Hey Folks! Welcome to my first liner note entry from my archive of liners written for CD reissues! Hope you enjoy this one I've posted here, one of many I've done for SOUL MUSIC RECORDS regarding the brothers TAVARES! Read and enjoy!
Released in late 1973,
CHECK IT OUT marked the album debut of the brothers TAVARES on Capitol Records.
The siblings - Ralph, Pooch, Tiny, Butch and Chubby - had a few singles
released via the label in the mid-late 1960’s, when they were known as Chubby
and the Turnpikes. Upon their return to Capitol in the early 1970’s - shortly
after the company had established their Black Music Division under Larkin
Arnold - Tavares hit the ground running with the single, “Check It Out” b/w
“The Judgment Day”. Produced by Robert “Boogie” Bowles, the 45 hit the Top 5 on
the R&B charts, #30/Pop in the fall of 1973. When it came time to produce
the album, Capitol opted to hire hit maker Johnny Bristol to work with Tavares
on that effort, a decision that Bowles actually approved of. The result was at
Top 20 R&B long-player for the quintet.
To recap the “inside
story”, paraphrasing their 1966 Turnpikes single (!), Ralph, Perry (Tiny),
Arthur (Pooch), Antone (Chubby) and Feliciano (Butch) - along with their eldest
brothers John and Victor - all grew up in New England, listening to American
doo-wop as well as the folk music of their Cape Verde heritage. By 1963,
Chubby, Pooch, Butch and Tiny formed Chubby and the Turnpikes (Ralph was serving
his country in the US Army during this time) and started performing soul tunes
in the Massachusetts area. After he earned an honorable discharge, Ralph joined
them and they took off for New York City to audition for record labels in 1966.
“Juggy Murray had the Sue/Crackerjack labels,” explained Tiny Tavares in a 2012
phone interview. “We cut ‘Nothing But Promises’ and ‘I Know The Inside Story’
first for his company. Then, Capitol Records showed interest in those sides
after hearing them from Juggy and released them nationally.”
It was during their
Turnpikes years the brothers met a Southern gentleman who was studying at the
prestigious Berklee Music School in Boston, guitarist Robert “Boogie” Bowles.
“I met Tavares while playing gigs within the Boston and New Bedford area, which
helped pay for my schooling,” Robert explained in a 2014 telephone interview
from his home in Nevada. “This was during their Chubby and the Turnpikes
tenure. The group played regularly at a nightclub owned by football player Jim Nance
of the New England Patriots. A few months later, Jerry Butler came to Boston
for a gig but needed a guitarist, so I was hired for the gig. Jerry liked my
work and offered me a spot in his touring band, which included keyboardist
Sonny Burke. So, I left Berklee and Boston to move to Chicago, where Jerry was
based”.
While Bowles moved to
the chilly Windy City, Tavares embarked on a tour in the warmth of the Bahamas
in the late 1960’s. It was during this time the group dropped the Turnpikes
moniker for the family name. In 1973, Brian Panella - a former record promotion
man - became Tavares manager and came to the group with a proposition. “Brian
told us that Capitol had established a Black Music Division and placed company
attorney Larkin Arnold in charge,” said Chubby in a 2012 conversation. “They
were looking for acts and Brian felt it was a good idea to submit a demo.”
Bowles picks it up here,
from a 2015 interview - “After six and half years with Jerry Butler, I started
getting ambitious!! I wanted to do more writing and producing. So I wrote three
songs - ‘The Judgment Day’, ’I’m In Love’ and ’What Can I Do’ - and
then reached out to Ralph Tavares to see if they were interested. At that time,
the group were performing in the Bahamas and, according to Ralph, they were so
frustrated with having these gigs all over the place and no record deal, the
brothers were ready to quit the music business! So, I asked Ralph to send me a
tape from one of their live gigs and I would not only send them my three songs,
I also offered to fly them into Memphis to record at Mark XVI - a sixteen-track
studio Jerry had acquired from Isaac Hayes. When I received the tape Ralph
had sent, the one song that stood out was ‘Check It Out’. I
loved the way they did the tune and decided to write an arrangement for the
song. I called Ralph to tell him that the brothers may have a smash with this
one. It was also in this conversation that Ralph informed me that the brothers
changed their name from Chubby and the Turnpikes to Tavares.”
Composed by Billy
Osborne (brother of Jeffrey) with the late Floyd Butler of the Friends of
Distinction, “Check It Out” was featured on the Friends’ 1970 album,
“Whatever”, as an uptempo tune. Tavares took a different route and turned it
into a ballad, which the Friends’ leader, Harry Elston, and his partner Floyd
(who died in 1990) admired and liked. “We dug what Tavares did with ‘Check It
Out’,” said Elston in a 2013 interview. “Our label, RCA, wanted the Friends to
stick with this uptempo bag for our tunes, even though our 1969 hit ,‘Going In
Circles’, was a million-seller AND a ballad!! We were glad Tavares made ‘Check
It Out’ a hit as a slow song, which worked.”
