Rita Graham Interview

Rita Graham grew up in Detroit, where her father ran a barber shop/beauty parlor that featured a rather unforgettable jukebox. "People would come from all over the city to my dad's barbershop," Rita recalls. "That jukebox had everything you could think of on it ." Meanwhile, her mother, a jazz pianist raised on classical music, also exposed young Rita to a wide variety of performers and styles.

Little could Rita have known the path to which her parents' influence would lead. She's performed with Ray Charles, Harry James, Kenny Burrell, Oscar Peterson and many others. Along the way, she's also crossed paths with Redd Foxx, Mike Post and Howard Hughes, to name a few. It's a course Rita Graham has followed intuitively. "People ask me how I do all these things. I tell them that I don't do anything," Rita says. "I do what that voice in my head tells me to do. It's a spiritual thing, like a beacon."

By the time she moved from Detroit to California in her late teens, Rita knew that music, and not an impending career as a schoolteacher, was her destiny. Gigs in Los Angeles led to an Australian tour, where she met Ray Charles backstage in Sydney. "Ray and I started singing, and I knew all those songs that he started throwing at me," .

Back in L.A., the tour behind her, her mother soon had a phone message for her: Ray Charles was interested in putting out an album by Rita. "She said, 'You'd better sit down,' ... I almost fainted," Rita says.

The LP, Vibrations, was released on Charles' Tangerine label in 1968. Shortly after she'd finished the record, Rita got another call from Charles. His vocalists, the Raylettes, walked out on him the day of a show. "He called and said, 'What are you doing today?' ... He said, 'Come on down here. I need a little help today.' ... That night, we were standing onstage at the Coconut Grove."

After a year with Ray Charles, Rita spent several months on the road opening for Oscar Peterson, Redd Foxx, and George Kirby, and then joined the Harry James Band for a stay of over three years. "It was a busy time," she says. "I was singing 'You Made Me Love You' by night and recording country rock with composer Mike Post by day. I was very happy, and I knew something was going to click. I knew it was going to blossom into something big, but it didn't. I was too young to realize that in order for my career to succeed, I needed to seek out and hire professional management."

In 1974, she landed the role of Coretta Scott King in the musical production, Selma. She reprised the role off-Broadway in 1983. Also in 1974, comedian Redd Foxx, one of the show's financial backers, brought Rita to Atlanta to perform scenes from the play at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference event. The visit sowed the seeds for Rita's eventual move to Atlanta.

In the late '80s, Rita worked in an L.A.-based ensemble with saxophonist Steve Hooks (who performed on and helped produce her Sambuca CD).

By 1990, though, she was ready for a change of scenery for her family, which included two daughters and a granddaughter. She remembered her Atlanta visit and soon the entire family, including her husband and mother, had relocated.

Rita performed at the now-defunct Sounds of Buckhead restaurant, and later was a featured vocalist in the African-American Philharmonic Orchestra. She began her Sambuca stint in May 1999, working usually with keyboardist Jez Graham (no relation), bassist Gary Land and drummer Mike Nepote.

Could you tell us about you childhood and upbringing in Detroit, and how you became a singer?

I grew up in Detroit when it was still a beautiful city. My Mother loved 40s Big Band music, classical music and the standard songs that became jazz standards, i.e. 'Funny Valentine' 'Foggy Day' 'Stella By Starlight' etc. My Mom is now 97 years of age and still plays her favorites on the piano, and sings all the lyrics. My Dad was a barber who had a jukebox in his shop that had all the 'hits', the 'doo-wop' groups, and the soul records. Plus, Motown was in its 'Heyday' and I knew many of the people who were suddenly changing the musical world. This is how I loved and learned songs from so many different musical genres. I never learned to play an instrument because in my parent's view, it was more important to be a scholar, with all emphasis on becoming a school teacher. Still, I loved music more than anything. I finished three years of college while singing around the clubs featuring live entertainment, that were everywhere in those days. I skipped my last year of college that consisted of Practice Teaching, in order to sing 'just for a little while'. In those days, all the clubs' live entertainment featured an MC/singer, a dancer that was known as a 'shake dancer' who stripped down to a bikini, sometimes a vocal group or a comedian and a female vocalist with a 4 or 5-piece band. It was a great way to make money. In the sixties, most of the 'day gigs' for intelligent African American women weren't very good or very well-paid. Music was a perfect fit for me.

Which artists have been your main musical influences?

