Junior Parker
His velvet-smooth vocal delivery to the contrary, Junior Parker was a product of the fertile postwar Memphis blues circuit whose wonderfully understated harp style was personally mentored by none other than regional icon Sonny Boy Williamson.
Herman Parker, Jr. only traveled in the best blues circles from the outset. He learned his initial licks from Williamson and gigged with the mighty Howlin' Wolf while still in his teens. Like so many young blues artists, Little Junior (as he was known then) got his first recording opportunity from talent scout Ike Turner, who brought him to Modern Records for his debut session as a leader in 1952. It produced the lone single "You're My Angel," with Turner pounding the 88s and Matt Murphy deftly handling guitar duties.
Parker and his band, the Blue Flames (including Floyd Murphy, Matt's brother, on guitar), landed at Sun Records in 1953 and promptly scored a hit with their rollicking "Feelin' Good" (something of a Memphis response to John Lee Hooker's primitive boogies). Later that year, Little Junior cut a fiery "Love My Baby" and a laid-back "Mystery Train" for Sun, thus contributing a pair of future rockabilly standards to the Sun publishing coffers (Hayden Thompson revived the former, Elvis Presley the latter).
Before 1953 was through, the polished Junior Parker had moved on to Don Robey's Duke imprint in Houston. It took a while for the harpist to regain his hitmaking momentum, but he scored big in 1957 with the smooth "Next Time You See Me," an accessible enough number to even garner some pop spins.
Criss-crossing the country as headliner with the Blues Consolidated package (his support act was labelmate Bobby Bland), Parker developed a breathtaking brass-powered sound (usually the work of trumpeter/Duke-house-bandleader Joe Scott) that pushed his honeyed vocals and intermittent harp solos with exceptional power. Parker's updated remake of Roosevelt Sykes's "Driving Wheel" was a huge R&B hit in 1961, as was the surging "In the Dark" (the R&B dance workout "Annie Get Your Yo-Yo" followed suit the next year).
Parker was exceptionally versatile -- whether delivering "Mother-in-Law Blues" and "Sweet Home Chicago" in faithful down-home fashion, courting the teenage market with "Barefoot Rock," or tastefully howling Harold Burrage's "Crying for My Baby" (another hit for him in 1965) in front of a punchy horn section, Parker was the consummate modern blues artist, with one foot planted in Southern blues and the other in uptown R&B.
Once Parker split from Robey's employ in 1966, though, his hitmaking fortunes declined. His 1966-1968 output for Mercury and its Blue Rock subsidiary deserved a better reception than it got, but toward the end, he was covering the Beatles ("Taxman" and "Lady Madonna," for God's sake!) for Capitol. A brain tumor tragically silenced Junior Parker's magic-carpet voice in late 1971 before he reached his 40th birthday. In 2001, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
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Discografía
21 álbum(es) • Ordenado por Mejores ventas
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Little Junior Parker
Jazz - Editado por LRC Ltd. - Groove Merchant Records el 3 mar. 2008
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R&B Legends Vol.10
Soul - Editado por Vintage Jukebox el 9 ago. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Need Love so Bad
Blues - Editado por Silver Chords el 6 mar. 2015
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Driving Wheel
World music - Editado por TP4 Music el 6 ene. 2021
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Drinkin' And Thinkin'
Blues - Editado por Excess Music el 8 abr. 2020
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Can't Understand
Blues - Editado por Eminent Legacy Records el 18 sep. 2015
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Seven Days
Blues - Editado por BluesStrip Studios el 9 jun. 2015
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Sittin', Drinkin' And Thinkin'
Blues - Editado por The Vintage Music Collection el 10 abr. 2015
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Sweeter as the Days Go By
Blues - Editado por Vsom Records el 27 mar. 2015
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The King of R&B
Soul - Editado por Vintage Jukebox el 28 sep. 2018
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The Tables Have Turned
Blues - Editado por Choice of Nerja el 25 abr. 2015
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Driving Me Mad
Blues - Editado por The Orange Dream el 24 abr. 2015
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That's Alright
Blues - Editado por Silvia Sounds el 17 abr. 2015
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Drivin' Wheel
Blues - Editado por You Want It Records el 13 mar. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo