired by Okeh Records producer/A&R director Carl Davis to write arrangements for the label. Davis had had previous hits with artists such as Walter Jackson, Major Lance, Ted Taylor and The Opals.

Pate, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions first teamed in January 1963 recording the ballad "Sad Sad Girl and Boy," which mid-charted in Cashbox magazine's charts. The following single, "It's All Right," stayed at number one R&B for two weeks and hit number four pop in fall 1963; it was followed by "Talking about My Baby," "I'm So Proud," and "Keep On Pushing". The Keep On Pushing LP peaked at number eight pop in fall 1964. Pate produced and recorded most of their hits at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago. [1]

Their success led the group's label, ABC-Paramount, to open a Chicago office on 14th and Michigan and appoint Pate as A&R director in 1964. One of the acts he signed, the Marvelows, had a number seven R&B hit with "I Do". "I Do" was followed by another hit with "In the Morning."

Other acts signed to ABC-Paramount through the Chicago branch were the Trends, the Kittens, and former Vee-Jay Records star Betty Everett. He also did the arrangements for Major Lance's Monkey Time. [8] [9]

In 1968, Pate began doing arrangements for Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label. Leaving in 1972, he worked on numerous recordings including the horn arrangements for the Bobby Bland and B. B. King Together Again...Live (1976), produced and arranged several albums for Peabo Bryson on Capitol Records, including Gold Award album CrossWinds in 1978, [10] and the 1978 album Words and Music by Lonette McKee on Warner Bros. Records. Pate also scored soundtracks for films including Shaft in Africa (1973), Bucktown (1975), Satan's Triangle (1975), Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976), Sudden Death (1977) and Every Girl Should Have One (1978).

Pate also did the arrangements for Bee Gees' 1973 album Life in a Tin Can .

In 2006, TNC Records released an 80th birthday tribute album. His song "Shaft in Africa", was sampled by producer K-Def, for the Diddy's "We Gon' Make It", featuring Jack Knight. It was later sampled by producer Just Blaze for Jay-Z single "Show Me What You Got".

Affiliations and organisations

In the late 1960s, Pate served as a national trustee on the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and he was very instrumental in bringing the Grammy Awards to television. [10]

Personal life

Pate turned 100 on December 5, 2023. [11]

Discography

As leader

With Bill Doggett

With James Moody

With Curtis Mayfield

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muddy Waters</span> American blues musician (1913–1983)

McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis Mayfield</span> American singer-songwriter (1942–1999)

Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. Dubbed the "Gentle Genius", he first achieved success and recognition with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group the Impressions during the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.

Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers, Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vee-Jay Records</span> American record label

Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Walter</span> American blues harmonica player (1930–1968)

Marion Walter Jacobs, known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him comparisons to such seminal artists as Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica. He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the first and, to date, only artist to be inducted specifically as a harmonica player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donny Hathaway</span> American singer-songwriter (1945–1979)

Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include "The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of "A Song for You", "For All We Know", and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of many collaborations with Roberta Flack. He has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations. Hathaway was also posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Dutch director David Kleijwegt made a documentary called Mister Soul – A Story About Donny Hathaway, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Chandler</span> American musician

Gene Chandler is an American singer, songwriter, music producer, and record-label executive. Chandler is nicknamed "the Duke of Earl" or, simply, "the Duke." He is best known for his most successful songs, "Duke of Earl" and "Groovy Situation", and his association with the Dukays, the Impressions, and Curtis Mayfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Impressions</span> American soul vocal group

The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, R&B, doo-wop, and soul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtom Records</span> Defunct American record label co-founded by Curtis Mayfield