I was soon married with a daughter, and singing in the clubs at night gave me a way to earn money without my little girl ever realizing that I was gone. I listened and loved so many vocalists that it's hard to say which ones influenced me. That is such a hard question, because every singer I've ever heard influenced me. As I think about it, I realize that I love performances, from Aretha Franklin, Barbara Streisand, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and many who aren't well-known, such as Denise LaSalle, Phyllis Hyman, Etta James and Millie Jackson. I may not particularly love everything a singer sings, but certain performances are wonderful. The big-voiced male singers particularly affect my mood centers, for example, Ray Charles, Joe Williams, Walter Jackson, Arthur Prysock, Lou Rawls, O.C. Smith, Luther Vandross, Bill Medly, Barry White and so many others are among my favorites.

Rare Soul collectors will be very interested in any details on Gone With The Wind Is My Love - what are your recollections of this particular point in your singing career?

After moving to Los Angeles California, in the late sixties, Lou Barreto, who is one of the world's nicest people, asked me to sing 'Gone With The Wind Is My Love', and I think this happened before I met Ray Charles. I may not have the chronology right because that session went by in a flash. I loved the song and learned it quickly. I remember Lou Barreto and I had a long discussion about the lyric - 'he freeze'. I wanted to say it properly, 'he froze' - but Lou explained to me that 'froze' didn't rhyme with 'breeze', and I had to sing it his way. The recording session was short - within a matter of hours - I was impressed with Lou's ability to make records. I never met the Tiaras, but I enjoyed their work. Lou Barreto was a joy to work with. He knew exactly what he wanted, and how to get it across to me. I knew nothing of the Dore Label, and I never met anyone associated with it. I think Lou gave me two or three copies of 'Gone With The Wind', and I often wondered what had happened to Lou Barreto, and the recording. Actually, it was Lou's 'out-of-the-blue' E-mail, asking if I was the Rita who sang 'Gone With The Wind Is My Love', that put me in contact with the way that the Northern Soul Fans have enjoyed this record. I believe that Lou has more concise memories of the making of 'Gone With The Wind'. I still have one copy of 'Gone With The Wind'. The Mp3 studio mix version below is what was originally recorded in the studio. The record that was released had been shortened to fit the length that radio programmers preferred.

Lou Barreto Comments:
In the early 60's, I wrote the song called "Gone with the wind is my Love". Originally, the Tiara's were the feature group for the tune. They rehearsed the song at their house in Santa Ana California and laid down a home tape recording of the tune. The group consisted of three girls - Edna, Joyce and Latosha. Edna was the lead singer and went on become a part of the Ike & Tina Turner team for about ten years. I got hold of Jack Eskew in Hollywood and gave him the tape to listen and I said "lets do the arrangement with a Motown feeling"....and he came up with an excellent arrangement. We did the recording at Nashville recordings (used to be Capitol Records). The engineer was Sy Mitchell who now works for Capitol. When we selected Edna to sing the lead on "Gone With The Wind", her voice just did not feel right for that tune.....Edna has an excellent voice, but the tune did not fit her style, so we started looking for another performer. Can't remember who introduced me to Rita....I visited Rita when she was living with her Mother in Los Angeles California and discussed the possibility of singing the tune "Gone With The Wind". Rita accepted the challenge, I gave her a copy of the song to learn and then it came time to go into the studio. Her voice fitted the tune and it was a good match....Hence, we dubbed Rita's voice on an open track and the rest was history.....We then negotiated with Dore Records owner Lew Bedell to promote and distribute the song locally and nationally as well as securing production royalties for production and artists.

Can you tell us about your time with Ray Charles' backing band, The Raelettes?

Right after we cut 'Gone With The Wind', I got a Gig working with a Rhythm and Blues Band in Sydney Australia at the famous King's Cross Whisky A-Go-Go. That was a fabulous experience. After I sang on the Sydney Tonight Show without the band, they separated me from the band and booked me into a showroom in the Hotel Australia in Adelaide Australia with a 10-piece jazz band. The night before I was scheduled to leave Australia after four months, My Australian buddy insisted on going to the Armory to see my friends who were working with Ray Charles (Billy Preston, drummer Billy Moore and the band manager, Curtis Amy,who later played all of the horns on Carol King's Tapestry Album). It was freezing cold, and I really wanted to go back to the hotel. Curtis Amy was then married to one of the Raelettes, Merry Clayton. My friend, drummer Billy Moore had quit the band just before their Australian tour. Curtis Amy and Billy Preston took me into R.C.'s dressing room before the show - and R.C. did that 'I can guess your weight by holding your wrist' thing, which was really uncanny, because he guessed my weight accurately. After the show, we hung around the dressing room talking about music. R.C. sat at the piano, moving his fingers around the chords, soon, the subject turned to obscure tunes. It isn't commonly known how much R.C. loved songs - all kinds of songs in every genre - he was what is known as a 'tune junkie' and so am I (he and I would have 'tune contests', to see if one of us could come up with a song the other didn't know. Of course, he usually won, but I 'got' him every now and then.) I think the fact that I knew so many songs in so many areas is what set me apart from other singers he'd worked with, which amazed me, because he was surrounded by great singers. The Raelettes at that time were Clydie King, Merry Clayton, Alex Brown, who was named Brandi Alexander by R.C.'s manager, Joe Adams) and Gwendolyn Berry. Alex Brown went on to become one of Stevie Wonder's long-time background singers. I was leaving Australia the day after we met, and I thought that was the end of that. I'm currently in the process of completing a Ray Charles Tribute CD called, 'My Days With Ray' that includes the first song we sang together that night, ('This Is The Moment' - he played a chord and sang the first line and I sang the next one - we were both delighted, because it's not a song that most people have ever heard.) My tribute CD is a collection of special songs that I knew R.C. loved and were apart of the two and a half years I spent with him.

