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
Artisti simili
-
Little Junior Parker
Jazz - Pubblicato da LRC Ltd. - Groove Merchant Records il 3 mar 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Next Time You See Me and All the Hits
Blues - Pubblicato da Jasmine Records il 11 mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Funny How Time Slips Away
Jazz - Pubblicato da LRC Ltd. il 3 mar 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
R&B Legends Vol.10
Soul - Pubblicato da Vintage Jukebox il 9 ago 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Need Love so Bad
Blues - Pubblicato da Silver Chords il 6 mar 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'm Holding On
Blues - Pubblicato da Snapper Music il 18 mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of 50s English Artists: Junior Parker
Blues - Pubblicato da Vintage Jukebox il 30 lug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
All The Best
Blues - Pubblicato da Retro Music Box il 30 apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Driving Wheel
World music - Pubblicato da TP4 Music il 6 gen 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Drinkin' And Thinkin'
Blues - Pubblicato da Excess Music il 8 apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
JUNIOR PARKER - PLATINUM SELECTION
Blues - Pubblicato da Retro Music Box il 1 set 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of Junior Parker
Soul - Pubblicato da Vintage Jukebox il 19 feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Can't Understand
Blues - Pubblicato da Eminent Legacy Records il 18 set 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Seven Days
Blues - Pubblicato da BluesStrip Studios il 9 giu 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sittin', Drinkin' And Thinkin'
Blues - Pubblicato da The Vintage Music Collection il 10 apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Sweeter as the Days Go By
Blues - Pubblicato da Vsom Records il 27 mar 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of 50s English Masterpieces: Junior Parker
Blues - Pubblicato da Retro Music Box il 30 lug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo