By dvdmike (68.72.165.31) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 09:18 pm:

Can anyone shed some light on who played the sax solos on some of the individual Motown hits?

By STUBASS (206.135.204.254) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 09:27 pm:

BEANS BOWLES AND ESPECIALLY MIKE TERRY WERE THE BALLSY BARI PLAYERS BEHIND THE PATENTED MOTOWN SOUND!!!...TERRY HARRINGTON PLAYED A LOT OF THE TENOR PARTS...PLUS MANY OTHERS!!!...TERRY SINCE MOVED TO L.A. AND DID A LOT OF STUDIO WORK OUT HERE!!!...STUBASS

By Edgar (200.46.134.203) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 10:17 pm:

Stu, did Beans Bowles play in Gladys' "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"?

By STUBASS (206.135.204.254) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 10:23 pm:

HEY EDGAR...ONLY A GUESS...BUT I THINK THAT BY THAT TIME...MOST OF THE BARI WORK WAS BEING DONE BY MIKE TERRY!!!...BY THE WAY...I ATTENDED COLLEGE WITH BEANS TWO SONS!!!...ANYONE HAVE A DEFINITIVE ANSWER TO EDGAR'S QUESTION???...STUBASS

By Eli (141.151.58.35) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 10:52 pm:

Hank Cosby did a lot of the Tenor solos as in Aint to proud to beg.
Eli Fontaine did a lot of the Alto solos although there were not too many of those early on.
I do believe that it is him on Whats going on as the alto was used more post 60's.

By STUBASS (206.135.204.254) on Saturday, August 09, 2003 - 10:56 pm:

ELI FONTAINE...GOOD ONE BOBBY!!!...ELI WAS THE ALTO MAN AROUND TOWN...AND YES...HANK COSBY TOO!!!...STUBASS

By soulboy (81.103.86.21) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 03:31 am:

Did they use Mike Terry mainly on the early HDH productions? a sax solo was a feature on many of the 4 tops and supremes hit records.

By John Lester (81.129.93.34) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 05:19 am:

Here are some definitive sax solos
Where did our love go - Mike Terry
Come On Home - Darnells - Hank Cosby
Leaving Here - Eddie Holland - Hank Cosby/John Williford
Candy To Me - Hank Cosby
What Good Am I Without You -Mike Terry and Hank Cosby
You're My Remedy - Hank Cosby
Can I Get A Witness - Hank Cosby

I would add that I consider Hank Cosby still does not receive the dues he deserved.

As time went on, Mike Terry seemed to be characterised by a style commonly referred to by some Northern folk as "farting and burping"! Now whilst that terminology might be considered a little "crude", in my opinion I can't think of a better description!

Bobby - I thought Norris Patterson did the solo on Ain't Too Proud To Beg - and I thought that was the same guy that was on the SITSOM CD although known by a different name following a change in religion (a la Cat Stevens)

By SteveS (68.41.250.190) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 06:08 am:

Norris Patterson has gone by the name Kasuku Mafia for many years (at least since the early 70's).

By dvdmike (68.72.85.95) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 02:43 pm:

More, more, more!! Keep bringin' 'em on!!

By Eli (151.197.44.39) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 02:50 pm:

eh, steve dis is paulie 3shoes(over here)
i like dat kasuku mafia fellas name..did he get made and s**t??%^&*()
is he a consig....cons...eh..ya know what i mean goomba!!@#$%^&*()

By John Lester (81.129.79.104) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 04:17 pm:

SteveS

That is the name of the sax man on Aint Too Proud To Beg on SITSOM!

By Jim G (205.188.209.109) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 09:47 pm:

SteveS and John Lester are dead on, Norris morphed in Kasuku at least thirty years ago. He's run his "Success Music Academy" in Detroit for a long time.
Kasuku told me he took the tenor solo on "Get Ready".

By Jim G (205.188.209.109) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 09:52 pm:

Eli Fontaine plays the alto on "What's Going On".
I asked Beans about the bari soli in general and he wasn't too sure--said it was either him or Mike Terry, it was hard to tell sometimes.
Some of Beans' best work on bari can be heard on Maurice King's recordings. He was a bad dude.
And Beans also recorded with Bill Doggett.

By JoB (204.42.12.2) on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 02:26 am:

Please correct me if I'm wrong (you all would know a lot better than I would), but I thought that I read somewhere that Jr. Walker was also a musician for Motown before becoming one of their artists. If so, does anyone know of any songs he's played on other than his own?

By BankHouseDave (195.93.50.10) on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 04:39 pm:

Never heard that one, JoB. Eli Fontaine only played the first phrase on What's Going On, though he was around forever and came to the UK on the 65 Motortown Revue. Another great player was Trevor Edwards who played on Marvin's Trouble Man album. Beans also supervised the early tours. I believe Mike Terry did most of the HDH tracks such as 'Since You've Been Gone', 'There's No Stopping Us Now' and so on. Wild Bill Davis (I think) was the tenor player on What's Going On and there was a big sax section who would take solos from time to time, including Kasuko Mafia and so forth. What would I know?

By Jim G (152.163.252.68) on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 04:51 pm:

It's Wild Bill Moore, a wild man of the tenor sax, you're thinking of BankhouseDave.

By dvdmike (68.72.163.50) on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 05:31 pm:

Did Mike Terry do any arranging for Motown? If so, what?

By RD (65.150.242.18) on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 07:10 pm:

The talk of Junior Walker & the All Stars playing on some Motown sessions goes back to when they were with Tri-Phi/Harvey Records where they would back some of Harvey and Gwen's artists like the Five Quails on sessions at Hitsville. So technically he did back some artists on recordings at Hitsville but neither he nor the artists were signed to Motown at the time.

By Keith Rylattk (217.137.88.41) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 04:04 am:

Did Robert `Silky` Hargraves ever do sessions at Motown? I read that he took up the Sax as a teenager with Mike Terry and did Sax work for some of Mike Hanks' sessions? Keith

By RainMan (66.73.238.3) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 08:34 am:

Yeah..."Mickey's Monkey"....definitely Mickey's Monkey...there's definitely a great sax solo on Mickey's Monkey

By Eli (141.151.17.120) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 09:57 am:

DVD MIKE,

Mike Terry told me that they never let him do anything but play his horn and that is one of the reasons that he left, plus the fact that all he ever made was $100 a week, and I got that straight from the master himself.

By HW (65.116.80.10) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 12:45 pm:

My understanding is that Beans Bowles didn't play much on Hitsville studio sessions after 1962 or '63, alhough he continued to work for the company in Artist Development and/or touring.

By paulie3shoes (141.151.17.120) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 01:00 pm:

eh, it paulie (over here)

i wanna know if kenny g played on da seshuns dat ya menshun cuz he got alotta sole, capice??#$%^&*

wassa matta u tink dats funny or sumtin...ill giv ya funny pal!!!@#$^&*()

By BankHouseDave (172.188.108.200) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 04:59 pm:

Just testing, Jim. I got it Moore or less right. The other Wild Bill was an organism, of course.

By dvdmike (68.72.81.160) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 06:12 pm:

Damn shame Eli, 'cause Mike Terry was a great arranger. By the way, I have a kickin' track that he arranged for the Mighty Clouds of Joy called "Mighty High" from the "Kickin'" LP that Dave Crawford produced at his own studio in Atlanta. I think there were a few MFSB cats present.

By MEL&THEN SOME (81.174.193.80) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 06:16 pm:

Keith
Are you talking about Silky Hargreaves that cut the classic 45's on Dearborn records,D-Town and Wheelsville records?
cheers
mel.

By MEL&THEN SOME9 (81.174.193.80) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 06:17 pm:

Did
Choker Campbell
actually back anyone else up apart from his own album stuff and the Wheelsville stuff etc.
Surely he did something on other Motown acts.
regards
mel.

By STUBASS (205.188.209.109) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 06:52 pm:

SPEAKING OF FORMER MOTOWN MUSICIANS..."ALMOST" FUNK BROTHER...BASSIST EDDIE WATKINS JR. (PLAYED ON "LOVE HANGOVER" AND LOTS OF OTHER STUFF) WILL BE PLAYING WITH HIS BAND AT MY NEPHEWS WEDDING SATURDAY NIGHT!!!...I UNDERSTAND THAT HE HAS QUITE A SUCCESSFUL PARTY BAND OUT HERE IN L.A.!!!...STUBASS

By BankHouseDave (195.93.50.153) on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 06:10 am:

Mel:

As I understand it, Choker did all the live revues (apart from the UK and Europe ones in the 60s), and ran on a separate line from the studio musicians. Their arrangements were 'theatrical' versions of the originals, a bit more brassy and, of course, minus any string parts. Apart from HITS OF THE 60s, I don't think there were any other Campbell recordings at Motown.

By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.48) on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 06:27 am:

Thanks Dave
do you know how he got the name of
'Choker'
cheers
mel(in his cravatte,so my necks okeh)

By BankHouseDave (195.93.34.9) on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 06:34 pm:

Berry called him into his office and said, "You done good Mr Campbell, but you won't be on the records."

"That's a choker," he replied and the name stuck.

You guessed it, Mel. No idea at all.

DAVE

By Don (68.75.160.158) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 10:36 am:

I heard alot of the Funk Bros baritone and tenor breaks in alot of Hitsville recordings. One song that stands out and I can his signature trademark anywhere, I think it's The Late Junior Walker's playing on "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations. Can anyone out there can verify this.

By STUBASS (205.188.209.109) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 10:51 am:

DON!!!...JR. WALKER...WHILE AN ARTIST FOR MOTOWN RECORDS...DID NOT PLAY MANY SESSIONS FOR MOTOWN...AND DID NOT PLAY THE SOLO ON "AIN'T TOO PROUD TO BEG"!!!...STUBASS

By Ralph Terrana (ralph) (209.240.198.62) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 11:13 am:

The truth of the matter is it was hard to get Junior to play ANYTHING. He had a small farm somewhere in Central Michigan where he loved working on old cars. Talking him into the studio was no easy task.