Three months after I returned to Los Angeles from Australia, my Mom answered the phone and she was thrilled when she realized who was calling. I wasn't there, and when I got home, my Mother said, 'You'd better sit down. Ray Charles wants to produce an album for you.' As it turned out, R.C. cut 2-3 tunes at a time, in between his tour dates. These 4 or 5 recording sessions were very big, with strings on top of the Ray Charles 18-piece band. The arrangements were written by Sid Feller who produced Ray's 'Georgia On My Mind'.

What was the real Ray Charles like behind his public persona?

For that year and a half while we were recording the album 'Rita Graham Vibrations', I got to know R.C. without all the trappings of the International Star. We were in private sessions in the studio and he told me so much of his life and inner feelings. We talked about everything - his drug addiction, and his trials and tribulations to over-come it - his Mother's strength and her determination to make him independent - his blindness - and his intuitive and wise philosophies. At that time, R.C. would fly by himself all over the world, if he had somewhere he wanted to go, and he would leave the show to come to L.A. to work with me. The 'Vibrations' album is comprised mainly of old standards, with only two 'original' songs, all personally chosen by Ray Charles. To this day, I am the only single female/Raelette for whom R.C. produced a major recording on his own label, Tangerine Records, that was then distributed by ABC Paramount (TRC1507).

I believe the 'Rita Graham Vibrations' album has remained a popular seller to this day?

I've noticed that several labels are re-producing and selling 'Rita Graham Vibrations' on E-Bay and I'm wondering how that's done, so that I can sell it myself!

I read somewhere that the success of the 'Vibrations' album had an adverse affect on the other Raelettes?

I didn't know it at the time, but years later, I realized that once it was known that my album was released, it became the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for R.C.'s Raelettes. They all quit one night while the show was booked into L.A.'s Premiere night club, the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel. The next morning after I had been at the Grove, 'glowing' to everyone about my album that Ray Charles had produced, R.C. called me and asked me to be at his office in the Washington Boulevard RPM Studios within the hour. Two other girls there, Beverly LeShure and Susaye Green and I, made up the new (Instant) Raelettes. That night, we were standing on the stage of the Grove, and I was a nervous wreck. Unlike the other girls, I'd had no experience with harmony and group singing, because I'd never been a church singer and I'd never been with any singing group, except for solo work with a professional choir when I was eleven.

I did several concerts as a Raelette, while enduring the rigors of traveling with a large entourage and trying to understand how Ray Charles seemed to forget the spectacular recording project that he had created and handed me on a silver platter. He said my vocal quality was unique and that he loved the 'Vibrations' album, but no promotion was provided for it. I'd hoped that I was finally going to get some PR for that album, and some recognition for it since it had just been released to good reviews. It became clear to me that being a Raelette was a 'behind-the-scenes' positon, one in which very few people even knew the names of the girls in the back-up group. I had just finished a major album, and I told R.C. how confused I was about his attitude toward the project. He was furious when I quit - he was famous for his temper tantrums - but over the years, we made up and remained good friends. He came to Atlanta about three years before he died and I had the pleasure of opening for him at Sambuca, where I still sing. (Since May, 1999) Seeing him for the last time in Atlanta, I was able to let him know again that I was grateful for his loving genorosity in my life.

I was surprised when you told me recently that you'd done some work with Sherlie Matthews who we featured on this website in December 2008

In the late sixties, a friend named Frank Walker formed an 8-voice group, ala The Manhattan Transfer. This was where I met Sherlie Matthews, who was one of the four female voices. Frank Walker had led a sparkling 4-voice vocal group called The Zeniths that had worked in Las Vegas and had been managed by the Platter's manager, Buck Ram. Unfortunately, Walker's new 8-voice group wasn't together long enough to have had a name. I never got to know the other singers in this group.