"Sweet" Charles Sherrell (born Charles Emanuel Sherrell, March 8, 1943) is an American bassist known for recording and performing with James Brown.

Biography

Born in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

, Sherrell began his career playing drums with fellow Nashville residents Jimi Hendrix and

Billy Cox William Cox (born October 18, 1941) is an American bassist, best known for performing with Jimi Hendrix. Cox is the only surviving musician to have regularly played with Hendrix: first with the experimental group that backed Hendrix at Woodsto ...

, practicing at a club a block from Hendrix's residence. Sherrell learned to play the guitar by washing the car (a

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

) of

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

in exchange for guitar lessons. Sherrell soon began teaching himself to play the bass after buying one from a local pawn shop for $69, which led him to join Johnny Jones & The King Kasuals Band, Aretha Franklin's backing group. Sherrell joined James Brown's band in August 1968, replacing

Tim Drummond Timothy Lee Drummond (20 April 1940 – 10 January 2015) was an American musician from Canton, Illinois. Drummond's primary instrument was bass guitar and he toured and recorded with many notable artists, including Conway Twitty, Bob Dylan, James ...

after Drummond contracted

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver parenchyma, liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), Anorexia (symptom), poor appetite ...

in Vietnam. He played on some of Brown's most famous recordings of the late 1960s, including the #1 R&B hits "

Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud Say may refer to: Music *''Say'' (album), 2008 album by J-pop singer Misono * "Say" (John Mayer song), 2007 *" Say (All I Need)", 2007 song by American pop rock band OneRepublic * "Say" (Method Man song), 2006 single by rapper Method Man * "Say" ...

", "

Mother Popcorn "Mother Popcorn (You Got to Have a Mother for Me)" is a song recorded by James Brown and released as a two-part single in 1969. A #1 R&B and #11 Pop hit, it was the highest-charting of a series of recordings inspired by the popular dance the Pop ...

", and " Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" and more. Brown credited him with being his first bassist to incorporate playing techniques such as thumping on the strings that were adopted by other players, including

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading ...

.Brown, James, and Bruce Tucker (1986). ''James Brown: The Godfather of Soul'', 198. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. In the 1970s, Sherrell rejoined Brown and performed with

The J.B.'s The J.B.'s (sometimes punctuated The JB's or The J.B.s) was the name of James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s. On records the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul ...

. He later played with

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

and Maceo & All the King's Men. He played bass on Beau Dollar's Who knows, Marva Whitney's and Lyn Collins album. He sang on a few of Maceo Parkers albums. He also released some recordings with the band Past Present & Future with friends Wade Conklin, Sam Pugh, Ted Hughes, Gail Whitefield, Thomas Smith and James Nixon and he recorded under the name Sweet Charles, including his first solo album, Sweet Charles: ''For Sweet People'', on James Brown's label

People Records __NOTOC__ Over the course of his career James Brown owned and operated several different record labels, which he used primarily to release his own productions of artists associated with his revue. Try Me Brown founded his first label, Try Me Reco ...

and the Sweet Charles Sherrell ''Universal Love'' album in 2017.

References

funky-stuff.com

External links

sweetcharlessherrell.com
- official website
Discography at waxpoetics.com
1943 births Living people African-American guitarists American funk bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American rhythm and blues bass guitarists James Brown Orchestra members James Brown vocalists The J.B.'s members Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee Guitarists from Tennessee 20th-century American guitarists {{US-bass-guitarist-stub