Sunday 27 September 2020

Sammy Benskin born 27 September 1923


 Samuel Benskin (September 27, 1922 – August 26, 1992) was an American pianist and bandleader, considered one of the finest of accompanists for vocalists, to the point where he spent parts of his career simply coaching them rather than following them on-stage. 

He was born in The Bronx, New York City, United States, and made his professional debut around 1940 as piano accompanist to singer and guitarist Bardu Ali. He played at Café Society and Nick’s in New York with Bob Burnet’s sextet (1941), then worked with Stuff Smith (1942) and Gene Sedric (1943), recorded with Freddie Green and Billie Holiday (both 1945), and performed and recorded with Don Redman (1943) and Benny Morton (1945). 

In 1945 he appeared as a soloist and as the leader of a trio, with which he recorded four titles, including “Cherry” and “ The world is waiting for the sunrise.” The following year he made some recordings with John Hardee’s Swingtet, and his playing may be heard to advantage on Idaho. The following year he made some recordings with John Hardee’s Swingtet.

By the early 1950s he had begun leading his own piano trio, as well as appearing as a soloist and as accompanist to singers including Roy Hamilton and Titus Turner. In 1954 he also played with the group, The Three Flames, which also featured Tiger Haynes.The following year he began a stint as part of the Time of Your Life revue at City Center in New York, a gig he would bounce in and out of while training with singers as diverse as Carroll and the magnificent Al Hibbler. He followed Time of Your Life overseas for performances at the Brussels World Fair and for a brief spell began touring with Dinah Washington as her accompanist. Later in the 1950s he worked as accompanist to Dinah Washington.


                             

In 1959, with a band credited as The Spacemen, he recorded an instrumental, "The Clouds", written and produced by Julius Dixson and issued on Dixson's Alton record label. 

Other session musicians playing on the record were Panama Francis, Haywood Henry, and Babe Clark. The song originally had vocals, which Dixson removed, releasing the instrumental version. This rose to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and No. 41 on the pop chart. "The Clouds" was the first number one on any chart released by an African-American owned independent record label, predating Motown's first No. 1 by a year.

From the 1960s Benskin worked primarily as a vocal coach, arranger and producer. In the mid-1980s he performed in New York with the Harlem Jazz and Blues Band.  In 1986, he recorded an album in Paris for Black & Blue Records, These Foolish Songs, which was reissued on CD in 2002. He died in Teaneck, New Jersey, aged 69.  

(Edited from Wikipedia, Grove Music & AllMusic)

6 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Sammy Benskin - These Foolish Songs” go here:

https://www.upload.ee/files/12320999/Sammy_Benskin_-_Foolish_Songs.rar.html

1 I Only Have Eyes for You
2 I Remember You
3 Lullaby of the Leaves
4 Lush Life
5 Keepin' Out of Mischief Now
6 Easy Living
7 Ain't Misbehavin'
8 Durango
9 Blue Moon
10 I'm Going to Seat Down
11 Pennies from Heaven
12 Stompin' at the Savoy
13 My Ship
14 What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life
15 Alice's Blues
16 Have You Met Miss Jones?

Rec Mar 15, 1986 at Sysmo Studio, Paris. Better known as one of the best accompanist for vocals, Benskin delivers a strong melody-oriented date.

Here’s the link for The Spacemen – The Clouds 45.

https://od.lk/d/NTlfNjIyNzA2MzBf/The%20Spacemen%20-%20The%20Clouds.mp3

The Magnificent Goldberg said...

Well, I didn't know about Sammy Benskin, so thanks for that Bob, but...

The first black owned record company to have a #1 on the Billboard R&B chart was Exclusive, which produced Joe Liggins' 'The honeydripper' which spent 8 weeks at #1 in 1945. It was owned by Leon Rene who was from New Orleans and I'm surprised you never did a page on either him or his brother Otis, who owned the Excelsior label. Leon also wrote songs, including 'When it's sleepy time down south', 'When the swallows come back to Capistrano', 'Boogie Woogie Santa Claus', 'Rockin' Robin' (which was #1 on the Class label also owned by Rene before The Spacemen made it) , and 'I sold my heart to the junkman'. I look forward to a page on him on 6 Feb next :)

Also Jack Lauderdale, who owned Swingtime, had a #1 R&B hit with Lowell Fulson's 'Blue shadows' in 1950 and Lloyd Glenn's 'Chihca-boo' in '51. Another interesting guy.

Also, Joe Brown, who co-owned the JOB label with St Louis Jimmy, had an R&B #1 with Eddie Boyd's 'Five long years' in 1952.

Duke and Peacock, owned by Don Robey, were at #1 in 1952 with Johnny Ace's 'My song' and in
1953, with Big Mama Thornton's 'Hound dog', respectively. And again over the years with a number of Johnny Ace and Bobby Bland singles.

Dootone records, owned by Dootsie Williams, had an R&B #1 in 1954 with the Penguins 'Earth angel', a doo wop classic.

Finally, a few months before the Spacemen's hit, there was the inestimable Wilbert Harrison, who was at #1 on the R&B chart with 'Kansas City' on Fury owned by Bobby Robinson.

ALL of those guys are worth a page on their birthdays. Some, like Don Robey, were distinctly off colour in their character - Little Richard said Robey hit him so hard when he wanted his money that he got a hernia!

MG

The Magnificent Goldberg said...

PS
If you're interested, I'll send you a spreadsheet of all the records that hit the R&B charts from October 1942 to end December 1966 (when I got pigged off with doing it). It's sortable by date and the number ones can be filtered.

MG

Bob Mac said...

Thanks for this Bob, new to me but looks interesting.

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

Many thanks boppinbob & The Magnificent Goldberg

boppinbob said...

Hello MG, Yes please for your offer of the spreadsheet. It will come in handy for my researching. Regards, Bob