[Dixielandjazz] Lou Rawls Passes

Fri Jan 6 16:19:52 PST 2006

Thanks Steve for the write up.  Lou Rawls was my wife's favorite singer and 
I appreciated him very much myself.  We are always saddened by the death of 
any performer and especially by someone of Lou's stature and talent.,
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 3:09 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Lou Rawls Passes


>
>
> Lou Rawls, Suave Singer and Actor, Is Dead at 72
>
> NY TIMES By BEN RATLIFF - January 6, 2006
>
> Lou Rawls, the smooth-voiced singer and actor who traced a line from 
> gospel
> to jazz and pop, died early this morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in
> Los Angeles. He was 72 and died of cancer, according to his longtime 
> manager
> and publicist, David Brokaw.
>
> Modeling himself partly on his friend Sam Cooke - as well as Nat King Cole
> and Frank Sinatra - Mr. Rawls was a suave entertainer who appealed to 
> black
> and white adult audiences nearly equally. He had a wide vocal range, and
> became best known for an unmistakable, mentholated baritone, especially as
> heard on the hit song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine."
>
> Born in Chicago and raised by his father's mother, Mr. Rawls began singing
> at age 7 in the choir of his grandmother's Greater Mount Olive Baptist
> Church. He became known around town, and had one important connection: he
> was close friends with Sam Cooke, with whom he sang in a group called the
> Teenage Kings of Harmony.
>
> Later, Mr. Rawls joined another local gospel group, the Holy Wonders. In
> 1951, he took Cooke's place in the Highway QC's, staying for two years; in
> 1953, when the Chosen Gospel Singers came through Chicago, he was hired by
> that group, who gave him his first exposure on record, in 1954.
>
> In 1956, Mr. Rawls enlisted as a paratrooper in the Army's 82nd Airborne
> Division, and upon his return to civilian life, joined the Pilgrim 
> Travelers
> as a lead singer. In 1958, while the Pilgrim Travelers were touring with 
> Sam
> Cooke - who by that time had crossed over to the pop charts with "You Send
> Me" - both Mr. Rawls and Cooke were injured in a car accident that killed
> Eddie Cunningham, Cooke's driver. The accident put Mr. Rawls into a coma 
> for
> several days.
>
> Like Cooke, Mr. Rawls was aiming himself more and more toward secular 
> music.
> (He sang on a number of Cooke's records, and can be heard prominently
> singing low harmonies in the Cooke hit "Bring It on Home to Me.") In 1959,
> having recorded some singles of his own for the Candix label, he was
> performing at the Pandora's Box in West Hollywood. There the producer Nick
> Venet heard him, and soon signed him to Capitol Records, starting a
> decade-long stretch of recording for that label. Mr. Rawls's Capitol 
> debut,
> in 1962, was "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water," teaming with the pianist Les
> McCann for a set of blues and jazz standards.
>
> In his performances during the 1960's - a good representation was the 1966
> hit record "Lou Rawls Live!" - he became famous for his a "monologue" 
> style,
> sequences when he would just talk over a chugging vamp, leading into and
> away from a song's refrain. In 1966 he had his first No. 1 R&B single, 
> "Love
> Is a Hurtin' Thing," and in 1967, he won his first of three Grammy Awards,
> for the song "Dead End Street."
>
> "I was born in a city that they call the Windy City," began his drawled
> spoken sequence on that hit song. "They call it the Windy City because of
> the Hawk, the almighty Hawk. Mr. Wind. Takes care of plenty business, 
> round
> wintertime." Over a chugging riff, he talked about growing up fighting,
> bootstrapping, and shivering through cold Chicago weather for almost half
> the song's length; then he broke into an impassioned, rugged, baleful cry,
> rough around the edges and imperturbably cool at the center.
>
> Having won the admiration of Sinatra, who endorsed him publicly, Mr. Rawls
> rolled with the tide by signing with Philadelphia International, the pop
> label run by the producers and songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. In
> 1976, the team made Mr. Rawls's biggest hit, "You'll Never Find Another 
> Love
> Like Mine," a lavish ballad with disco rhythm. The single sold a million
> copies and reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts. The same year, he
> became a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch.
>
> After his biggest success, Mr. Rawls divided his career between charity
> work, film and television acting, and touring. In 1980, he started the Lou
> Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon, a yearly television event which raised
> nearly $350 million for the United Negro College Fund. He appeared in 18
> films, including the 1995 film "Leaving Las Vegas," and 16 television
> series; he recorded voice-overs on children's television shows including
> "Garfield," "Hey Arnold," and "Rugrats," and played the voice of the
> grandfather on Bill Cosby's animated series "Fatherhood."
>
>>From 1989 to 1992, he made three albums with Blue Note, and in 2003, he
> recorded "Rawls Sings Sinatra" for the Savoy Jazz label.
>
> In 2003 Mr. Rawls moved to Scottsdale, Ariz.; in March 2004 his lung 
> cancer
> was diagnosed. On Jan. 1, 2004, in Memphis, Mr. Rawls married his third
> wife, Nina, a former flight attendant, who managed his career for a time
> thereafter. Together they had one son, Aiden Rawls. He is also survived by
> another son, Lou Rawls Jr., of Los Angeles; two daughters, Louanna Rawls 
> of
> Los Angeles and Kendra Smith of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren.
>
>
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