31 minute read
COVER
King Records in Cincinnati developed James Brown, Otis Williams and more. Now it may be ready for a royal return.
theKingThing
In 1956,
James Brown and e Famous Flames electri ed America with one of their most notable songs, “Please, Please, Please.” When performing it, Brown iconically fell to his knees as he roared those legendary three words, begging from the bottom of his toes, “Baby please don’t go.” Today, his remarkable air and charismatic performances continue to be celebrated.
In the evolution of Brown’s fame, the birthplace of the song became lost in the glory it created. at place was King Records, and it was right here in Cincinnati.
Actually, it’s still here – sort of. e site in Evanston was designated as a local landmark in 2015; as of press time, it’s awaiting a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. On Brewster Avenue, visible from both the northbound and southbound corridors of I-71, the King Records complex of ve buildings holds a legacy so impressive and in uential that somehow, Brown is a mere dot on its everlasting timeline.
But the shell of the King Records complex has been vacant for years, sadly without much national public acknowledgement of how the label, artists and producers shaped both the music of the time and the future of rock and roll, soul and more.
Fortunately, that may be changing. e King Records Legacy Foundation launched in 2021 as a collaboration between City of Cincinnati o cials, the neighborhood of Evanston and former King Records recording artists Otis Williams, Philip Paul, Bootsy Collins and others. Williams’ son Kent Butts is the executive director of the foundation that’s trying to preserve the studio’s history.
He tells CityBeat that all musical roads lead back to King Records – a major reason to secure the studio’s place in both local and national history.
“Pick an artist – any artist. Pretty much, I can draw it back to King somehow,” Butts says. “Somebody will say ‘Justin Bieber. How you gonna draw that back?’ Well, he came through Usher, and [producer and talent scout] L.A. Reid was who got him on. Usher is copying Michael Jackson; Micheal Jackson is copying James Brown. We are back to King just that fast.”
“And I can pretty much do that with most artists,” Butts insists. “Somehow, I can get you back to King or something that was started at King.”
It’s a sprawling, important legacy that the King Records Legacy Foundation is trying to highlight. To do that, the foundation is in the process of preserving some of the buildings at the King complex in Evanston to develop them into an active learning center and museum. e city proposed a preferred development agreement that was signed by the foundation’s committee members Aug. 15. Once the city nalizes the document – which is expected to happen in September – the project can move forward.
But before the future can be realized, it’s important to rst consider – and hear – the musical past.
Working in harmony
According to multiple sources, King Records was founded in 1943 by Syd Nathan, who owned a record store in downtown Cincinnati before capitalizing on popular “hillbilly” music to launch a country music label. A few years later, he also sought and signed Black musicians and singers, eventually mixing both genres and talents into a new foundation of R&B, rock and roll, soul and funk.
Butts says that during an era in which most people still hadn’t been granted full civil rights or autonomy, Nathan – who was white – hired workers of all races, genders and backgrounds, including at the executive level. He also was an innovative businessman who streamlined the entire record-making process at one complex – a rst for the industry.
According to A King Records Scrapbook by Brian F.X. Powers, King Records was the sixth-largest record company during the late ’50s, employing 400 people and successfully managing multiple genres instead of just one, as its competitors were doing.
Of course, Nathan didn’t do it alone or all at once. In the late ’40s, Nathan hired Henry Glover, one of the rst Black music industry executives. As an A&R (artist and repertoire) expert for King, Glover – a musician himself – initiated some of the studio’s genre mixing, A King Records Scrapbook says.
“Henry would work with whoever — country, blues, whatever,” Butts says. “ ey started to tie things over, like the doo-wop artist would back up the
KingThing by Katie Griffith
Above: Inside the King Records building today. country singer or sing a country singer’s song or vice versa to see what would work.”
And many historic sources credit King’s vice president and general manager Hal Neely as the man behind the studio’s big business moves, helping it evolve into a fully self-su cient company (according to A King Records Scrapbook, Neely bought King from the Nathan family after Nathan’s death in 1968).
By the early ’50s, King Records’ entire operation was happening under one roof: recording, pressing, art creation, packaging and distribution.
