You may not know his name, but you surely know his work. Legendary soul
and rhythm and blues bassist Jerry Jemmott – a studio veteran and road
dog for the likes of King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Thad
Jones/Mel Lewis, Nina Simone, B.B. King and on and on and on – has
carved out a large place in American popular music.
Jemmott grew up in the Bronx, New York, studying jazz at an early age.
But buying an electric bass and hearing James Jamerson lay down the
low-end pavement on "Shotgun," turned his musical life around. After a
stint with Lionel Hampton, he went to work for soul saxophonist King
Curtis, and quickly found himself in the thick of the blues, soul and
R&B of the late '60s and '70s, as a progenitor of the Muscle Shoals
sound, and very nearly an Allman Brother.
We caught up with Jemmott at his home in Mississippi, where he still
plays actively, running his own band, Souler Energy, and working as a
sideman with Greg Allman.
What is it about blues and soul and R&B that drew you in as a player?
The audience that it attracted. The dancing, the singing, the fine
women. The location, the environment. All these things are attractive
to a kid who, by now was, this was about 1964, so I was 18 years old.
Before that I was basically a jazz musician. The only thing I wanted to
play was jazz. That's all I played, basically.
What music did you first hear R&B and blues and soul-wise that sucked you in?
I heard the radio. I wasn't that much into it. What attracted me
basically was the ability and the idea of playing that music for a
particular audience. That's what attracted me to it because before that
I was playing at typical social functions, where they'd have like five
or six bands, and people partying from like 9 o'clock until 4 o'clock
in the morning. The band I played in played a little bit of everything.
They had a calypso band, and other bands. I was playing with a band
called Smiling Henry and the Rhythm Makers. That was my first band.
Cool name, right?
We played local ballrooms where they'd hire five or six bands, in
addition to playing nightclubs. So I got a chance to see music
performed. This was when I was 12 years old. But for rhythm and blues,
I just liked the way people responded to the music. The musician's I
was playing with when I happened to make the switch, they were into
this Miles Davis persona where they wanted to be real cool and ignore
the audience. So I just decided I'd had enough of it. Ironically this
was when I was playing with cats close to my age. They had this kind of
attitude. Before that I was usually playing with cats that were older
than me. I was usually the baby in the band. They were more responsible
people. They played music the people wanted to hear.
So I was a little pissed and I decided I was going to pick up an
electric instrument. So that's what I did. That's what drew me into it
basically. And then playing it. What got me going was hearing James
Jamerson playing "Shotgun." That's the first line that I learned that
attracted me. I've been playing "Shotgun" ever since, really, in some
form or fashion. That's what got me into it as a player. As a listener,
I learned to enjoy the music and of course you have to listen to learn
to increase my vocabulary and understanding the forms. So it was
basically wanting to please the audience that got me into this form of
music.
Based on what you studied playing jazz and then moving into blues
and R&B, what skills did you bring to the party, both playing live
and then working your way into the studio? What did you have that other
players didn't?
Groove. Skills. Technique. Knowledge. And creativity. These are the
things a jazz musician will have to learn to do. Sometimes they might
get stuck in one groove, and all they can play is in four and straight
ahead and in one style, but usually the good ones learn to play
everything. It's funny, I read an article, one of your questions led me
to think about musicians, and I read the biography of one of my
favorite musicians, Idris Muhammad. His story is very similar to mine,
but he just played and he was pulled into the circle, whatever circle
he was pulled into, he was able to play that type of music.
