Follow Your Heart

1. Pensacola Blues

Download PDF (687.5 KB)
pp. 3-11

One day in 1921, when I was about five, I heard a fishman on a horse-drawn wagon singing a song. Between the pauses, he blew what looked like a cow’s horn, alerting people on the outskirts of Pensacola, Florida, that he was in our area...

2. Music Crazy

Download PDF (685.5 KB)
pp. 12-19

Once the music bug bit me, it became my obsession and my passion. It was as if the rest of my childhood quickly sped away. Music eventually became my great discovery, but the initial path was a bumpy one...

3. Boy Meets Band

Download PDF (548.6 KB)
pp. 20-31

My first and lasting impression of Raymond Sheppard was that he was very neat. He was brown-skinned with dimples, clean shaven, and always well dressed. Even when he was giving lessons, I can’t recall seeing him without a shirt and...

4. "Ma" Rainey's Deep South

Download PDF (690.8 KB)
pp. 32-40

As the youngest members of the Ray Shep band, Bobby Johnson and I got to be pretty close. In the Shep organization, everybody was supposed to be equal. Everybody got the same salary. But when it came to discussing business, it was a...

5. New York, New York

Download PDF (709.6 KB)
pp. 43-55

In September 1938, I was on my way to New York City for the first time. I had already traveled up and down the East Coast with Shep as far north as Richmond, Virginia. New York City was just about four hundred miles beyond. When I arrived at the...

6. Hootie and the Bird

Download PDF (695.4 KB)
pp. 56-65

By 1942, World War II had turned the country’s economy right side up again. There were so many jobs around that the comedians joked about how choosy people had become as to where and under what conditions they would work. As a result...

7. The Big, Big Bands

Download PDF (717.1 KB)
pp. 66-79

Louis Armstrong was still one of the hottest musicians around. I had known of him since I was a child listening to him on the radio and records. I was amazed to be playing with this music legend. Since I was a seasoned musician, I wasn’t intimidated...

8. Call Me "Italy"

Download PDF (693.8 KB)
pp. 80-88

Back in New York working the freelance scene again, I was running into fellow musicians at the usual spots. While Charlie Parker was becoming an American musical icon by the late 1940s, his fellow bebopper, Dizzy Gillespie, was also gaining a reputation...

Image Plates

Download PDF (569.7 KB)
 

9. The End of an Era

Download PDF (702.4 KB)
pp. 89-100

When I returned to the states in March 1954, I had to reestablish myself back in New York. Even though I hadn’t been gone that long, everything looked so strange. In Italy things moved very slowly. It would take us two hours to eat a meal...

10. The Rhythm and Blues Scene

Download PDF (543.5 KB)
pp. 103-113

When the Savoy closed, it was the end of a musical era. I felt a social and economic void. I filled the social void by increasing my time at the Apollo Theater. In order to fill the economic void, I supplemented my income by working for...

11. The Rise of Carnival Records

Download PDF (745.8 KB)
pp. 114-134

Before I went back to Motown, I met with the Manhattans at Kenny Kelly’s house to rehearse. His mother owned the building. I picked some songs I wanted them to rehearse, and I rewrote several of the songs they had written. “When you get them the way...

Image Plates

Download PDF (397.5 KB)
 

12. After the Manhattans

Download PDF (703.5 KB)
pp. 135-146

I was sitting in my office considering options, when I heard an announcement over the radio: “You can go to college on weekends, in the evenings, even on Sundays; just come to Essex County College for more information.” Essex County College was just...