Curtom Records was a record label founded by Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Thomas in March 1968 as an independently distributed music label. It was located at 8541 South Stony Island Boulevard. The name of the label came from a hybrid of the names "Curtis" and "Thomas". Prior to Curtom, Mayfield had started two other labels: Windy C and Mayfield which both had closed down. The company's motto was "We're a Winner", taken from one the hit songs from Mayfield's group The Impressions released by ABC Records. At the inception, Mayfield was the company principal producer and A&R person. Other staff included Johnny Pate and Donny Hathaway. Pate left in 1972. Most of the artists on Curtom did not write their own music, which lead to the studio producers such as LeRoy Hutson, Lowrell Simon, Ed Townsend, Gil Askey and Marvin Yanch and Chuck Jackson to produce and write music. The first release on Curtom was This Is My Country released in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Milton</span> American blues singer and guitarist (1934–2005)

James Milton Campbell Jr., better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single "We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include "Baby, I Love You", "Who's Cheating Who?", and "Grits Ain't Groceries ".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Bo</span> Musical artist

Edwin Joseph Bocage, known as Eddie Bo, was an American singer and pianist from New Orleans. Schooled in jazz, he was known for his blues, soul and funk recordings, compositions, productions and arrangements. He debuted on Ace Records in 1955 and released more single records than anyone else in New Orleans other than Fats Domino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major Lance</span> American R&B singer (c 1939–1994)

Major Lance was an American R&B singer. After a number of US hits in the 1960s, including "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", he became an iconic figure in Britain in the 1970s among followers of Northern Soul. Although he stopped making records in 1982, Major Lance continued to perform at concerts and on tours until his death in 1994. His daughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was the 60th mayor of Atlanta.

Leroy Hutson is an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and instrumentalist, best known as former lead singer of R&B vocal group The Impressions.

Willie Henderson is an American R&B and soul musician and producer.

"Merry Christmas Baby" is an R&B Christmas standard credited to Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore. In 1947, Johnny Moore's Three Blazers recorded the tune, featuring vocals and piano by Charles Brown. Subsequently, many performers have recorded renditions of the song, including Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Otis Redding, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, and Melissa Etheridge.

<i>Movin Wes</i> 1964 studio album by Wes Montgomery

Movin' Wes is an album by the American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1964. It reached number 18 on the Billboard jazz albums chart in 1967, his second album to reach the charts after Bumpin'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Shaw</span> American Chicago blues musician

Eddie Shaw was an American Chicago blues tenor saxophonist, arranger and bandleader. He led Howlin' Wolf's band, the Wolf Gang, from 1972, both before Wolf's death in 1976 and subsequently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Can't Hold Out</span> 1960 song by Elmore James

"I Can't Hold Out", also known as "Talk to Me Baby", is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Elmore James in 1960 for the Chess label. Called a classic and a "popular James standard", it has been interpreted and recorded by several artists.

Herbert J. Lance was an American jazz, blues and gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, recording studio owner and radio DJ. As well as recording several hits himself in the late 1940s, he co-wrote Ruth Brown's signature song, "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean".

Richard L. Shurman is an American record producer, sound engineer, music journalist, music historian, and backing vocalist.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Johnny Pate at Allmusic
  2. ↑ Geoffrey Himes (August 13, 1993). "Mr. Smith Comes To Rhythm 'n' Blues". The Washington Post.
  3. ↑ Campbell, Robert L.; Armin Büttner, and Yves François Smierciak, "Eddie Johnson discography".
  4. ↑ Pate's Place — Johnny Pate's official website.
  5. ↑ Mike Devlin (August 25, 2008). "All hail the reigning King of Blues; Classics of B.B. King, 83, stand up through the decades". The Star Phoenix.
  6. ↑ Mark Miller (October 10, 1981). "INSIDE THE SLEEVE JAZZ Movin' Wes Wes Montgomery". The Globe and Mail.
  7. ↑ Discogs Lu Elliott – Sings Way Out From Down Under
  8. ↑ Dave Hoekstra (December 19, 2006). "Chicago's dreamgirls". Chicago Sun Times.
  9. ↑ Richard Williams (September 13, 1994). "Obituary: Major Lance". The Independent.
  10. 1 2 Johnny Pate
  11. ↑ "FSM Board: Happy 100th birthday to Johnny Pate!". www.filmscoremonthly.com. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.