Irving Banister
Irving Sully Banister, Sr. | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | February 16, 1933
Died | December 15, 2020 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | (aged 87)
Genres | Rhythm and blues |
Occupation(s) | musician, band leader |
Instrument(s) | guitar |
Years active | c.1952 – c.2020 |
Irving Sully Banister Sr. (February 16, 1933 – December 15, 2020)
Early years
Irving Banister was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Louis and Elsie Mae Banister. He had two brothers, Joe and Guardie.[1] Banister formed a band with some of his fellow students at Booker T. Washington high school.[3] "I was playing the trumpet until I was seventeen, but I got my front teeth knocked out," said Banister. "I couldn't hit the high notes anymore. There weren't any guitar players in the band, so I bought a big hollow body Epiphone, a pickup, and amplifier from a music store on South Broad Street for $100."[2] James "Sugar Boy" Crawford recalled, "During high school we had a little band, nothing real organized at first. I was back playing piano... The other fellows in the band were Edgar "Big Boy" Myles, Warren Myles, Nolan Blackwell, Irving "Cat" Banister, and Alfred Bernard- just a bunch of youngsters having fun." In 1952, the group came to the attention of Dr. Daddy-O (Vernon Winslow), New Orleans' first black disc jockey, who aired a daily show on WMRY. He invited them to perform on his Saturday morning radio show. The band did not yet have a name, but they had an instrumental that was their theme song called "Chapaka Shawee", creole words they heard on the street that translated roughly as "we aren't raccoons". When Dr. Daddy-O wrote of the band as the "Chapaka Shawee" youngsters, in his column in The Louisiana Weekly, the name stuck. He booked the band's first job at the Shadowland Club on Washington Avenue in 1952. Sugar Boy remembered, "We were all still in school so we could only play on weekends."[4]
The band's first recording session was through the intercession of Dr. Daddy-O with
Influences and techniques
Banister said his musicianship was limited at that time. "Every song was in B flat. I tuned the top three strings to a B flat chord and the bottom three strings regular. I'd just play the B flat chord open, then go to the four and five chords. We didn't have a bass player, so I'd play the bass patterns on the bottom strings. I wasn't good enough to solo then."[2] At a 2011 Ponderosa Stomp Music History Conference in New Orleans Banister recalled how he studied blues guitarist Guitar Slim's playing at the Dew Drop Inn. " He played with a clamp on his guitar all the time. When I got in the service they told me to throw that clamp in the corner."[6]
Banister was drafted into the Army and served as a cook.
Career
Banister returned to New Orleans when he got out of the service, taking over his old job with Sugar Boy. The band was booked into clubs and gambling joints run by alleged mobsters. "All our work was white clubs- that's why I left Sugar Boy around 1956. We couldn't eat, drink, or sit down in those places. We couldn't even use the bathroom. I got a job with Eddie Bo who was on the road doing all black clubs. We had to sleep six to a room in boarding houses sometimes, but at least we didn't have to worry about going to jail most of the time."[2] Bo's rhythm and blues band included drummer Walter "Popee" Lastie, tenor sax men David Lastie and Robert Parker, and Banister on guitar. The group worked for Shaw Booking Agency out of New York, touring as the show band with Amos Milburn, Charles Brown, Little Willie John, and Ruth Brown.[7] Banister was the guitarist when Eddie Bo recorded his "I'm Wise", a hit in New Orleans that Little Richard later covered as "Slippin' And Slidin".[8] Banister considered Bo's mid-1950s band as one of the best to ever come out of New Orleans.[2]
After things slowed down for Eddie Bo's band, Banister left to join
In the mid-1960s dates at white clubs dried up. Owners worried that R&B bands would attract black patrons who would scare off their white audiences. The British Invasion had begun to dominate radio play and gigs were harder to find.[11] Ironically British musicians, who adulated black R&B, pushed established R&B artists from American radio airwaves. Author Rick Coleman wrote, "There was a strange, distorted reflection taking place, as British groups brought R&B back to America." White American groups also began to freely copy black idioms.[12] When club dates dried up, Danny White disbanded the Cavaliers in 1966. Irving Banister returned to Sugar Boy Crawford's band. Crawford was attempting to restart his career, after a beating by Louisiana State Police left him out of action for two years. Sugar Boy's comeback was brief. Banister said, "He couldn't sing the fast numbers anymore so he retired."[2] After 1969 Sugar Boy sang only in church.[4]
"That's when I started Irving Banister and the All Stars. I took some of the guys from Sugar Boy's band. For a while I had
Robert Fontenot, Jr. of the Ponderosa Stomp wrote of Banister and the All Stars, "Lack of fame never stopped Bannister (sic) from keeping the spirit of traditional New Orleans rhythm and blues alive, and his band lives up to its billing by consistently featuring some of the finest musicians in the city."[14]
Personal life
Banister and wife Littdell "Queen Bee" Banister were the parents of Cassandra, Terry, and Irving "Honey" Banister Jr.,[1] Big Chief of the Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians. Littdell was married to Irving Sr. at age 16. Her husband, she said, never took interest in being a masking Indian; she started in the tradition a year after their son, Irving "Honey" Banister Jr., joined as chief scout in 1971.[15]
Banister's last known recording was an appearance on son Honey's band Cha Wa's 2016 debut "Funk and Feathers".[16] Irving Banister, Sr. died December 15, 2020.[1] He is buried in Holt Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana.[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e "nola.com- Irving "Sully" Banister, Sr. 1933–2020". Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-9614245-8-3.
- ^ Komorowski, Adam (2007). The Cosimo Matassa Story (Media notes). Proper Records.
- ^ ISBN 0-9614245-0-8.
- ^ ISBN 9781455619511.
- ^ "ponderosastomp.com.- "The Things That I Used To Do: The Story of Guitar Slim". YouTube. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ISBN 0820308544.
- ^ The Cosimo Matassa Story (liner notes by Adam Komorowski) Proper Records 2007.
- ^ "wwoz.org- "Frisco Records Office"". Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ "wwoz.org.- "Four Guitars: The Legacy of Irving Banister"". December 19, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Hannusch, Jeff (2006). Danny White: Natural Soul Brother (Media notes). Kent Records.
- ISBN 0-306-81531-1.
- ^ "homegrownmusic.net- "Featured Artist: George Porter". Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ "ponderosastomp.com- "Irving Banister & the All Stars". Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ ""Queen Littdell Banister- 40 Years A Queen"". Times-Picayune. February 27, 2014.
- ^ ""Cha Wa: Funk 'N' Feathers" by Chris M. Slawecki". Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ ""Irving's Obituary" Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home, Inc". Retrieved January 11, 2021.