RHYTHM AND BLUES

INDY’S GREAT R&B MUSICIANS INFLUENCED AMERICAN POP MUSIC.

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by Kyle Long

The Indianapolis R&B scene may be overshadowed by Midwest cities like Chicago and Detroit, but there’s an important history here that deserves to be told. Many R&B historians trace the genre back to an Indiana Avenue blues singer named Leroy Carr. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Carr recorded a series of influential singles spotlighting his deeply soulful and unique vocal style. Carr’s work has been identified as an influence on iconic R&B stars like Ray Charles and Nat King Cole.

During segregation, Indiana Avenue was the hub of Black culture in Indianapolis. The network of clubs and dance halls on Indiana Avenue produced multiple generations of performers that helped shape American popular music.

Among these pioneering Avenue performers was vocalist Jerry Daniels. In the early 1930s, Daniels co-founded the Ink Spots, a wildly popular vocal group that laid the foundation for the development of R&B vocal groups. The Ink Spots’ influence on R&B has been widely documented, and in 1989 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Ink Spots inspired scores of Avenue teens to form their own singing groups. One of those young vocalists was Thurston Harris, the most famous solo R&B performer to emerge from the Avenue. After years of singing with groups like the Lamplighters, Harris struck gold as a solo artist with the 1957 Billboard Top 10 hit Little Bitty Pretty One.

By the mid-1960s, R&B began to outpace jazz as the dominant form of music on Indiana Avenue. R&B bands like The Moonlighters, The Presidents and Billy Ball’s Upsetters packed dance floors at Avenue clubs like The Place to Play and Blue Eagle. The unprecedented success of Berry Gordy’s Motown label in the 1960s inspired a generation of Black entrepreneurs, including a young Indianapolis firefighter named Herb Miller. Miller formed Lamp Records with the goal of putting the Indianapolis R&B scene on the map and immediately began recording some of the best funk and soul acts in Indianapolis.

Lamp helped launch the careers of Billboard charting artists like The Vanguards and the Ebony Rhythm Band. The Vanguards’ 1969 hit Somebody Please remains one of the most enduring Indianapolis R&B recordings.

The arrival of the 1970s saw the rise of funk bands like Amnesty and Rhythm Machine as the R&B scene moved outside the Indiana Avenue neighborhood to clubs like the Zodiac, Night Flight and Mark IV. Perhaps the most important Indianapolis funk band of the 1970s was Manchild, featuring a gifted young vocalist and songwriter named Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. Babyface would go on to become the most successful American songwriter of the late 20th century, collaborating with a stunning array of artists including Barbara Streisand, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and Madonna.

In many ways, Babyface represents the culmination of Indianapolis R&B music. He credits the Indianapolis R&B scene with providing the tools for success. “I don’t know if I would’ve found myself without having the opportunity of growing up in Indianapolis,” Babyface said during a 2017 interview. “There was so much music in Indianapolis, and everyone was striving to be a really great musician. It’s a very rich history to come from.” ■