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Lou Rawls

From gospel and early R&B to soul and jazz to blues and straight-up pop, Lou Rawls was a consummate master of African-American vocal music whose versatility helped him adapt to the changing musical times over and over again, while always remaining unmistakably himself. Blessed with a four-octave vocal range, Rawls' smooth, classy elegance — sort of a cross between Sam Cooke and Nat King Cole — permeated nearly everything he sang, yet the fire of his early gospel days was never too far from the surface. He made his name as a crooner, first by singing jazz standards, then moving on to soul in the mid- '60s, and capped the most commercial phase of his career with a productive stint at Philadelphia International during the latter half of the '70s. Even after his days as a chart presence were over, Rawls remained a highly visible figure on the American cultural landscape, pursuing an acting and voice-over career in addition to his continued concert appearances, and doing extensive charity work on behalf of the United Negro College Fund. Louis Allen Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1935, and was raised on the city's south side by his grandmother. He sang in the choir at his Baptist church starting at age seven, and became interested in popular music as a teenager by attending shows at the Regal Theatre, with genre- crossing singers like Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, and Billy Eckstine ranking as his particular favorites. Rawls also tried his hand at harmony-group singing with schoolmate Sam Cooke, together in a gospel outfit called the Teenage Kings of Harmony. Rawls moved on to sing with the Holy Wonders, and in 1951 replaced Cooke in the Highway Q.C.s. In 1953, when Specialty recording artists the Chosen Gospel Singers swung through Chicago on tour, they recruited Rawls as a new member; he made his recording debut on a pair of sessions in early 1954. He later joined the Pilgrim Travelers, but quit in 1956 to enlist in the Army as a paratrooper; upon his discharge in 1958, he returned to the Travelers and embarked on a tour with Cooke. It nearly cost Rawls his life — during the Southern leg of their tour, the car Rawls and Cooke were riding in crashed into a truck. Cooke escaped with minor injuries, but another passenger was killed, and Rawls was actually pronounced dead on the way to the hospital; as it turned out, he spent five and a half days in a coma, did not regain his full memory for another three months, and took an entire year to recuperate.

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183
Album Review

Lou Rawls: The Best of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions

Read "The Best of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


This twenty-song anthology delivers the definitive overview of Lou Rawls' vocal accomplishments before his late-1970s run with Gamble & Huff for Philly International records popped him into the mainstream.

Like so many other blues-influenced pop singers, Rawls begins right from The Source, the family church, through the opening “Motherless Child, from The Soul Stirring Gospel Sound of the Pilgrim Travelers Featuring Lou Rawls (1962). Lovingly rendered with the Les McCann piano trio for Rawls' first record as a ...

179
Album Review

Lou Rawls: The Best of Lou Rawls - The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions

Read "The Best of Lou Rawls - The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions" reviewed by Andrew Velez


This document of Lou Rawls' decade with Capitol in the '60s celebrates the beginnings of the recently departed artist, one of the rare male vocalists with a big, beautiful sound who could sing his butt off. His professional beginnings were with the gospel group The Singing Travelers, and their 1962 recording of “Motherless Child opens the disc. The essential enrichment provided by Eddie Beal (piano) and Rene Hall and Cliff White (guitars) is much more than mere accompaniment. Partnership is ...

330
Album Review

Lou Rawls: The Best Of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions

Read "The Best Of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions" reviewed by Chris May


Although they're included almost as a postscript to this gorgeous collection of jazz and gospel-inflected blues, the last three tracks on The Best Of Lou Rawls are headline news in themselves. Three previously unissued tracks featuring legendary trumpeter Dupree Bolton!!

Almost as under-recorded and unchronicled as Buddy Bolden, Dupree Bolton spent most of his adult life either with a monkey on his back or doing jail time under the USA's unenlightened drug laws. But his contributions to Harold Land's The ...

233
Album Review

Lou Rawls: The Best of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions

Read "The Best of Lou Rawls: The Capitol Jazz & Blues Sessions" reviewed by Jim Santella


The emotional catch in Lou Rawls' voice and the unmistakable sound of his persona have long been staples of modern music: easy to love and comfortably familiar. When Rawls sings, everybody wants to absorb the lyrics. And following the message that accompanies each of his songs comes as natural as intimate conversation between two good friends.

When Rawls passed away in January, the world lost a troubadour who gave of himself every time out. He was a gentleman, ...

273
Album Review

Lou Rawls: Live!

Read "Live!" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


With a talent for versatility, Lou Rawls can sing just about anything from jingles for beer commercials to spirituals (check out a recent reissue of The Pilgrim Travellers Featuring Lou Rawls on Mighty Quinn). In some ways, this chameleon-like character can be more of a hindrance than an asset. It's meant that over the years his commercial endeavors, particularly from the disco era, have tended to overshadow earlier gems that reveal his way with a jazz or blues line. Yet ...

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153

Obituary

Singer Lou Rawls Dies

Singer Lou Rawls Dies

Source: All About Jazz

By JEFF WILSON The Associated Press Friday, January 6, 2006; 12:26 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Lou Rawls, the velvet-voiced singer who started as a church choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as “You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," died Friday of cancer. He was 72.

Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer, said his publicist, Paul Shefrin. His wife, ...

139

Event

Lou Rawls & Ellis Marsalis Highlight

Lou Rawls & Ellis Marsalis Highlight

Source: All About Jazz


Gyle Waddy
vocals
David Byrd
saxophone, alto
Sufiano
composer / conductor

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