From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Feb 27, 2002  1:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Roy Montrell
 
ROY MONTRELL

Born Roy Eustis Montrell, 27 February, 1928, New Orleans, Louisiana
Died 16 April 1979, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Guitarist / singer

An all-round guitarist, equally at home with blues, jazz and rock and roll,
Montrell started with Roy Milton's band after his discharge from the Army in
1951. After a spell touring with Lloyd Price's band, he returned to New Orleans
to do session work for Specialty, Ace, Imperial and later Minit (as a member
of Allen Toussaint's house band). He can be heard on some of Little Richard's
classics, like "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Lucille". From "Be My Guest"/
"I've Been Around" (1959) onwards, he plays on all Fats Domino records
until 1967. In 1962 he took over from Walter "Papoose" Nelson (who died of
a drug overdose in NYC, 28 February 1962) as guitarist in Fats Domino's
touring band and led the band for many years. While touring with Fats (who
was born just one day before Montrell) in the Netherlands, he was found dead
in his room at the Sonesta Hotel in Amsterdam with a syringe full of heroin
next to his body.
As a solo artist, Montrell recorded just two singles. One is the instrumental
"Mudd" for Minit (1960), and the other is an absolute classic : "(Every Time
I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone"/"Ooh Wow", released in September 1956
on Specialty 583 and recorded with Earl Palmer, Lee Allen, Red Tyler and
Edward Frank.