Soul Series: The Man from Macon - The Otis Redding Story Part III
- by Joe Nolan
Otis Redding
Started by Hamp Swain, The Teenage Party was the scene at the Douglass Theater. It was Swain and fellow DJ Cliff Brantley who gave James Brown his star in 1958. Hamp was an energetic, smooth talker who was always looking for a way to get ahead. He began selling insurance, but a series of fortunate opportunities lead him to radio, where his innate talent as a raconteur and promoter really began to pay off.
When the program director at WIBB – where Swain broadcast his Night Ride program – brought up the idea of a live broadcast, Swain was all ears. Every week Swain hammed it up on air, introduced acts, played saxophone, and – week after week – he announced Otis Redding as the winner of the variety program. The program got Otis noticed by the young ladies who listened to the program every week to hear the tall, clean-cut, Redding sing in his modified Little Richard style. Otis also caught the attention of another Macon music legend with dreams of his own.
Johnny Jenkins was a hot-shot guitar slinger, and one of the biggest local stars in Macon. A young black man with movie-star looks, Jenkins stage acrobatics and pyrotechnics eventually had a huge impact on guitarists like Jimi Hendricks. Jenkins was an experienced band leader who knew talent when he saw it, and he saw it in Otis immediately:
“I heard Otis at the Douglass, and the group behind him just wasn’t making it. So I went up to him, and I said, ‘Do you mind if I play behind you?’ and he looked at me like ‘Who are you?’ ‘ Cause he didn’t know me. And I say ‘I can make you sound good.’ And I played behind him…he sounded great with me playing behind him – and he knowed it.” - Johnny Jenkins, from Sweet Soul Music, by Peter Guralnick.
The ‘Dance Party also introduced Otis to his fifteen year old future wife, Zelma, and his future manager, Phil Walden. Jenkins began to play regularly with Redding, but the band was getting nowhere, and Otis was frustrated, competing for the spotlight with the bigger-than-life Jenkins. But, it was Jenkins who opened yet another door for Redding.
After recording the regional hit, “Love Twist”, Jenkins caught the eye of Jerry Wexler at Atlantic. Jenkins soon found himself on his way to record a follow up at Stax, in Memphis. However - as fate would have it – the date went down in history, not because of Jenkins guitar tracks, but because of another recording made by Jenkins’ “chauffeur,” a big, tall dude who insisted on singing a song of his own.
Sources:
Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music, Harper and Row, 1986
James Dickerson’s Goin’ Back to Memphis, Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1996
Michael Haralambos’ Right on: From Blues to Soul in Black America, Drake Publishers, 1975
Respect Yourself: The Stax Story, documentary film, produced by Tremolo Productions,
Concord Music Group and Thirteen/WNET New York, for PBS’ Great Performances, 2007
The Otis Redding biography at African Genesis
Otis Redding at Wikipedia
Otis Redding Biography at History of Rock
Otis Redding Biography at the Otis Redding official website
Joe Nolan is a poet, musician and freelance journalist in Nashville, TN. Nolan writes about visual art for the journal, Number, published by the University of Memphis. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.