Isaac Hayes

Monk Higgins: The Look of Love

An early Charles Stepney arrangement (who later worked with The Dells, Rotary Connection, and Earth, Wind, & Fire, among others), this record rumbles and slinks along with soul. I love how the chunky electric keys interplay with the swirling strings, and Monk’s swinging saxophone. Monk Higgins was born Milton Bland in Arkansas. He was already a…

April 11, 2011

ayanacontreras

Local Chicago Music, Music

1968, Cash McCall, Charles Stepney, Chess Records, Chicago Jazz, dionne warwicke, Gladys Kinght & the Pips, Isaac Hayes, Isley Brothers, Jazz, Johnny Pate, Monk Higgins, soul, The Look of Love
Localism in Music: the Memphis Edition

For those of you who feel as though Darkjive is a Chicago anomoly, here’s the Memphis Edition. Whereas Chicago had Chess and Brunswick as Marquee Soul record labels in the mid-twentieth century, in Memphis, it was Stax and Hi (and their subsidiaries). Whereas Chess at one time owned WVON, Stax owned WDIA. I love the…

May 19, 2009

ayanacontreras

Arts & Culture, Jive Culture, Music

Booker T. & the MG’s, Isaac Hayes, Local Memphis Soul, Luther Ingram, Memphis, Memphis soul, Sam & Dave, Stax, Stax Museum, Stax Records, Volt