Robert Douglas Pruter (born July 1, 1944) is an American writer, mainly on soul and rhythm and blues music, and on sports. He was the rhythm and blues editor of Goldmine magazine from 1985 to 2006.
In 1969, he was hired as an assistant editor on the New Standard Encyclopedia , published by the Standard Educational Corporation. He became associate editor, social sciences, in 1974, and senior editor in 1979. He started writing separately-published articles on soul music in 1976, in outlets including the Chicago Sun-Times and Record Exchanger. He became rhythm and blues editor for Goldmine in 1985, and in all has contributed over 500 articles to journals including the Illinois Entertainer, The Reader, Juke Blues, and Living Blues . [1] He has written liner notes on many soul and R&B musicians, including Jackie Wilson, Gene Chandler, Curtis Mayfield, and Dinah Washington, as well as biographies and overview chapters in reference works including The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Encyclopædia Britannica (2000 edition), and American National Biography .
Starting in the early 1990s he wrote in journals (in particular Journal of Sport History) and in encyclopedias on the development of sport in the United States, especially on the history of high school sports. [2]
Professionally, he left Standard Educational Corp. in 1996, and worked for Planning/Communications and Charles D. Spencer & Associates before becoming reference librarian at Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois, in 2001. His published books include: [1]
Pruter is the son of Bishop Karl Pruter and the brother-in-law of folk singer Steve Goodman and writer Daniel Abraham.
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening, where U.S. record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa. It also had a resurgence with artists like Erykah Badu under the genre neo-soul.
Doo-wop is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables is a common characteristic of these songs. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s, but continued to influence performers in other genres.
Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles developed into West Coast blues, Detroit blues, and post-World War II Chicago blues, which differed from earlier, predominantly acoustic-style blues. By the early 1950s, Little Walter was a featured soloist on blues harmonica using a small hand-held microphone fed into a guitar amplifier. Although it took a little longer, the electric bass guitar gradually replaced the stand-up bass by the early 1960s. Electric organs and especially keyboards later became widely used in electric blues.
Jerry Butler Jr. is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 Billboard Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart", "Let It Be Me" and "Only the Strong Survive". He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.
Blues dancing is a family of historical dances that developed alongside and were danced to blues music, or the contemporary dances that are danced in that aesthetic. It has its roots in African-American dance, which itself is rooted in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the historical dances brought to the United States by European immigrants.
Southern soul is a type of soul music that emerged from the Southern United States. The music originated from a combination of styles, including blues, country, early R&B, and a strong gospel influence that emanated from the sounds of Southern black churches. Bass guitar, drums, horn section, and gospel roots vocal are important to soul groove. This rhythmic force made it a strong influence in the rise of funk music. The terms "deep soul", "country soul", "downhome soul" and "hard soul" have been used synonymously with "Southern soul".p. 18
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.
David Ritz is an American author. He has written novels, biographies, magazine articles, and over a hundred liner notes for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Nat King Cole. He has coauthored 36 autobiographies, including some celebrities' autobiographies.
Richard K. "Dick" Spottswood is an American musicologist and author from Maryland, United States who has catalogued and been responsible for the reissue of many thousands of recordings of vernacular music in the United States.
Sylvester Johnson was an American blues and soul singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. His most successful records included "Different Strokes" (1967), "Is It Because I'm Black" (1969) and "Take Me to the River" (1975).
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.
We're a Winner is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1968. It was the group's last album for ABC Records; they moved on to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records.
Ridin' High is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1966.
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings. Established in 1966, members include record collectors, discographers, and audio engineers, together with librarians, curators, archivists, and researchers.
The Club DeLisa, also written Delisa or De Lisa, was an African-American nightclub and music venue in Chicago, Illinois. Located at 5521 South State Street, it was possibly the most prestigious venue in the city, together with the Regal Theater and the Rhumboogie Café, the 800–seat Club DeLisa played a key role in the city's association with jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and soul music. It closed in February 1958, but was re-opened as The Club in 1966.
Cash McCall was an American electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was best known for his 1966 R&B hit "When You Wake Up". Over his long career, his musical style evolved from gospel music to soul music to the blues.
The Sheppards was an American, Chicago-based soul and blues vocal group. The group was formed in 1959 by the members of the Ballads and the Bel Aires and was active until 1969. The group was named after producer Bill Sheppard and consisted of Millard Edwards, Jimmy Allen (baritone), James Dennis Isaac, O. C. Perkins, Murrie Eskridge, and Kermit Chandler (guitar). They recorded for Vee-Jay Records, and were featured on compilations such as Tomorrow's Hits (1962).
Isaac "Redd" Holt was an American jazz and soul music drummer. He was the drummer on the album The In Crowd which earned the Ramsey Lewis Trio critical praise and the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance.
Kevin Le Gendre is a British journalist, broadcaster and author whose work focuses on Black music. He is deputy editor of Echoes magazine, has written for a wide range of publications, including Jazzwise, MusicWeek, Vibrations, The Independent On Sunday and The Guardian, and is a contributor to such radio programmes as BBC Radio 3's J to Z and BBC Radio 4's Front Row. At the 2009 Parliamentary Jazz Awards Le Gendre was chosen as "Jazz Journalist of the Year".
Colin Escott is a British music historian and author specializing in early U.S. rock and roll and country music. His works include a biography of Hank Williams, histories of Sun Records and The Grand Ole Opry, liner notes for more than 500 albums and compilations, and major contributions to stage and television productions. Honors include multiple Grammy Awards and a Tony Award nomination.