Baby Face Willette

Listen/Download Baby Face Willette – Amen

Greetings all

How about we get the week started fine and mellow with a little slice of Hammond heaven.

Roosevelt ‘Baby Face’ Willette is one of those players that was always kind of floating on the periphery for me.

While I saw his name pop up here and there, and saw pictures of his albums on inner sleeves, it was a long time before his actual playing entered my ears or his records found their way into my crates.

Willette was the son of a minister and a missionary, and when he started tickling the ivories, he did in service to the lord.

He ended up playing piano as a sideman in a number of R&B and jazz groups, eventually switching to the Hammond organ.

Willette recorded a few sessions as a sideman on Blue Note before waxing his own LPs as a leader in 1961.

He moved from Blue Note to the Chess subsidiary Argo, recording two LPs and a number of 45s for the label.

The disc you see before you today was released in 1965 and also appeared on his LP ‘Behind the 8 Ball’ that year.

The song ‘Amen’ often credited to Jester Hairston but almost as often listed as ‘traditional’ was a hit for the Impressions in 1960 and covered by the Winstons in 1969 (the one with the famous break).

Here Willette takes things slow and easy, swinging the choir loft as it were, with able assistance from guitarist Ben White and drummer Jerold Donavon.

It is a very groovy disc indeed, and a fine example of the kind of thing you might hear pumping out of a tavern jukebox back in the day.

Baby Face Willette passed away a few months before his 37th birthday in 1971.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

One Response to “Baby Face Willette – Amen”

1. MingusAl says:

   May 5, 2014 at 9:27 pm

   Love Baby Face Willette! If ‘Face to Face’ isn’t the greatest organ quartet album of all time, it’s sure as hell in the top five.