‘Diamond Joe’ Maryland.

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Fair Play

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Gossip Gossip

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – The ABC Song

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Look Way Back

Greetings all.

Those of you that have been here for a while might remember a time a few years back where there was a period of a couple of months where there seemed to be an obit posted here at least once a week.

I take no joy whatsoever in reporting the deaths of the musicians we revere, but considering the lack of respect many of these artists got during their lives, or are like to get after they pass, it seems only fair that we all stop and take a moment to remember them and the music they made.

A few days ago, I got an e-mail notification that someone had signed the Guest List at the Funky16Corners webzine.

The webzine has been around for a decade, and there’s lots of content there, from feature stories and discographies to simple 45 reviews, and it’s depth and longevity has turned it into a huge Google-net of sorts, in that it sends up results for all kinds of searches, some related, some not.

This has proven to be an interesting by-product, since lots of musicians and their families have gotten in contact with me via hitting the webzine.

Unfortunately, as is the case with all news, sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad.

When I went to collect the message, I was struck with an odd mix of sadness and excitement. Sad because it led to an obituary for one of my all-time favorite soul singers, and excitement because I had no inkling of his whereabouts, and at one time had heard that he was homeless.

That man was Joseph ‘Diamond Joe’ Maryland.

The world of 60s soul is filled with stories, many of which are short, bittersweet and ultimately incomplete.
Diamond Joe, a masterful singer and accomplished songwriter, who made two of my Top 10 soul 45s during his very short career, starred in such a story.

What little I’ve ever been able to find out about him has been by and large related to his recordings, made during a period that lasted less than a decade.

He was a New Orleans singer who recorded all of his work alongside the mighty Allen Toussaint, but like a few other artists in that orbit, also wrote some of his own material.

I probably first heard his amazing voice when I encountered his 1966 Sansu 45 ‘Gossip Gossip’ on an old Charly Records CD comp. It was an eye-opening experience in that it was clear from the very first time I heard it that ‘Gossip Gossip’ was one of the truly great soul 45s of the 60s.

What was also clear was that I had never heard the tune, nor its singer before, and as is always the case, its started me on a years-long search for the rest of his recordings.

The first sad marker in this saga was discovering that he had only recorded seven 45s in his short career.
I’ve been collecting obscure music for most of my life, and while a lot of it is good, some of it great, every once in a great while you discover a record that is absolutely brilliant. Diamond Joe recorded two of these records, and his reward was utter obscurity.

This is galling because, as it is with anything in life, when you find something that blows your mind, you’d naturally like to find more of it, and when that something begins and ends with just over a dozen songs, and then trails off into nothingness, it borders on infuriating.

Diamond Joe was, like Eldridge Holmes (who also worked almost exclusively with Toussaint) a singer of great talent, as adept with epic ballads as he was with rough edged, fast moving soul. He was possessed of a gruff baritone that could move from a growl to the most subtle whisper within the few minutes of music on a 45.

As tempting as it is to wonder why he wasn’t more successful, the point is ultimately moot. Whether it was because he was lost in a huge pool of talent in New Orleans (there are TONS of amazing New Orleans 45s that never got heard much outside of the region), or an even bigger pool nationally, or that he was just fated to create great records that few would hear (cruel fate, that), as far as I can tell be never recorded after his last Deesu 45 (both sides of which are included here today).

Until I saw the picture posted with his obit (seen above) I had no idea what he looked like.

The four tunes I post in his memory include both of my favorites, as well as a few other great ones to illustrate the breadth of his talent.

The earliest of these is 1963’s ‘Fair Play’, written by Earl King and Allen Orange. ‘Fair Play’ is an absolutely mid-bending record. In just over two minutes you get to hear Diamond Joe wrap his amazing voice around a heartbreaking melody, all contained within a stunning arrangement (how many soul records have you heard with autoharp??). No matter how many times I hear this one, it still haunts me.