(What also should be
noted is the Billy Osborne, co-author of “Check It Out”, was an old
acquaintance of the brothers Tavares, who knew him from their years in
Providence, Rhode Island - this according to a brilliant article authored by
Rick Bellaire for the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame Archive. The Friends’ RCA
single had left the “e” off of Billy’s last name, so the group had no idea that
was their hometown friend, until Billy showed up at the album’s release party
to congratulate them!)
After agreeing to record
together, Tavares and Bowles met up in Memphis - where the latter was surprised
to see that Chubby wasn‘t there. Bowles - “I asked the brothers ‘where‘s
Chubby?’ and Ralph explained that he was in the hospital, recovering from an
injury!! So, they brought their older brother, Victor, with them to record. I
had Winton Felder on bass, Sonny Burke on keyboards, the late Al Jackson on
drum (of Booker T. and the MG’s fame) and myself on guitar as the rhythm
section. So, we went in to cut ‘Check It Out’, and Victor nailed the lead vocal
on the first take!! He sounded brilliant and the brothers’ harmonies were
flawless. As a safety precaution, we cut a second take and Victor REALLY sang
his heart out on that one!! I looked over to my engineer, Steve Stepanian, and
said, ‘Dear God, we have a hit!‘ We cut the songs at Mark XVI in Memphis, sweetened
the tunes at Universal Recording in Chicago - Bruce Swedien engineered that
session. Then I mixed/mastered the tracks back at Mark XVI with Stepanian”
The one song from their
session that resonates for Bowles to this day is “The Judgment Day”, which was
released as the b-side of “Check It Out”. “The inspiration for ‘The Judgment
Day’ came from my upbringing in the church,” said Bowles. “My dad, mom and
family played and sung Gospel music - ‘The Old Rugged Cross’, ‘In The Garden’
were two songs we loved. So, being a spiritual person, that part of me still
remains to this day. So, when it came time to write songs for Tavares, ‘The
Judgment Day’ was one of them. Looking back, I realized the tune wasn’t really
what the industry would consider to be a ‘commercial’ song. But at that time,
it was special for Tavares and myself.”
Soon after ‘Check It
Out’ was released as a single, the record climbed quickly up the soul and pop
charts, peaking at #5 on Billboard’s R&B listings and #30/Pop. The success
of the record earned Tavares a guest shot on Soul Train, American Bandstand and
the Tonight Show. By this time, Chubby was back in the group, while Victor left
Tavares and relocated to the south. Capitol wanted an album right away and
Tavares were ready to have Bowles man the boards for that effort. However, the
Boogie man himself felt the timing wasn’t right for him to produce a
full-length record. Bowles - “Tavares wanted me to produce their debut album,
but I advised them to go with whomever Capitol wanted to hire for the project.
Frankly, I just wasn’t ready to produce an album because I was in the process
of relocating from Chicago to LA with the hopes of starting a production
company. But I didn’t have enough songs written and you know the music biz phrase,
‘it all begins with the song.‘ So, I advised Tavares to go with whomever
Capitol wanted to produce their album and the label’s choice was Johnny
Bristol, who had a bunch of songs to his avail, being a longtime composer,
producer and artist, dating back to his years in Detroit. He was a seasoned
music man , whereas I was just getting my act together. Capitol recognized
that, so hiring Johnny to produce Tavares’ debut album was the right move.”
The late Johnny Bristol was the producer/artist on the go at the time. He began his career under the wing of Harvey Fuqua via the Tri-Phi/Harvey labels in Detroit, moved with his mentor to Motown, composed and produced smashes for Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Your Precious Love”), Junior Walker and the All-Stars (“What Does It Take To Win Your Love”) as well as Diana Ross and the Supremes (“Someday, We’ll Be Together” - which he cut years prior with Jackey Beavers on Tri-Phi). By 1972, Johnny became an in-house producer for Columbia Records - working with Boz Scaggs and Buddy Miles. However, when Columbia frowned on the idea of him recording solo works, Johnny left the label. "They turned me down, man, they turned me down!" Mr. Bristol exclaimed to John Abbey in an August 1974 interview for Blues & Soul magazine.. "You see, they had first right of refusal because I was signed to them as a producer and any project that I involved myself with had to be offered to CBS first". No worries, for Johnny'signed with MGM, had the monster hit with “Hang On In There, Baby” (top ten pop/soul smash) and started his own production company.