To do all of that, Nathan needed space, and lots of it. Documents from Charles Dahan, a professor in the recording industry department at Middle Tennessee State University who contributed evidence for King Records’ application for the National Register of Historic Places, show that the business’s original property consisted of ve interconnected structures, which exist in varying degrees today. e city of Cincinnati owns several of the original parcels at 1540 Brewster Ave. at portion was constructed in 1921 and in part is “a one-story brick warehouse that houses 17,604 square feet and occupies .69 acre,” Dahan says. Adjoining that building is a “one-story utilitarian garage” that Dahan describes as being in fair condition.
When that space operated as King Records, the building on the rst parcel had two oors. e second oor held o ces, storage, a remix studio and the art department. e rst oor contained a large studio and areas for shipping and receiving, printing, inspection and insertion, plating and testing, machine shop, press room and mill room, according to a sketch in e King Records Story by Darren Blase. e remaining parcels, which are privately owned today, are at 1548 Brewster Ave. – three interconnected structures, 26,434 square feet on .414 acres, Dahan’s information says.
Steve Halper, Nathan’s nephew, recalls working in the shipping department when he was 16 years old, noting that nobody knew then that they were making history.
“People looked back and saw the things that happened at King Records, like the mixing of races making music [and] the way he [Nathan] set up his whole operation. To me it was a way to make some money and a hard job,” Halper tells CityBeat.
Halper also notes that the factory was a sweatbox.
“ ese machines they made the records on created a great deal of steam and heat,” he says. “ e shipping department wasn’t as bad – it was where they would have these presses – and right when you came in, you’d hear all that noise and the steam.”
The ‘King thing’
King Records was responsible for many of the era’s de ning sounds. In 1949, popular country duo e Delmore Brothers co-wrote “Blues Stay Away From
Me” with Glover. According to A King Records Scrapbook, the record was “regarded by some as the rst rock and roll record.”
Likewise, Little Willie John recorded the rst version of “Fever” at King in 1956. And in 1958, Hank Ballard and e Midnighters recorded “ e Twist,” named after that time’s dance craze. ese three songs and many others symbolized the power of what was created at King, but the label’s artists didn’t necessarily get their due nationally. Countless artists like Doc Watson (“Blues Stay Away From Me”), Peggy Lee (“Fever”) and Chubby Checker (“ e Twist”) would go on to render di erent, frequently more popular versions of the songs that had been born in Cincinnati. Songs of that era were widely covered in part because it made nancial sense – song royalties went to writers, producers and labels rather than to the artists. But there also was a racial aspect at play during the pre-Civil Rights times.
“ e songs were written or sung so well,” Butts says. “Like Elvis – when he sang my father’s ‘Hearts of Stone,’ he sang it like my father. It was just that he was white and he could do it more publicly, and it would get pushed out in that time frame more so then if my father went out and did his own song.”
King Records artists embodied so many di erent genres, but no matter their sound, no matter their instruments, they had a certain air that marked them as products of the label. And, boy, did people try to mimic it.
“Everybody that I’ve talked to who knows about King or even just liked something they heard from King, they all tell me that by either watching or listening to the way people from King played, they picked things o of that – o of how the guitar players were playing like Freddie King and those type of people,” Butts says. “And they put that into their new formula of what they were trying to do.”
“ e ‘King thing,’ back then, it was like an uncut diamond,” Butts continues. “ ey found out how to chip o of it and make it something special for them – all these di erent artists. It was kind of just sitting there like [the building has] been sitting since we started bringing the legacy back out.”
If you ask Butts, Brown epitomized the “King thing,” with his rhythm and delivery.
“James Brown didn’t have a lot of words in his songs, but the tightness of his music together – he was a stickler for a super-tight band,” Butts says. “His big thing was make sure you do it on the one.”
“Do it on the one” refers to counting a musical measure. Brown liked to emphasize the rst beat of a measure rather than the second, which was di erent from what many of his contemporaries did in R&B and rock. He also developed a somewhat slower, sultrier groove.
