Raymond Hill (musician)

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Raymond Hill
R&B
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer
Instrument(s)Saxophone
Years active1951–1980
Labels

Raymond Earl Hill (April 29, 1933 – April 16, 1996)

tenor saxophonist and singer, best known as a member of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in the 1950s. He also recorded as a solo artist for Sun Records and worked as a session musician
.

Life and career

Hill was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His parents, Henry and Ollie Mae Hill, ran cafés in Clarksdale as well as a juke joint north of Lyon that featured Delta blues musicians such as Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk.[2][3] Hill learned to play the saxophone by getting Houston Stackhouse to strum the chords on his guitar then finding the corresponding notes on his saxophone.[4]

Hill joined

the first rock and roll record."[5][6]

Hill left Turner's band soon after the record was released. Turner stated Hill's mother wanted him to be the bandleader and they started to quarrel.

Little Junior Parker among others.[5][6] Hill plays tenor sax on Parker's "Mystery Train,"[8] and he is the lead performer on the instrumental "Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part II)" by Jessie Hill
. "Spread your fingers, Raymond!," shouts Jessie Hill who was no relation.

In October 1952, Hill recorded a session at

Clarksdale Press Register newspaper reported that Hill was ''chief of the hepcats.''[11] Hill also recorded with Turner's band, featuring Turner on guitar and Billy "The Kid" Emerson on piano, releasing the single "The Snuggle"/"Bourbon Street Jump" under his own name on Sun in 1954, both sides being instrumentals.[3][5]

Between 1952 and 1955, Hill played on records with Clayton Love (Aladdin, 1952), Little Junior Parker (Modern, 1952/Sun, 1953), Billy "The Kid" Emerson (Sun, 1054), and Jesse Knight (Checker, 1954). While in Chicago, he also accompanied Dennis "Long Man" Binder (United, 1955), before rejoining Turner's Kings of Rhythm.

In 1955, Hill returned to working in Turner's band on a full-time basis and moved to East St. Louis where Turner had relocated.[7] The Kings of Rhythm played all around the Greater St. Louis area and became a popular nightclub attraction.[3] In 1957, Hill began a relationship with the band's new vocalist, 17-year-old Ann Bullock, then known as Little Ann and later as Tina Turner. Together they had a child, Raymond Craig (August 20, 1958 – July 3, 2018), who was later adopted by Ike Turner and renamed Craig Raymond Turner.[5][6] Before the birth of his son, Hill broke his ankle during a wrestling match with vocalist Carlson Oliver and left the band, returning to Clarksdale.[7][3]

In 1958, Hill played with Tommy B. and his Teardrops.[12] He toured with Albert King in the 1960s. In 1979, he recorded an EP ("Going Down" / "Cotton Fields - Boss Man") with his wife Lillie Hill, which was released in 1980 for the newly founded High Water Recording Company, then he left the music business.[5]

Death

Hill died at the age of 62 from congestive heart failure in Clarksdale on April 16, 1996. According to his obituary in The Commercial Appeal, he was survived by a daughter, Cathy Mitchell; a son, Craig Turner; a sister, Marian Montgomery; two brothers, Aubrey Hill and Charles Hill Jr.; and an aunt who cared for him, Evelyn Jarrett.

His biological son with Tina Turner, Craig Turner, died from an apparent suicide in 2018.[13]

Discography

Solo singles

  • 1954: "The Snuggle" / "Bourbon Street Jump" (Sun 204) – Raymond Hill
  • 1980: "Going Down" / "Cotton Fields - Boss Man" (High Water 408) – Raymond Hill / Lillie Hill

Album appearances

  • 1976: Sun: The Roots Of Rock: Volume 3: Delta Rhythm Kings[9] (Charly Records)
  • 1977: Sun: The Roots Of Rock: Volume 11: Memphis Blues Sounds (Charly Records)
  • 1984: Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1956[10] (Sun Records)
  • 2001: The Kings of Rhythm featuring Ike Turner – The Sun Sessions (Varèse Sarabande)
  • 2011: Ike Turner – That Kat Sure Could Play!: The Singles 1951 To 1957 (Secret Records)
  • 2017: Ike Turner – Sessionography Vol. 1 (Real Gone Records)

References

  1. ISBN 9781135958312
    .
  2. ^ "Rocket "88"". Mississippi Blues Trail.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781589792531
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e f Biography by Shaun Mather, Black Cat Rockabilly. Retrieved April 5, 2013
  6. ^
    AllMusic
  7. ^
    OCLC 43321298
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-85716-057-7
    .
  9. ^ a b "Various – Sun: The Roots Of Rock: Volume 3: Delta Rhythm Kings". Discogs.
  10. ^ a b "Various – Sun Records - The Blues Years 1950-1956". Discogs.
  11. ^ "WROX". Mississippi Blues Trail.
  12. ^ Smoot, Ernest (September 5, 1958). "Out of the Night". The St. Louis Argus. p. 20.
  13. ^ Ellis Clopton, "Tina Turner’s Eldest Son Dies in Apparent Suicide", Variety, July 3, 2018.

External links

Raymond Hill at

AllMusic

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