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Bruce and Steven Van Zandt are on hand at the Eighth Annual Rhythm-and-Blues Foundation Awards Ceremony to present Gary U.S. Bonds with a Pioneer Award.
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For Old Rhythm-and-Blues, Respect and Reparations |
What do Grammy winners do the night after the big event? Some of them went to one more party: the eighth annual Rhythm-and-Blues Foundation awards ceremony. Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Tony Rich, Cassandra Wilson and Keb Mo', who all collected Grammys on Wednesday night, were at the New York Hilton Grand Ballroom on Thursday night for an event that mixed respect and reparations.
They handed the foundation's Pioneer Awards to rhythm-and-blues musicians who built careers from the 1940's to the 70's, both celebrated and lesser known: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Spinners, William Bell, Ruby and the Romantics, Phil Upchurch, Van (Piano Man) Walls, Gary U. S. Bonds, Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown, Gene Chandler, Little Milton, Gloria Lynne and Ruby and the Romantics. The Four Tops, whose lineup has remained unchanged for 43 years, were given a lifetime achievement award.
''This is the first time in 37 years that I've ever gotten anything from anybody,'' Gary U. S. Bonds said, adding, ''especially from my managers.''
The foundation's awards are an annual reminder that most musicians don't spend their careers playing big theaters and arenas. After their streak of hits ends, they turn to producing, survive on the lounge circuit or move into day jobs.
Many rhythm-and-blues performers have little to show for their Top 10 hits, having signed away recording royalties and publishing rights at exploitative rates; it's something that still happens to young performers. T-Boz of TLC, the female vocal group that recently brought its own royalty battle to court, was one of the ceremony's M.C.'s, along with Aretha Franklin.
Unlike the Grammys or the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, the foundation's awards include checks: $15,000 for individuals, $20,000 for groups. They also carry a message to the music business: Remember the people, not just the hits.
''My focus was never on being rich and famous, although I wish it had been now,'' Phil Upchurch, a guitarist, bassist and songwriter who has recorded with musicians from Muddy Waters to Whitney Houston, said as he accepted the award with tears in his eyes. ''Being good, playing my instrument and peer respect: that was more important to me.''
Mr. Walls, whose blues-rooted piano parts were a mainstay of the early Atlantic Records, was also receiving the first award in a 50-year career. Ruth Brown, introducing him, said that when she walked into a recording session and saw Mr. Walls, ''You knew you were safe because, honey, he was going to give it to you.''
Jerry Butler, the Chicago soul singer who is chairman of the foundation, preached to the audience of 1,500 music-business people who had paid $50 to $500 a ticket, offering a reason for the slump in record sales. ''We have gotten so sophisticated in our marketing that we have not brought the parents and the children to the table together,'' he intoned in gospel cadences. ''You have not joined history and the future together.''
The ceremony was an occasion for reminiscences and a chance to hear voices that remain poised and powerful. Mr. Chandler performed his No. 1 hit from 1962, ''Duke of Earl,'' wearing a top hat and a black-and-red cape and easily hitting the high notes.
Ruby Nash of Ruby and the Romantics now works for AT&T in Akron, Ohio. She sang her 1963 hit, ''Our Day Will Come'' in public for the first time in 30 years.
Introducing the Spinners, Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows said their early choreography looked ''like bowling pins after you've thrown a strike.''
In addition to the awards, the foundation provides emergency aid to performers. It has helped with medical bills, rent and more than 40 funerals. This year, it added a new program: $15,000 worth of performance grants to subsidize shows by longtime performers.
''People would tell me, 'The emergency assistance is wonderful, but baby, I just wish I could go back to work,' '' said Susan Jenkins, the foundation's executive director.
The foundation has also received grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio to produce a 52-week series on the history of rhythm-and-blues. It is associated with the Rockport Rhythm-and-Blues Festival in Newport, R.I., which is to take place July 25 to 27. And it continues to put pressure on the recording business to make amends for the way it treated the musicians who laid the groundwork for rock and hip-hop.
Since the foundation was established in 1988, it has cajoled some of the conglomerates that now own rhythm-and-blues catalogues into raising royalty rates as old hits are reissued. While current superstars can receive royalties of 20 percent or more, early rhythm-and-blues performers sometimes contracted for as little as 2 percent.
For example, EMI has raised its rate for reissues to 10 percent. ''The squeaky wheel is going to get heard,'' Ms. Jenkins said. But Polygram, which owns the Motown catalogue, and Fantasy, which owns the Memphis soul catalogue of Stax-Volt Records, have resisted.