“When you hear everybody do a drop on the one – Bootsy [Collins] has made a career out of that – well, James Brown brought that aspect into the game, then George Clinton and all these other funk people. So
Top: King Records as it appeared in 1966. Above: Staff pack records in the shipping department in 1947.
it’s a unique thing that was grown from seed to grass. Dealing with someone like James Brown, that really spurred the whole funk movement.”
Brown permanently put King Records on the map with hits like “Get On Up” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” His fame generated a great deal of pro t for the label, while Brown relied mostly on live performances as a means of income, Blase writes in e King Records Story. e “King thing” carried over behind the scenes, too. Butts says that when people ask about King’s history, they tend to focus on a single aspect, such as a genre or artist. But the bigger picture spans two decades, Butts insists.
“I want people to understand this is for all of us,” Butts says. “So many people are looking for the quote - it’s too big. It’s this ‘King thing.’”
Brown’s sometimes-tumultuous relationship with King’s owner Nathan is part of that lore.
“A combination of royalties, publishing control and an acrimonious relationship with Syd Nathan led to Brown’s decision to leave King for Smash Record Company in 1963,” e King Records Story states. “Despite their di erences, James Brown returned to King in 1965 with the agreement he would preside over his own work.”
Brown had an o ce on the second oor at King Records where he and Nathan infamously disagreed. e King Records Story says that Nathan notoriously disliked the song “Please, Please, Please” and threatened to re King executive Ralph Bass, who had signed Brown.
Halper says his mother was an “intermediary” between Brown and Nathan.
“James Brown used to call the house at 2, 3, 4 in the morning when he felt like it, and he’d complain or say something to my mother, and it would be passed on to my uncle,” Halper says. “She was sort of the Henry Kissinger between the two.”
The kings of history
e King Records roots run deep in Cincinnati, as do the roots of those driving the King Records Legacy Foundation. Butts says the involvement of the “ ree Kings” – Otis Williams, Bootsy Collins and the late Philip Paul – was imperative in forming the nonpro t. It’s yet another magical “King thing” from the Queen City.
“For individuals like these three King people to come together, that’s not easy or shouldn’t be assumed as an obvious kind of thing, because they really represent so many di erent aspects of the King era and of di erent generations,” says Elliott Ruther, the King Records Legacy Foundation secretary.
Between 1954 and 1961, Otis Williams and the Charms released nearly 50 singles on the label, A King Records Scrapbook says. A King agent discovered Williams during a talent show at Withrow High School in Hyde Park. e Charms’ biggest hit “Hearts of Stone” was released in 1954 and ranked on both the R&B and pop music charts, according to A King Records Scrapbook.
Paul, who died in January, was a renowned session drummer for King, appearing on hundreds of hits and notably working with legendary blues guitarist Freddie King. A King Records Scrapbook says Paul often was called into the Evanston studio because he lived within walking distance – something that belied his immense hit-making talent.
Collins, who grew up on Hackberry Street, came
King Records Milestones
1943: Syd Nathan founds King Records, puts initial recording artists Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis under contract.
1944: Brewster Avenue in Evanston becomes home to King Records’ administrative business.
1947: Recording studio is added, streamlining record-making process under one roof.
1948: Syd Nathan hires Henry Glover as one of the first Black A&R executives.
1954: “Hearts of Stone” by The Charms is released.
1956: “Please, Please, Please” by James Brown is released.
1959: “The Twist” by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters is released.
1963: James Brown’s Live at the Apollo is released, becoming King Records’ most successful album.
1968: Syd Nathan dies, former A&R exec Hal Neely buys the business and merges with Starday Records in Nashville.
1971: Hal Neely sells Brown’s masters to Polydor Records, Cincinnati location closes, operations under King Records name cease. 1973: King Records property sold, new owners transform site into storage facility.
1997: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Syd Nathan.
2008: Rock Hall installs historic marker at King Records site in Evanston..
2015: King Records site honored as an official Cincinnati landmark.
2018: City of Cincinnati acquires several King buildings, preservation work begins.
2019: Bootsy Collins, Philip Paul and Otis Williams form King Records Legacy Committee.
2020: King Records Legacy Committee creates official organization, King Records Legacy Foundation.
