The Philadelphia Music Scene
Then And Now
The Kimmel Center
Photo by G. Widman for GPTMC
PHILADELPHIA, June 29 , 2006 - The Avenue
of the Arts, also known as Broad Street, is the backbone of
Philadelphia and the center of the city’s arts community. Anchoring
the street is the $265 million Kimmel Center for the
Performing Arts, home to the Philadelphia Orchestra and
seven other resident companies. History is preserved here as well
as in the Philadelphia Music Alliance’s Walk of
Fame, Philadelphia International Records
and the Clef Club of the Performing Arts.
The 1960s doo-wop era, the Philly Sound of the 1970s, the jazz
scene typified by artists ranging from John Coltrane to Grover
Washington Jr., the classical juggernaut known as the Philadelphia
Orchestra and the new-generation version of Philadelphia soul
music, typified by Musiq and Jill Scott, are all related in some
way. A glimpse at the history of Philadelphia music shows how
intertwined all of these strands really are.
Philly Jazz:
While Broad Street became known as a mecca for classical music, it
soon established itself as a strong base for jazz music as well.
Pep’s (Broad & South Streets), the Uptown (Broad Street &
Susquehanna Avenue) and Zanzibar (19th Street & Cecil B. Moore
Avenue) were three of the clubs that nurtured some of the country’s
jazz greats. The Heath Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane,
Jimmy Oliver, Clifford Brown, Benny Golson and the incomparable
Philly Joe Jones were all either born, raised or professionally
proven in Philly or its environs. Also part of this club are Lee
Morgan, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith and
Lady Day – the great Billie Holiday.
Grover Washington Jr., in many ways, placed Philadelphia on the
map for a new generation of listeners in the 1980s – as did Stanley
Clarke and McCoy Tyner. Christian McBride, Uri Caine, Joey
DeFrancesco, Terell Stafford and the Eubanks Brothers continued the
tradition through the 1990s, and a new generation of musicians, all
in their 20s – Orrin Evans, Rodney Green, Jaleel Shaw, Jafar and
Farid Barron – are waiting in the wings to take over where the
greats left off.
Bernie Lowe, Dick Clark and
Doo-Wop:
As the 1950s turned into the 1960s, the doo-wop craze swept the
nation, and the epicenter of that craze was in Philadelphia. In
1956, entrepreneur Bernie Lowe established Cameo and Parkway
Records, which launched the careers of artists such as Chubby
Checker, Bobby Rydell, the Dovells, the Tymes and Dee Dee Sharp. By
the 1960s, DJs such as Jerry Blavat, Hy Lit, Doug “Jocko” Henderson
and others were playing doo-wop and rhythm-and-blues on their radio
programs. At the same time, a young TV host named Dick Clark began
playing host to doo-wop, R&B and soul and pop musicians on his
show American Bandstand. It became an institution in
American pop culture, airing daily after school and playing host to
the top pop stars in the country. It was also one of the first
integrated music shows on American television.
Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International
Records:
There would be no 1970s soul, no R&B, no disco, without Kenny
Gamble and Leon Huff. Their raw, gospel-driven sound combined with
sophisticated, precise musical arrangements and socially conscious
lyrics paid off with 175 gold or platinum albums and 80 number one
pop singles. Gamble, from Southwest Philadelphia, and Huff, from
Camden, New Jersey, met in the early 1960s (in an elevator at the
Shubert Building, now the Academy of Music) and
went on to write and produce for many stars.
Gamble composed their first hit, Expressway To Your
Heart, in 1966 as he sat in Schuylkill Expressway traffic on
the way to his girlfriend’s house. But it was not until 1972, when
Gamble set up Philadelphia International Records
on South Broad Street, that their impact was truly felt. Employing
a staff of up to 100 writers and lyricists (such as Linda Creed)
and recording at Joe Tarsia’s Sigma Sound studio, Gamble and Huff
worked with artists such as the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue
Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Paul, The Intruders, the Trammps,
the Three Degrees and MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother),
making an indelible impact on black music and pop music in general.
Today, Philadelphia International Records
maintains a catalogue of more than 3,000 recorded songs, which
often find their way into commercials (such as Old Navy, Office
Max, Verizon and Coor’s Beer) and are sampled by recording artists
like Angie Stone, Nellie, Jay Z and Bette Midler.
The Fabulous Philadelphians:
The Philadelphia Orchestra, founded in 1900, is one of the world’s
greatest classical music organizations and one of the most prolific
recording artists in history. It was under Eugene Ormandy, who
wielded the baton from 1936-1980, and Riccardo Muti, who led the
orchestra until 1993, that the Orchestra gained its highest degree
of prominence.
One of the most important moves Gamble and Huff made was to
differentiate their sound from Motown’s by incorporating strings,
horns and harps. The arrangements, crafted by classically trained
Thom Bell, brought a huge degree of sophistication to 1970s black
music. MFSB, a large aggregation of Gamble and Huff session players
that hit it big in 1974 with the first proto-disco hit “TSOP” (The
Sound of Philadelphia). MFSB was composed almost totally of
Philadelphia Orchestra musicians who played and taught classical
music by day and disco, soul and jazz at night. In fact, many of
the orchestra’s best musicians worked as private teachers to some
of Philadelphia’s best jazz players.
The New Philly Sound:
In the early 1990s, a group of hip-hoppers with jazz and R&B
backgrounds, including drummer Ahmir Thompson, the son of doo-wop
icon Lee Andrews, created the Roots, a hip-hop collective that
believed in live beats and accompaniment in rap. The Roots are
still at the epicenter of a new movement where organic soul
sensibilities are of utmost importance. What started out as a
hardcore underground movement is blowing up gigantically not just
in Philadelphia but nationally. Heavily influenced by one of the
most sophisticated spoken-word scenes in the country, rappers such
as Bahamadia laid the foundation for Eve; old-school pioneer
Schoolly D still remains resonant in the gritty style of Beanie
Sigel from South Philadelphia. Singer Jill Scott has, with the help
of the Roots and keyboardist/producer James Poyser, created her own
brand of neo-soul. Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith’s former alter ego and
still occasional collaborator, produces and records much of
Philadelphia’s new music at his Touch of Jazz
Studios in Northern Liberties; Musiq Soulchild and Pink
have hit the R&B and pop charts, respectively, with their
distinctive Philly-based styles.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC)
makes Philadelphia and The Countryside™ a premier destination
through marketing and image building that increases business and
promotes the region’s vitality. For more information about travel
to Philadelphia, visit www.gophila.com or call the Independence
Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park,
at (800) 537-7676.
Note to Editors: For photos of Greater
Philadelphia, visit our Photo
Gallery. On the pressroom, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds
to receive updates on topics that are specifically of interest to
you: What’s New, Dining, Events, Seasonal Travel, Hotel Packages
and Tourism Research.
CONTACT:
Donna Schorr, GPTMC
(215) 599-0782, donna@gptmc.com
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