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Ennis Lowery?

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BlueGuitar

Ennis Lowery?

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3412

Oct 30 04 4:34 PM

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I've just finished listening to Jack Dupree's outstanding "Blues from the Gutter" for the third time today. My burning question - who is Ennis Lowery and what else is he playing on? His guitar work is beautifully imperfect and unbelievably sparse and stinging. I ran his name by two New York old timers, assuming that he was a New York cat based on the other personel, but came up empty handed.

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Blueswriter

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6748

Oct 30 04 6:07 PM

QUOTE (BlueGuitar @ Oct 30 2004, 05:40 PM)

I've just finished listening to Jack Dupree's outstanding "Blues from the Gutter" for the third time today. My burning question - who is Ennis Lowery and what else is he playing on? His guitar work is beautifully imperfect and unbelievably sparse and stinging. I ran his name by two New York old timers, assuming that he was a New York cat based on the other personel, but came up empty handed.

Ennis Lowery is who you might know as Larry Dale.

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Sam hopkins

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 716

Oct 30 04 6:29 PM

QUOTE (Blueswriter @ Oct 30 2004, 07:13 PM)

Ennis Lowery is who you might know as Larry Dale.

In 1959 when Frenchmen Jacques Demetre and Marcel Chauvard were staying with Dupree and his wife, Lucille, in New York they quizzed him about Ennis Lowery. Dupree went one better and took them to meet him - Larry Dale - whom they had already met but never made the connection as being one and the same.

I think that when Dale was interviewed in the mid 80s explained why he used the pseudonym and the reason behind it, but I may be mistaken.

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Blueswriter

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Deepest Blue

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Oct 31 04 3:47 AM

Larry Dale's Big Muddy and Let The Doorbell Ring are essential listening, I think. Some of Dale's material is available on the Old Town reissues, and a Moonshine LP, Harlem Heavies, has four tracks, including the above two.

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rshurman

#4

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3244

Nov 1 04 3:15 AM

QUOTE (Blueswriter @ Oct 31 2004, 04:53 AM)

Larry Dale's Big Muddy and Let The Doorbell Ring are essential listening, I think. Some of Dale's material is available on the Old Town reissues, and a Moonshine LP, Harlem Heavies, has four tracks, including the above two.

Larry Dale is also prominent on a lot of Bob Gaddy sides which have been reissued on Lp and/or CD. He's the featured vocalist/guitarist on two terrific LPs recorded by Cootie Williams in France in the late '50s, singing a couple fabulous tunes from the Joe Turner songbook.

Chicagoland

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Blueswriter

#5

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6748

Nov 1 04 3:28 AM

QUOTE (rshurman @ Oct 31 2004, 11:21 PM)

QUOTE (Blueswriter @ Oct 31 2004, 04:53 AM)

Larry Dale's Big Muddy and Let The Doorbell Ring are essential listening, I think. Some of Dale's material is available on the Old Town reissues, and a Moonshine LP, Harlem Heavies, has four tracks, including the above two.

Larry Dale is also prominent on a lot of Bob Gaddy sides which have been reissued on Lp and/or CD. He's the featured vocalist/guitarist on two terrific LPs recorded by Cootie Williams in France in the late '50s, singing a couple fabulous tunes from the Joe Turner songbook.

Looking at the Ace CD Harlem Blues Operator and referencing Blues Records 1943-1970, Larry Dale isn't among the listed sidemen on Gaddy's Old Town recordings. Brownie McGhee, Joe Ruffin, and Jimmy Spruill are credited as the guitarists, save for a 1960 session, which lists Jimmy Spruill and an unknown second guitarist and another from 1959-60 which lists another unknown.

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The Blindman

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Deepest Blue

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Nov 1 04 12:19 PM

QUOTE (Sam hopkins @ Oct 30 2004, 07:35 PM)

I think that when Dale was interviewed in the mid 80s explained why he used the pseudonym and the reason behind it, but I may be mistaken.

He was born Ennis Lowery in 1923 in Wharton, Texas, USA.
Larry Dale was a "Stage Name"

QUOTE

b. Ennis Lowery, 1923, Wharton, Texas, USA. Dale's reputation as a blues guitarist fundamentally stems from the February 1958 session that produced Champion Jack Dupree's Atlantic album, Blues From The Gutter, and a handful of records issued under his own name. Leaving his parents' farm when he was 18, he spent the next eight years running a car repair shop in Hungerford, Texas. In 1949 he moved to New York, his wife's home-town, to pursue the same work. Repairing Apollo owner Bobby Schiffman's car led to him winning the Wednesday night talent contest two weeks running. Dale also drove Brownie McGhee and Bob Gaddy to their New Jersey nightclub job, and later joined them onstage, at first to sing and then as an apprentice guitarist. Subsequently, he joined Gaddy in the Houserockers, a partnership that lasted until 1970. His first records for Jax and Groove featured him as vocalist with Paul Williams' band and for Mickey Baker (as Big Red McHouston). Baker played guitar on Dale's singles for Groove, Herald and Ember, but his own proficiency enabled Dale to work on sessions for Cootie Williams and Champion Jack Dupree for Victor, Groove and Vik, as well as on Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" Further singles during the 60s for Glover, Fire, Ram and Atlantic Records failed to make an impression. When interviewed in 1986, Dale was continuing to lead the Houserockers at gigs around New York.

blindman

Aberdeen - Scotland

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Not even Forumer is Gonna Put Me Down!

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BlueGuitar

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Deepest Blue

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Nov 1 04 5:55 PM

Mucho fantastic information! Very cool to see New York blues getting some cyber ink. I guess the stage name would explain why a few of the old time New Yorkers I've spoken with would not recognize him. Does anyone know if Mr. Dale is still living?

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rshurman

#8

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3244

Nov 1 04 7:10 PM

QUOTE (BlueGuitar @ Nov 1 2004, 07:01 PM)

Mucho fantastic information! Very cool to see New York blues getting some cyber ink. I guess the stage name would explain why a few of the old time New Yorkers I've spoken with would not recognize him. Does anyone know if Mr. Dale is still living?

Pretty sure he passed on a few years ago, sadly. Late in his life he was part of a package with other New York artists like Gaddy (I think) and maybe Rosco Gordon and I know they got to Europe. Bruce Iglauer saw them at Blues Estafette and told me Larry reminded him of Pee Wee Crayton.

Chicagoland

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barbequebob

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 826

Nov 1 04 10:32 PM

During the 50's, on a lot of sessions coming out of NYC, the guys you'll often see as session people would be Mickey Baker, Larry Dale, Wild Jimmy Spruill, Brownie McGhee, Kenny Burrell (yes, that famous Jazzman), Sam "The Man" Taylor, Hal Singer, and Panama Francis. I'm not sure if Larry's still around or not. On stuff recorded on the Savoy and Okeh labels, these names pop up very often with people like Big Maybelle, or even Etta James (during her time on the Atlantic label).

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/
My Soundclick page
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte

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