2021: King Records Legacy Foundation earns non-profit status from IRS, secures private funding for site development and gets $1 million commitment from City of Cincinnati.
2022: Foundation awaits approval for King Records to be listed on National Register of Historic Places and awaits finalization of preferred development agreement proposed by City of Cincinnati.
Information from A King Records Scrapbook by Brian F.X. Powers and conversations with Elliott Ruther and Kent Butts.
along much later, as he was only about eight years old when Nathan founded King Records. He and his brother Phelps “Cat sh” Collins eventually played in Brown’s backing band for two years; in 1972, Collins joined George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, where he continued to hone his groovy baselines. In 2020, Rolling Stone named him the No. 4 bassist of all time.
Butts is the son of Williams, but he didn’t know his father back then. Instead, he says he was raised by his mother, who “ran in the same circle” as other King artists like Ballard and Brown. Artists often stopped by Butts’ childhood home to check on the family, he adds.
Butts became a musician himself, playing clubs in a band called Caliber. In 2008, Charles Spurling – the King Records executive who discovered Collins – randomly found Butts playing a gig in Cincinnati. Spurling and Collins’ brother saw Butts and wondered about his origins.
“I was doing a soundcheck. Charles came over to me and he said, ‘Hey, where are you guys from?’ I said, ‘Cincinnati.’ And he was like, ‘Well, you can’t be from Cincinnati because we know all the bands around here,’” Butts recalls. “ en out of the clear blue sky, he said, ‘Who’s your father?’”
Butts says nobody had ever outright asked him that, nor was it the focus of his music career. Butts says he began to tell Spurling that it was Otis Williams of the Charms and not man of the same name in the Temptations when Spurling exclaimed, “I knew it – you look just like him when he was young!”
It wasn’t until 2008 that Butts and his father connected in person, and it happened at the King Records site when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame installed a marker honoring the label’s history. Butts says he then went on to tour brie y with his father as one of the Charms.
Despite his personal connection, Butts says the King Records Legacy Foundation was formed to focus on the studio’s entire history, not just certain individuals.
“I’m not just doing this for Otis Williams. I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it for all of us, because it’s
An attempt at honoring royalty
ere have been a number of attempts to preserve the King Records complex and legacy, though some methods were at odds with each other and this history is murky.
Butts says that Brown tried to acquire the property at one point. According to A King Records Scrapbook, Brown visited the King site in June 1997. ough not con rmed, it’s possible that this is when Brown showed interest in purchasing the complex.
“When he came, he was crushed when he saw the condition of the building,” Butts recalls.
A previous owner of the studio’s site had tried to demolish the property, but in 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected that attempt. e city ultimately acquired the buildings, cleaned up the property and made it secure.
Dahan, the historian, credits a number of organizations with saving the site, including the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation, the Bootsy Collins Foundation and the Cincinnati Preservation Association, along with Evanston residents and city government.
At one time, there even was a movement to preserve King’s legacy without saving the buildings. Before the King Records Legacy Foundation was formed, a group called the King Studio Board had other plans for honoring King’s history, Halper says. Many of the current Legacy Foundation members like Butts, Williams, Collins, Paul and Ruther were in that group, but disagreements eventually disbanded it.
Halper was a member of the King Studio Board and says the original buildings were not and still are not worth saving. His involvement on the board lasted at least ve years and began somewhere between 2010 and 2012, he says.
“I got involved in the committee that was set up as a joint effort between Xavier [University], the neighborhood of Evanston and this community nonprofit that was set up in conjunction with Xavier,” Halper says. “It really wasn’t just about King Records, and that was what was so important about it. It was something for Evanston. It was going to be a learning center, and it was going to be on Montgomery Road.”
According to Halper, the city had set aside funds to purchase land on Montgomery Road for a proposed community center and King Records museum but needed environmental clearance to build there (Ruther says this process happened around 2014). e King Studio Board already had plans for the site in place when Halper joined the board, he says. Ultimately, the clearance took too long and the idea was abandoned. It’s unclear if this incident was what led to the eventual disbanding of the original board, but based on conversations with Halper, Butts and Ruther, it seems likely.
