Tommy Wills – Funky Sax
Tommy Wills (seriously…)
Listen/Download – Tommy Wills – Funky Sax MP3
Greetings all.
As I was pulling selections from the to-be-blogged folder, I grabbed the 45 you see before you today.
If you dig anywhere east of the Mississippi (maybe west, too) Tommy Wills 45s are a pretty common sight. On variations of the familiar, blue Airtown and Juke labels (and several others, too) Wills cuts like the sought after ‘KC Drive’ and ‘(Funky) 4 Corners’ are always nice to find.
That said, though I’ve included Wills cuts in mixes, before I sat down to research this record I knew nothing about him.
My assumption had always been that he was in all likelihood a journeyman R&B/soul musician, and also (probably) black.
Well, as Felix Unger was wont to say, “When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME” (right on, Felix).
Turns out not only was Tommy Wills a white guy, but he was a fairly straight-looking middle aged white guy who was well into his 40s when he made these records.
The odd thing is, that for a guy who put out as much music as he did, and was still active as late as 2009, touring with a big band, there’s not a lot of info out there.
Wills apparently ran the Airtown/Juke labels (according to a 1970 issue of Billboard) based alternately out of Dayton, OH (thus the Airtown designation) and Indiana, putting out his own 45s (mostly on Airtown), and (on Juke) records by Dumpy Piano Rice and a variety of R&B, country and polka performers. The labels appear to have been set up to provide jukebox filler, thus the high frequency of covers and the wide variety of styles.
The Wills 45s I have are all pretty cool, and today’s selection, ‘Funky Sax’ is no exception.
Released in 1968, ‘Funky Sax’ has a Junior Walker flavor, with a soulful backing and some wailing sax by Wills. There’s also a very tasty organ solo (I have no idea who’s playing) and the overall effect is very groovy. I mean, since he was feeding jukeboxes, he called the tune ‘Funky Sax’, filled it with funky sax, so that when someone walked up to the Wurlitzer and dropped in their nickel, what they got was….get ready…funky sax.
I’m not sure if Wills is still around (he’d be 92 if he is), but as I said, most of his 45s are pretty easy pulls.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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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.
Themocracy
Tommy Wills was still around a couple of years ago, because I saw him playing at the Indiana State Fair. https://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/tommy-wills-2014-birthday-bash/Event?oid=2891523
Whoa.