At the ceremony, Bonnie Raitt, a foundation trustee, singled out Saul Zaentz, the owner of Fantasy, who is to receive the Irving Thalberg Award for production excellence during the Oscar ceremonies on March 24. She urged that he share the celebration with Stax-Volt's roster. ''Give it to them while they're alive,'' she said. ''Show them the money!''
By Jon Pareles via The New York Times. |
Rhythm and Blues and Greenbacks: The R&B Foundation's Annual Cash Awards Help Put the Focus on Pioneers |
They gather every year in the shadow of the Grammys, these artists who were so instrumental in the explosion of the popular music business that the Grammys celebrate. The Rhythm and Blues Foundation, now eight years old, holds an annual awards ceremony at which it gives pioneer R&B artists something they usually never saw in proper quantities: cash money. So on Thursday at the Hilton, while much of the music industry was still trading whispers from Wednesday night's post-Grammy parties, the R&B Foundation was handing out $230,000. Eight solo artists received $15,000 each: William Bell, who came out of Rufus Thomas' band to have a big hit with "Tryin' to Love Two" in 1976; Gary U.S. Bonds, who sang the immortal "Quarter to Three"; Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown, a superb blues shouter who also did country music; Gene Chandler, the "Duke of Earl"; Little Milton, one of the finest blues harmonica players; Gloria Lynne, who sang the wistful "I Wish You Love"; Phil Upchurch, an excellent R&B session guitarist, and Van (Piano Man) Walls, another session giant from the '50s. Three groups split $20,000 each: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ruby and the Romantics and the Spinners. The Four Tops received the Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and Aretha Franklin was mistress of ceremonies. So this was A-list stuff, and, yes, the D.C.-based Foundation deliberately holds its affair in the wake of the Grammys, hoping key music biz and music press people will stick around to check it out. Public attention, obviously, is imperative for an organization whose mission is to "foster wider recognition, financial support and historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues artists of the '40s, '50s and '60s.
Public attention is imperative across the whole field of popular culture, where artists too often are discarded along with their last hit. But many of these artists already spent much of their careers on the dark side of Jim Crow America, touring towns where they couldn't eat in a restaurant or sleep in a hotel room. The music was great. The money was not. Big Joe Turner, whose "Shake, Rattle and Roll" comes as close to defining rock 'n' roll as any single ever, spent his last years hauling himself onto stages when he could barely walk. Dee Clark, who sang "Raindrops," the same thing. Mary Wells, who had the first No. 1 hit at Motown, was receiving eviction notices while fighting throat cancer. LaVern Baker is now navigating her life, and her apartment, on new artificial legs. The tales go on. Old age, bad breaks, compounded by financial pressure an ironic nemesis for artists who often are still earning money for others. The Foundation can help a little. It has quietly distributed more than $500,000 over the years for medical emergencies, rent emergencies, burial expenses. But Foundation executive director Suzan Jenkins is the first to say these are Band-Aids, and her biggest ongoing frustration is an acute awareness of all the needs that go unmet. Not surprisingly, then, the Foundation frequently finds itself debating how to help. For aging artists, as for anyone, the best protection against disaster is medical insurance. But most artists have none, and it's generally agreed that the best way to get them some is to qualify them for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) plan. This requires earning at least $7,500 a year in royalties, however, and most R&B artists don't reach that threshold, often because they signed contracts many years ago for 1%, 2% or no royalties at all. But if labels raised that rate to a now-standard 10%, hundreds more might qualify. That's why, two years ago, many of the artists in the Foundation urged that it become an advocate for royalty reform which EMI, Atlantic, MCA and others have to various degrees implemented. This proposal was rejected, however, by a coalition that argued that helping artists challenge record companies could jeopardize the Foundation's image, mission and fund-raising. These opponents included labels whose financial support is considered vital to the Foundation's existence and thus carry considerable weight. It also included Foundation chairman Jerry Butler who is himself a plaintiff in a massive class action royalty recoupment suit, but who doesn't think it's the Foundation's role to get involved. That leaves some people frustrated, the same way some are frustrated that the Foundation holds a lavish awards gala and gives grants to well-off artists like Smokey Robinson instead of channeling every cent to those in need. The Foundation's answer about the dinner is that class deserves class, and that the grants are recognition for pleasures rendered not charity. Singer Ruth Brown argues that the trickiest part of helping pioneer artists is doing it in a way that doesn't destroy anyone's dignity. So the discussion continues, inside and outside the Foundation, and if it's sometimes frustrating it's also good, because anything that keeps pioneer artists on the mind of the music business is good. Atlantic Records, for instance, is reportedly about to announce it is raising royalty rates to 10% for all artists, 1948-1969, and that's not the kind of move that usually happens because an executive wakes up one morning with a sudden whim to do the right thing. The most interesting stories can develop in the shadows.
By David Hinckley via New York Daily News. |
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