“I don’t know if they’ve ever really done anything of any substance to develop the [King Records] property. And it would cost millions and millions,” Halper says. “Even the one on Montgomery Road, that was a dream. Without tons of money to do it, it would have never happened.”
Halper isn’t sure that the King Records Legacy Foundation’s current plans will be successful.
“I just don’t see this one happening. It’s a deadend street. It’s got no parking. It’s just – to me – a pink elephant in the middle of Evanston,” Halper says. “I hope I’m wrong. I would love to see my family’s legacy preserved someplace in Evanston, but I just dont think it’s going to be at that place.”
Butts, who says he had been part of the King Studio Board for nearly a decade, maintains that despite the condition or availability of the King Records complex, preserving the legacy is crucial. Ruther agrees.
“In my view, if you’re serious about this being about King, the building still exists and people are going to want to connect with it,” Ruther says. “I understand the building is not in the best condition, but I’m somebody that would want to preserve it.”
In 2019 “ e ree Kings,” wrote a letter to the city in the form of a legal motion to create the King Records Legacy Foundation. Williams, Paul and Collins referred to the committee members listed in the motion as “ e King Dream Team.” e letter thanked the government
Left: Les Claypool of Primus stands with Bootsy Collins. Above: Patti Collins, Christian McBride, Bootsy Collins and Kent Butts
for its participation and said that the promise to revitalize the King property must be led by the legacy.
“Some individuals excited about the King thing with good intentions mistakenly act like the King legacy is theirs and living legacies get treated as an afterthought or a prop,” the letter declares. “Sometimes individuals take advantage of the situation to the expense of the actual King legacy – akin to a modern-day version of stealing songwriting credit.”
Butts says that people who had other ideas about how to preserve the King Records legacy weren’t acting maliciously; their plans simply were not in the interest of the “core” of that legacy, he says.
The new vision
Now the King Records Legacy Foundation is moving forward with its vision for a historic complex that will permanently mark Evanston as the birthplace of a special sound that in uenced the nation..
If all goes well, Butts says the project will honor King Records with a learning center that features interactive aspects, including a recording studio, performance space, rotating and permanent exhibitions and an abundant collection of historic artifacts.
He says details of the development agreement with the city likely will be nalized by the end of September, but for now, the group is working with at least a three-year agenda and an initial, tentative $20 million budget. So far, the foundation has secured $200,000 in private funding and a pledged $1 million from the city. Foundation members also are considering hosting a celebrity bene t concert to launch a capital campaign.
“It’s imminent; we are in the very nal stages,” Ruther a rms. e King Records Legacy Foundation also expects to receive con rmation of the property’s addition to the National Register of Historic Places soon, which would present opportunities for grants. Knowing that Butts is committed to including every tangible King Records memory it can uncover, Dahan – the historian for the foundation – wrote a 61-page narrative of the business’s history, which was submitted with other supporting documents to the National Register of Historic Places.
Nominations for property in Ohio are processed by the State Historic Preservation O ce, which has already approved the King Records Foundation’s proposal. e National Park Service makes the nal decision.
Beth Johnson, executive director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, anticipates a decision this month. In her previous position as urban conservator, Johnson worked with the department of community and economic development on basic stabilization work, making sure that any work done at the King Records site was historically appropriate.
Johnson linked the Ohio History Connection – a non-pro t that operates Ohio historic sites – with the King complex, the Legacy Foundation and the city. e Connection received an underrepresented community grant through the National Park Service, which was used in King Records applying for the Historic Registry, Johnson says. King t the bill due to neighborhood demographics as well as the label’s pre-Civil Rights integration and collaboration.
“ at grant is speci cally focused on making sure that we are getting resources for underrepresented communities listed onto the National Register and, in a way, trying to right a wrong in that very, very few places listed on the National Register are associated with underrepresented communities,” Johnson tells CityBeat. e history of King Records speaks for itself, Johnson adds. If King is added to the National Register, grant and tax credit opportunities will multiply.