Hired by Larkin Arnold,
Capitol's Black Music chief, Johnny got right to work with Tavares for the
album sessions, which took place in the West Coast. Bristol assembled an
excellent cadre of musicians to record with Tavares. James Gadson (drums),
Bobbye Hall (percussion), Mike Melvoin and Joe Sample on keyboards, guitarists
Dean Parks, Melvin “Wah-Wah” Ragin, David T. Walker as well as Funk Brother
supreme, bassist James Jamerson. For the arrangements, studio vet H.B. Barnum
was brought in to handle the charts.
As far as the song
selection, tunes came from a few Bristol-led collaborations, such as the gentle
ballad“Strangers In Dark Corners”, which Johnny recorded four years
later for the brilliant and underrated Atlantic album, “Bristol’s Crème” and
the mid-tempo “That’s The Sound That Lonely Makes” (Bristol
had called one of his most favorite songs he‘d composed.). In addition, Johnny
co-wrote the uptempo “Wish You Were Here With Me, Mary”, “I’ll Never
Say Never Again” - a short and sweet mellow track, and “Let’s Make
The Best Of What We Got”. The late Billy Preston wrote and first
recorded “Little Girl” for his second Apple Records album from
1970, “Encouraging Words”. For the CHECK IT OUT album, arranger H.B. Barnum
stayed true to the Gospel feel of Billy’s original, yet allowed Tavares to
stretch out vocally on their version, thus making this ballad a six-minute
epic. Rounding out Tavares‘ Capitol debut are “If That’s The Way You
Want It” and “Mama’s Little Girl” - written from the pens
of Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who’d later work with the quintet on their
albums, “Hardcore Poetry” (1974) and “In The City” (1975) as producers and
composers.
The CHECK IT OUT album
peaked at #20 on Billboard's R&B LP Chart, while the second single,
"That's The Sound That Lonely Makes", went to #10 on the soul singles
listings.
As far as Tavares’
connection with Robert “Boogie” Bowles, after the latter resettled in Los Angeles,
the two parties reunited in 1976, when former Jerry Butler colleague and Motown
producer Freddie Perren manned the boards for their “Sky High”, “Love Storm”
and “Future Bound” albums (Bowles, along with Sonny Burke, played on the
sessions for these releases). “I had moved to LA in 1974 with the goal of
setting up a production company there,” said Bowles. “However, I soon realized
that I just didn’t have the drive to write songs on a consistent level. After
landing a couple of producing gigs for folks such as Brenda Lee Eager (of Jerry
Butler’s “Ain’t Understanding Mellow” fame), I get a phone call from Freddie
Perren, who was hired by Capitol to produce Tavares’ ‘Sky High’ album. He said
that the brothers really want me to play on the session and his contractor is
going to call me to set up the date. So, after the contractor did contact me, I
hauled my amp and guitar to Paragon Studios and laid down my guitar track for
‘Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel’. After it was over, Freddie came up and said,
‘man, you’ve got a rhythm feel I like very much! We’re gonna be working
together again!’ And so, we did - for the next five years and many hits!”
Through the 1970’s and
into the earl 1980’s, Tavares became a powerhouse vocal group with the right
songs, arrangements, production and chops to deliver fine work, which they were
able to do effortlessly through their eight year tenure with Capitol Records
(1973-1981). With folks such as Bowles, Bristol, Perren as well as , Bobby
Martin (1979’s “Madam Butterfly), Bobby Columby (“Supercharged”, 1980) and
Benjamin Wright (“Love Uprising”,1981), Tavares had excellent “ship captains”
who helped steer the group towards many levels of success. And that journey
started with this album.
Check it out!!
KEVIN GOINS
February 28, 2015
New York City
February 28, 2015
New York City
Sources:
Telephone interviews
with ROBERT “BOOGIE” BOWLES (November, 2014 and February, 2015), CHUBBY TAVARES
(April, 2012) and TINY TAVARES (April, 2012).
A SOULFUL CONVERSATION
WITH ROBERT “BOOGIE” BOWLES (December, 2013) and A SOULFUL CONVERSATION WITH
HARRY ELSTON OF THE FRIENDS OF DISTINCTION (August, 2013). Radio interview
podcast series produced and conducted by Kevin Goins
(www.mixcloud.com/musicmankevin).
Blues & Soul
Magazine interview with Johnny Bristol, August 1974.
www.allmusic,com
www.soulwalking.co.uk
www.billboard.com
Thanks to Robert “Boogie” Bowles, Harry Elston, Chubby Tavares, Tiny Tavares and David Nathan for their cooperation.
Hope you enjoy these notes as it was an honor to have written them! If you like what you have read and want to see more, drop me an email at newgroovesradio@gmail.com. Until next time, best regards!
Kevin Goins - KevGo