‘Gossip Gossip’, from 1966 is one of those records that in a just world would have been a hit. Once again you combine a great arrangement (I believe that’s Toussaint’s speaking voice you hear at the beginning) that combines rough organ, chopping rhythm guitar and a majestic horn chart, all dwarfed by Diamond Joe’s powerful vocal.

The last two songs here are the two sides of Diamond Joe’s final 45, recorded for the Deesu label in (I believe) 1968.

‘The ABC Song’ and ‘Look Way Back’ were both written by the singer with one side funky and the other side a preaching ballad. He’s great in both styles/

I’d say you should head out there and pick yourself up some Diamond Joe, but as far as I can tell, nothing remains in print. His 45s are not easy to come by.

I hope you dig what you’re hearing today and my heart goes out to his family.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg

The painting of Gene from the cover of ‘Organ Out Loud’ by Jack Lonshein

Gene Ludwig at the organ (Circa 1965)

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig -Sticks and Stones

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – The Vamp

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Blues For Mr Fink

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – House of the Rising Sun

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Comin’ Home Baby

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Moanin’

 

Greetings all.
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I got the very sad news last week that Hammond master Gene Ludwig had passed away at the age of 72.
If you’re one of the rare few that’s been on the Funky16Corners tip since the web zine days, you know I ride for the Hammond organ in a big way, from the greasiest R&B, to pure soul, soul jazz and funk, I have never been able to get enough of the Hammond sound.
Gene Ludwig was one of the last of what I would call the accepted past masters of the jazz organ. He was a contemporary of Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Dr Lonnie Smith, Seleno Clarke and pretty much everyone else that was part of the jazz organ explosion of the 50s and 60s.
What Gene was also a part of was the great – mostly unexplored – Pennsylvania organ tradition. One of the really interesting things I picked up out of years of collecting and researching Hammond records was how many great players hailed from the Keystone State (and not just Philly). The man that launched a thousand organ combos, the mighty Jimmy Smith as well as Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Richie Varola, Greg Hatza, Papa John and Joey DeFrancesco, Shirley Scott and of course Gene Ludwig all got their start in the bars and nightclubs of Pennsylvania, in both the big cities and out in the hinterlands. Was it something in the water? An abundance of organs (or bars/lounges with organs in them)?
In his obit Gene was quoted as saying that he turned on to R&B (and organ players) by listening to Pittsburgh radio legend Porky Chedwick. Pittsburgh has a long history as a kind of isolated Shangri La for R&B and soul fans where any number of brilliant but obscure records are worshipped by the locals because they were circulated on the radio and at dances.
Whether this had anything to do with spawning organists, as opposed to just fans of the sound, I have no idea, but it is intriguing.
Gene Ludwig – a native of the wester PA town of Twin Rocks started out as a pianist, and had his ‘road to Damascus’ moment when he saw Jimmy Smith perform at a Pittsburgh club called the Hurricane in 1957.
Ludwig went on to have a 50 year career as one of the great proponents of the Hammond, recording locally as well as on national labels like Mainstream and Atlantic.
He was really what I would consider (at least for my taste) the consummate organist in that he approached the instrument from a jazz perspective (with serious chops to match) yet was not afraid to cut loose and burn on the keyboard, expanding into the realms of R&B and soul.
I’ve consumed a lot of virtual ink rambling on about this or that ultra-raw organ 45, but the best Hammond players, no matter how soulful or funky all came to the instrument from the jazz roots.
Gene Ludwig was old enough to hear the early rumblings of the Hammond sound from the jazz/jump/R&B nexus of cats like Wild Bill Davis, Bill Doggett and Milt Buckner, and mastered the instrument in the wake of the mid-50s scene when Jimmy Smith rewrote the book on jazz organ.
The ensuing expansion of the electronic organ, as both a performance platform and recorded instrument was wide ranging on both established jazz labels like Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside and Atlantic, but as my crates will attest, on countless tiny local labels eager for a piece of the action. It’s not at all hard to imagine walking into a bar in 1965, strolling up to the jukebox and seeing the organ stylings of a regional favorite among records from out of town.
Gene Ludwig was both a regional player (probably half of his discography is rooted locally) and an internationally known master of his instrument who headlined and worked as a sideman (replacing Don Patterson in Sony Stitt’s late 60s band).
Gene remained devoted to the Hammond, and a glimpse at his web site will reveal that he was playing, recording and above all staying relevant right up until his unexpected and tragic passing.
He was a musician of great taste with an ear for that perfect soul jazz vibe, yet was also conversant in standards (which any organist working the clubs in the 60s would have had to have been) and was by all accounts an unfailingly generous soul when it came to mentoring younger players.
Though I never got to meet Gene or his wife Pattye in person, I was lucky enough to correspond with them over the years (Gene had no bigger booster than Pattye), including an interview I did with the master back in 2005.