“One of the most important things is, it does open the building up to be eligible for historic tax credits, which, in combination with both the Ohio historic preservation tax credit as well as the federal, can provide up to 45% credit on expenses in regards to the rehabilitation of the building,” Johnson says. ose funds would be handy, considering the big vision that the King Records Legacy Foundation has for the studio’s legacy. In an email to CityBeat, Ruther says that the project likely will include a repository of artifacts; a museum with a gallery and rotating exhibition space; facilitation of new music and art; music education; a concert and performance space; and Civil Rights-Era education components. e learning center also will provide support for King Records artists and former employees and will connect with community and global partners in furthering the label’s legacy. e foundation already has acquired some artifacts, including what Butts says is one of the “ nest assets” — a Neumann microphone that Brown used. e foundation also has secured clothing from King artists like Collins and Paul and is working toward getting Brown’s original desk that he used in the o ce.
Modern musicians also are lending a hand. Jack White, the vocalist and guitarist for the White Stripes and the founder of label and studio ird Man Records, has publicly shown support for preserving the King legacy. Having a deep love and knowledge of music history and vintage equipment, White owns a piece of machinery from an original lathe that was used to press records at King.
With the city’s backing all but nalized, the foundation is doing what it can to speed up the development timeline.
“I’m already working with the city on getting temporary electric in,” Butts says. “It’s a matter of getting a design, and there are a few stabilization situations – which is what I’m dealing with right now – to get the whole thing done.”
Butts says he’s in the process of selecting an architect for the King Records complex. e foundation also has engaged students from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. In 2019 eight groups of students produced eight di erent designs for King Records site development. Butts says it’s possible that aspects from each will in uence the nal design.
Butts, Ruther and other King Records Legacy Foundation members say they’re planning to get Evanston residents’ input, as well, especially as the foundation considers meeting parking and neighborhood needs.
“At King, we are really at such a ground zero of getting started – not only what it is to have the shell of the buildings owned by the city, but also how to step through how we best move forward and how that can lead to an evolving relationship for the future,” Ruther says. “We are still guring out how to best embrace this culture and history that is ours.”
Foundation members hope to reveal physical development progress – or possibly even completion – by the end of 2025.
It’s an ambitious undertaking, but as the son of Otis Williams – who Butts says is the last surviving lead singer to come out of King – Butts says he’s as connected to the studio’s roots as anyone could be. is is a new beginning for King Records, Butts says – a beginning that permanently shares how a buried Cincinnati treasure changed the music industry nearly 70 years ago and how it will come back to life once again to serve the city where it was born.
“It will be a hub for what music has been, is and will be in the future,” Butts says. “Everything from the music business, history, education – it’s kind of a gumbo.”
“It’s always hard for me to put this in a few words because it’s such a big thing – to explain all of the aspects of what music does,” he continues. “With this building, I want to highlight the importance of music as something that’s needed culturally. Music as a language.”
Singer Martha High Keeps Alive the Legacy of James Brown and Cincinnati’s King Records
BY STEVEN ROSEN
Should there come a time in the not-too-distant future when Cincinnati’s King Records studio has been restored as a historic site, Martha High wants to be at the opening ceremony.
“All you have to do is make a call and I’ll come running,” she tells CityBeat during a Zoom interview from her ancé’s home in the Netherlands.
You may be thinking, “ at’s nice, but who is she?” at’s understandable. Although High was born in Virginia and raised in Washington, D.C., she’s better known in Europe than the United States But High is perhaps the strongest active link to the Original Funky Divas associated with James Brown, arguably King’s most successful recording artist. ese women performed as lead vocalists, background singers or both during Brown’s exciting stage shows, which also featured superb performances from the band and Brown’s own virtuosic singing and dancing. High joined Brown’s retinue in 1966 and stayed with him for 32 years, with only a few breaks. eir work together included Brown’s massive hits for King, his funk classics on the Polydor label and his nal hits on Scotti Brothers Records, including “Living in America.”
Brown died in 2006 at age 73. After his death, High sang lead female vocals for the touring Original James Brown Band and performed with Brown’s saxophonist Maceo Parker before starting a career in Europe as a headlining singer rooted in soul and funk. She’s still going strong at age 77.
