Lester Chambers (born April 13, 1940,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

, United States) is an American recording artist, and member and lead singer of the 1960s soul rock group

The Chambers Brothers The Chambers Brothers are an American psychedelic soul band, best known for their eleven-minute 1967 psychedelic soul hit " Time Has Come Today". The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions w ...

, who had the

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

, " Time Has Come Today".

Career

As a member of the Chambers Brothers, he sang lead on the Chambers Brothers songs "

All Strung Out Over You "All Strung Out Over You" was an early hit for The Chambers Brothers. It featured Lester Chambers on lead vocals. It would later be sampled by Fatboy Slim for " Weapon of Choice". Info on the song The song was composed by Rudy Clark. The Chamb ...

", "

People Get Ready "People Get Ready" is a 1965 single by the Impressions, and the title track from the '' People Get Ready'' album. The single is the group's best-known hit, reaching number-three on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart and number 14 on the ''Billboard' ...

", "Uptown", "

I Can't Turn You Loose "I Can't Turn You Loose" is a song written and first recorded by American soul singer Otis Redding. It was released as the B-side to his 1965 single "Just One More Day". The up-tempo song became a bigger hit on the US R&B chart than its A-sid ...

", and "Funky". As a solo artist he released

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

and

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s and teamed up with ex-

Electric Flag The Electric Flag was an American soul rock band, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield forme ...

bassist Harvey Brooks to form the Lester Chambers Harvey Brooks Band. He also added vocals to

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporate ...

's 1977 ''

Sweet Forgiveness ''Sweet Forgiveness'' is the sixth album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1977. The single "Two Lives" was provided by the leader of bassist Freebo's former band Edison Electric Band songwriter Mark T. Jordan. Raitt's cover of the Del Shannon hit "Ru ...

'' album. In March 2011, Lester Chambers was inducted into the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame. Presently Lester performs with his son Dylan as The New Chambers Brothers as part of the band

Moonalice Moonalice is an American Rock music, rock band, formed from previous members of the Flying Other Brothers. The band has been touring since May 2007, and has come to the attention of music critics. The band is currently made up of ten musicians, ...

which is led by

Roger McNamee Roger McNamee (born May 2, 1956) is an American businessman, investor, venture capitalist and musician. He is the founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners. Prior to co-founding the firm, McNamee co-founded private equity f ...

Personal life and hardship

Chambers has reported that despite the group's success, he did not receive any

royalty payments A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from 1967 to 1994. In a chat session on the Soul Patrol website, he discussed such injustices that many black artists have endured. In 2002 his wife, Lola Chambers, testified before the California Senate hearings on Label Accounting Practices that "Time Has Come Today" earned the group under $250 in royalties for the European market over 16 years. She said that Columbia Records told them that "there were no overseas sales to report because The Chambers Brothers records were never licensed to an overseas distributor". But she later discovered copies on eBay of numerous foreign pressings of their records on Columbia foreign affiliate labels for which they were not compensated. In 2003, the home of Lola and Lester Chambers was broken into and their

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

collection, consisting of more than 60 Chambers Brothers albums and over one hundred singles, was stolen. Lola Chambers had spent 25 years collecting Chambers Brothers records at various venues to leave these for their sons. Lester Chambers developed a number of medical problems that went untreated because he lacked insurance. He later became homeless, sleeping in a rehearsal hall in

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, until

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

paid to rent a home for him and his son Dylan. In March 2012, Chambers started an Internet campaign that went viral to publicize what he claims to be a lack of equitable royalty payments. His

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

posting received more than 2,500 "likes" and more than 2,000 "shares" in the first 15 hours on his "Wall"; it was featured on the front page of

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...

and there were hundreds of tweets about the story. On July 13, 2013, Chambers was assaulted onstage during a performance at the Russell City Hayward Blues Festival after dedicating a performance of "People Get Ready" to

Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was killing of Trayvon Martin, fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic an ...

, the day the jury found his killer not guilty of a criminal offense. He was reported by his son Dylan to be in "ok" condition later the same evening. Chambers is a resident of

Petaluma, California Petaluma (Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census. Petaluma's name comes from the Miwok village na ...

Kickstarter project

On December 10, 2012, Lester Chambers and

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with St ...

(

co-founder) teamed up to launch a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

project together with the intent to make a new album titled '' Lester's Time Has Come''. Chambers also spoke with Reddit users on December 13, 2012, at an AMA (Ask Me Anything) event and to mention the Kickstarter project to those interested.

Summer of Soul

In 2021, Lester Chambers and the

Chambers Brothers The Chambers Brothers are an American psychedelic soul band, best known for their eleven-minute 1967 psychedelic soul hit " Time Has Come Today". The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions wi ...

were included in the Questlove ''

Summer of Soul ''Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)'' is a 2021 American documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut. It had its world premiere at the ...

'' documentary.

Discography

Singles

* "Ain't Nice To Know"/"Let Your Body Sway" - Masterpiece 1001 - 1984

Albums

* ''Do You Believe in Rock and Roll'' - Explosive Records - 2008 * ''It's Time'' - Explosive Records - 2005 * ''Lesters Besters'' Vol.1 - 2004 * ''Lester Chambers - 1999 Lester Chambers & KK Martin * ''Blues For Sale'' - Ranell - 2001

Compilation albums

* Various Artists: ''Blues Today Volume III'' - BT Productions - 2002

References

External links

Kickstarter Project Page

A letter from Lester Chambers

Lester Chambers ‘Speaking Freely’ TranscriptLester Chambers Interview - NAMM Oral History Library (2016)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Lester 1940 births Living people 20th-century African-American male singers 21st-century African-American male singers American blues harmonica players American blues singers American soul singers Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Singers from California The Chambers Brothers members