The Gene Ludwig Trio in the 1960s (above) and reunited in 2004 (below)

The tunes I bring you today represent a cross-section of the sound of Gene Ludwig through the 1960s. As far as I can tell all of these cuts feature his classic 60s-era trio which featured Randy Gelispie (or Gillespie, I’ve seen it spelled both ways) on drums and Jerry Byrd on guitar.
A few of these cuts have been featured here in the past, but they deserve to be heard again.
The first track is the Ludwig’s trio’s smoking version of the Henry Glover/Titus Turner classic ‘Sticks and Stones’, which appeared as a two-part 45 in 1963 (I’ve spliced the two parts together). The trio’s playing is spot on, relaxed yet generating a considerable amount of heat, and Gene is in rare form. I’ve heard there’s at least one other unissued side from that date, a version of ‘High Heel Sneakers’.
Next up is a track discussed here in the past, the brilliant ‘The Vamp’, which appeared as a 45 and on the LP ‘The Educated Sound of Gene Ludwig’ in 1965. If you haven’t heard ‘The Vamp’ strap yourself in because it’s a killer. Improvised in the studio by the trio, it featured Gene on the organ, Byrd on guitar and Gelispie on tambourine only. It has the feeling of an after-hours session gone wild, and is probably my favorite moment in Gene’s discography.
‘Blues For Mr. Fink’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ are both culled from an oddball 1960s compilation called ‘The Keyboards’ on the Time label, which features Gene Ludwig, and five other players performing in a wide variety of disparate styles. None of the album’s 20 tracks are attributed to anyone specific, but I knew of the Ludwig tracks from other sources (which is why I picked it up).
My suspicion has always been that all of the Gene Ludwig material on that record came from his time with the Mainstream label, since Bob Shad is credited with A&R on the jacket, and a few of the tracks also appear on the 1964 Mainstream LP ‘Organ Out Loud’.
The last two tracks appeared on what I would consider to be one of the great soul jazz organ sessions of the classic era, the aforementioned ‘Organ Out Loud’. Here Gene and the trio work it out on two classics of the genre (the LP also included wonderful versions of Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Sermonette’ and Horace Silver’s ‘The Preacher’), Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ and Bobby Timmons’ ‘Moanin’.
‘Comin’ Home Baby’ is taken at a touch more relaxed pace than you usually hear, but the group keeps it moving and grooving, and Gene takes a wild solo.
‘Moanin’ on the other hand takes off like a rocket and never slows down. It’s the kind of performance that makes me want to step into the WABAC machine and hear the group in some smoky lounge. Gene’s fingers fly over the keys while the rhythm section provides a rock solid bottom.
If you ever get a chance to get your hands on any of his 60s albums or 45s (and there’s still a couple of things I have yet to track down) do yourself a favor and do it.
You still have the chance to hear his more recent recordings, which are uniformly excellent.
That all said, it’s so sad to have to talk about this great music in light of Gene’s passing.
He was a great musician, and by all accounts as solid a human being as has passed this way.
He will be missed.
My sincere condolences go out to his wife Pattye.
See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some classic British Beat