From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Oct 28, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Harold Battiste
 
HAROLD BATTISTE

Born Harold Raymond Battiste, Jr., 28 October 1931, New Orleans, Louisiana

All Harold Battiste ever wanted to do was play jazz. However, his place in
history has been defined by the things he did more reluctantly - produce,
arrange and teach. That's how he ended up working as an A&R rep for the
legendary Specialty Records. And that's how he met one of his lifelong friends,
fellow A&R man Sonny Bono, the man who would take Harold away from his
plans to play jazz and make him musical director of the popular duo Sonny
and Cher in the sixties, after he had migrated to L.A. But let's go back to New
Orleans and the fifties.
After his success in New Orleans with Lloyd Price, Little Richard and others,
Specialty boss Art Rupe felt justified in opening a local branch office in New
Orleans in 1956. He hired a young jazz musician, Harold Battiste, to take over
the office, his function being to sign and record local talent. Though Battiste
produced some great records, nothing reached the Top 100. Best of all were
two singles by a white teenager, Jerry Byrne : "Lights Out" (with a thundering
piano solo by Art Neville) and "Carry On", both from 1958. These two, especially
"Lights Out", contain all the power, energy and excitement that is the very
essence
of rock 'n' roll. Other local artists recorded by Specialty during this period
were
Edgar Blanchard, Art Neville, Roy Montrell, Big Boy Myles and Ernie K-Doe.

In 1961, Harold became a founding partner in a record company. All For One,
or AFO Records, became an outlet for helping black musicians earn a stake
in the process of making records, something that, at the time, was rarely
happening for talented African American musicians. The label scored a big
hit with "I Know" by Barbara George, but soon lost its biggest artist to Sue
Records and A.F.O. proved to be a failure.
In Los Angeles during the sixties, Battiste kept in close contact with fellow
"exiled" New Orleans musicians. One of them was Mac Rebennack, with
whom he created the character of Dr. John the Nighttripper, producing the
"Voodoo Rock" albums "Gris Gris" and "Babylon". However, Dr. John's fifth
album,"Gumbo" (1972), co-produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste,
was a faithful recreation of the real music of New Orleans and created a lot
of revived interest in N.O. music
After 33 TV shows with the reunited Sonny & Cher in the seventies, Harold
figured he was done with pop music. Still, it took until 1989 before he returned
to New Orleans and to his beloved jazz, to teach at the University of New
Orleans Jazz Studies Program. .