Lefty Bates (March 9, 1920 – April 7, 2007)Doc Rock (2007)

TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Accessed October 13, 2011. was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the fi ...

guitarist. He led the Lefty Bates Combo and worked with the

El Dorados The El Dorados were an American doo-wop group, who achieved their greatest success with the song " At My Front Door", a no. 1 hit on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart in 1955. History The group formed in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1952, ...

, the

Flamingos Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with a wide variety of audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), "Baby Wha ...

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...

, the Aristo-Kats, the Hi-De-Ho Boys, the Moroccos, and the

Impressions An impression is the overall effect of something. Impression or impressions may also refer to: Biology * Colic impression, a feature of the gall bladder * Duodenal impression, medial to the renal impression * Gastric impression, a feature of th ...

. A regular on the Chicago blues scene, his major work was as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

on numerous recordings in the 1950s and 1960s. Bates was married to the locally well-known club dancer Mary Cole Bates, who died in 2001.

Biography

He was born William H. Bates in

Leighton, Alabama Leighton is a town in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as " The Shoals". At the 2020 census, the population was 665. Leighton has been hit by several tornado ...

. He acquired his nickname from his left-handed guitar playing. He was raised in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, and attended

Vashon High School Vashon High School is a high school of the St. Louis Public Schools in St. Louis, Missouri. When it opened in 1927, it was the second high school for black students in St. Louis. History Designed by Rockwell M. Milligan, the school opened on Se ...

, where was a founder of the Hi-De-Ho Boys. In 1936, they relocated to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, recorded for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

and played in clubs. After serving in the military in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Bates joined the Aristo-Kats, who recorded for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

. Bates formed an ensemble with

Quinn Wilson Quinn Brown Wilson (December 26, 1908 – June 14, 1978) was an American jazz bassist and tubist. Wilson played violin as a child, and studied composition and arrangement in his youth. He had his first professional experience in the mid-1920s, ...

, and they played locally through most of the 1950s. Their few recordings were issued by United, Boxer, Mad and Apex Records, under Bates's name. Most of his paid work came from regular performances in clubs and as a

, notably as a

rhythm guitarist In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass ...

with

and

. He undertook other work with Larry Birdsong and Honey Brown. His versatility led to employment as part of the

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

band for

Vee-Jay Records Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana, in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...

, with

Red Holloway James Wesley "Red" Holloway (May 31, 1927 – February 25, 2012) was an American jazz saxophonist. Biography Born in Helena, Arkansas,Daniel E. Slotnik"Red Holloway, Swinger of the Sax, Dies at 84" ''The New York Times'', February 28, 2012 ...

and

Vernel Fournier Vernel Anthony Fournier (July 30, 1928 – November 4, 2000), known from 1975 as Amir Rushdan, was an American jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Ahmad Jamal from 1956 to 1962. Biography Fournier was born in New Orleans, Loui ...

, among others. Most of the musicians there had earlier worked for

Chance Records Chance Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1950 by Art Sheridan. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel. Among the acts who recorded for Chance were The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Homesick James, J. B. Hutto, Brother Joh ...

, backing

and the

Spaniels A spaniel is a type of gun dog. Spaniels were especially bred to flush game out of denser brush. By the late 17th century, spaniels had been specialized into water and land breeds. The extinct English Water Spaniel was used to retrieve water f ...

. Vee-Jay's financial strength helped them survive, and the studio band was expected to back diverse musicians on an ad hoc basis, including R&B,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

artists. In 1955,

The El Dorados The El Dorados were an American doo-wop group, who achieved their greatest success with the song " At My Front Door", a no. 1 hit on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart in 1955. History The group formed in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1952, ...

found national success with " At My Front Door", on which Bates played guitar, and which peaked at number one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

. From 1955, Bates worked in a similar manner with another Chicago-based record label, Club 51, where he had the luxury of leading the Lefty Bates Orchestra. At Club 51 he backed the Five Buddies and

Sunnyland Slim Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906March 17, 1995), "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give t ...

. In 1957, Bates and

Earl Hooker Earl Zebedee Hooker (January 15, 1930 – April 21, 1970) was a Chicago blues guitarist known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", he performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and ...

backed the singer Arbee Stidham on his recording of "Look Me Straight in the Eye". In 1959, Bates played with Reed on his recording of "

Baby What You Want Me to Do "Baby What You Want Me to Do" (sometimes called "You Got Me Running" or "You Got Me Runnin'") is a blues song that was written and recorded by Jimmy Reed in 1959. It was a record chart hit for Reed and, as with several of his songs, it has appeal ...

". In March 1960, he was part of the backing trio for

on his

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' Travelin'''. In 1961, he performed on Hooker's '' The Folk Lore of John Lee Hooker'' and with Jimmy Reed on the album ''

Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall ''Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall'' is a double album by Jimmy Reed, released in 1961. Though the title suggests that the record was recorded live, it consists of studio recreations of a Carnegie Hall performance along with additional studio recordin ...

'' and played on Reed's recording of "

Big Boss Man Ray Washington Traylor Jr. (May 2, 1963 – September 22, 2004) was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler best known for his appearances with the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name (The) Big Boss Man, a ...

". Bates died of

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis, literally meaning "hardening of the arteries", is an umbrella term for a vascular disorder characterized by abnormal thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries; this process gradually restricts th ...

in Chicago in April 2007, aged 87.

Discography

With

*'' Travelin''' (Vee-Jay, 1960) *'' The Folk Lore of John Lee Hooker'' (Vee-Jay, 1961) 'With

*''

'' (Vee-Jay, 1961) *'' Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues'' (Vee-Jay, 1963) *'' The New Jimmy Reed Album'' (BluesWay, 1967) *'' Soulin''' (BluesWay, 1967) *''

'' (BluesWay, 1968)

References

External links

*
Club 51 Records discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Lefty 1920 births 2007 deaths People from Colbert County, Alabama American blues guitarists American male guitarists Chicago blues musicians Blues musicians from Alabama American session musicians 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Alabama Guitarists from Illinois 20th-century American male musicians United Records artists American military personnel of World War II

Biography

Discography

See also

References

External links