One thing that might help her American pro le is the Sept. 2 U.S. release of Soul Brother Where Art ou? Vol. 2 on the Ropeadope label. High is the credited artist and sings lead on super-hot versions of seven Brown songs, accompanied by stalwarts and standouts from his band with background vocals from the Bittersweets. Selections include “It’s Too Funky in Here,” “ ere It Is,” “Prisoner of Love” and “Get It Together.”
Greg Hester produced these and other tracks shortly after Brown’s death and released the rst volume of Soul Brother Where Art ou under his own name in 2015. High did not sing on the earlier album.
High views Soul Brother Where Art ou? Vol. 2 as her tribute to a great artist. “I feel that Mr. Brown was like a father to me,” she says. “A father, brother, friend, mentor and my boss. He created music that can never be forgotten.”
High became a professional singer in the early 1960s, when she joined the Jewels, a Washington, D.C.-based “girl group” of the day. Recording for Dimension Records, which had been created to showcase songs written by Carole King and Gerry Go n, the Jewels had a regional hit in 1964 with a song by other writers, “Opportunity.” Touring behind the record, the group met Brown and signed up as singers in his touring show.
Brown had a reputation for being a very bossy boss — a taskmaster who could micromanage the singers and players working for him.
“He was a hard man to work for,” High explains. “Shoes had to be shined, nails had to be right, your hair, everything. We found ourselves dressing the way he wanted us. As ladies, we couldn’t wear jeans on the show. But that didn’t bother me because I felt I was on a higher level now that I’m with James Brown.”
Brown’s control even extended to telling her to change her surname to High (it previously was Harvin). And while she had not been a lead vocalist with the Jewels, Brown said he wanted her to take the female lead for him occasionally.
“A little after that was when the other girls from the Jewels decided they wanted to go home,” High says. “But I wasn’t ready. I was thrilled to travel and see other places. We went everywhere; we even had a chance to go to Paris with him.” (While with Brown, the group did release one single on King and another on the King-a liated Federal label)
Still, High primarily saw herself as a background singer. So when the archival James Brown’s Original Funky Divas came out in 1998, it was a surprise — maybe even a revelation — that the album ended with her duet with Brown on “Summertime.” e standout track had debuted on his 1977 ecologythemed Mutha’s Nature. e pair’s funk version of George Gershwin’s 1934 classic starts with Brown intoning, “You’re my beautiful sister and I love you.” High replies, “I’ve been with you a long time and you’ve seen me grow up and become who I am.” e vocals that follow are tremendously moving.
High recalls that around the time of the recording, she also traveled with Brown as a hairstylist; he wanted one with him at all times, even in the studio when recording “Summertime.”
High mimics Brown’s gravelly voice when explaining the duet’s origins. “‘Come into the booth; I want you to do the song with me.’ I said, ‘Mr. Brown, I don’t know “Summertime.’” He says, ‘Everybody knows “Summertime.” Come on.’ And we did the song — I was not expecting that.”
High moved to France in 2004 and lived there for much of the aughts. Eventually, she moved back to the United States to take care of her parents, who are now deceased. But then she moved to Spain in 2017 to resume work in Europe. She came back to Augusta, Georgia, when the pandemic stopped the touring business, but she’s been busy again now that tours have resumed. Next year, once she marries a Dutch man she rst met during her years with Brown, she’ll settle into their home outside Amsterdam. It will be her third marriage; she has a daughter and two sons are deceased.
High is full of energy and excitement about her future, personally and professionally. She hopes it includes a U.S. tour as a headliner with a band of Brown alumni. “I really hope so,” she says. “I’m praying that I will get the chance to tour in the States and perform with some of the original guys who know Mr. Brown’s music.
“I don’t want his music to ever not be known. I would like the people to know the history of Mr. Brown and where he came from. It was what I was raised up with. I have my own style, and pray to God I was able to nd my own way and my own sound, but I still love to do Mr. Brown’s music.”
Martha High worked with James Brown on many hits for King Records in Cincinnati.
PHOTO: ROPEADOPE RECORDS
Purchase Martha High’s Soul Brother Where Art Thou? Vol. 2 and watch for upcoming tour dates at ropeadope.com.
