Arlene Talley, Vocalist, October 26 at Harlem Speaks, The Jazz Museum in Harlem

Buster Williams Magical at Harlem Speaks

Arlene Talley, Vocalist, October 26, 2006

On October 12th, Buster Williams discussed his life and career with Christian McBride, renowned bassist and co-director of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, for the bi-weekly series Harlem Speaks.

His father, Charles Anthony “Cholly" Williams taught him piano and drums early on, but his son didn't take his lessons seriously. But when his father played bass legend Oscar Pettiford's solo version of “Star Dust" he was deeply moved by the interpretation and actually hearing Pettiford's thumb slide up and down the neck of the instrument. Buster asked his father to teach him bass. He was 13 at the time. “He was like the Buddha. I had to ask him three times before he agreed."

He recalled his mother, Gladys, singing the bridge to tunes that his father would sing at home, where Buster grew up in Camden, New Jersey with four sisters. His father began playing bass after raising a family, and took music very seriously, so he was a hard task master. A quick study, Buster began playing with local legends in New Jersey and Philadelphia, a hop and a skip from his hometown. He began performing at the age of 16 with Jimmy Heath's band at the Sahara club.

Not long thereafter, his father put him down with a gig with Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. “They were performing at the Douglass Hotel. I got there first, and positioned myself so I can see them when they came down the stairs. Soon I saw a man walk down the stairs wearing Italian shoes, a mustard-colored mohair suit, carrying two saxophones. He looked like a god. I stood up, at attention."

“Who are you?" Stitt asked.

“Charles Williams."

“So?"

“I'm the bass player."

“You gonna make the gig?"

“I'll try."

“You gonna make the gig?"

“I'll try, sir."

“YOU GOING TO MAKE THE GIG?"

“Yes, sir!"

After the first set, Stitt and Ammons took Buster downstairs and asked him if he wanted to stay with the band. The recording “Boss Tenors" is an example of their time together, which totaled a year and a half. Thereafter he played bass with “the exciting" Dakota Staton, the first in a long line of vocalists with which he performed. From Betty Carter “I learned how to play slow and how to really swing"; from Sarah Vaughan “how to play in tune."

He recalled coming to Harlem in the 'sixties, and going to a popular small restaurant, Cozy's, and there meeting Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, both of whom he began to gig with. “Harlem in those days had a flair; I loved it, it was wonderful." For a time he lived on 139th street, and says that “Everyone was sharp in those days. Even if you wore jeans, it had to have a crease in it!" After naming a long list of clubs popular then--Sugar Ray's, Small's Paradise, Count Basie's, the Club Baron, and the Red Rooster--he told the attentive audience about performing with Nancy Wilson at the Apollo, where he had to lug his bass all the way to the dressing rooms at the top of the venue.

He also recounted how tough narcotics officers were in Philly; playing in the French Riviera with Vaughan, there meeting Miles Davis's band, which included Herbie Hancock, George Coleman, Ron Carter and Tony Williams; his pride in being Ray Brown's and Ron Carter's first call replacement; Nancy Wilson moving him and his new wife to Los Angeles in 1965; days playing with his dream band: the Miles Davis Quintet, and conversations he had with Davis on cars and clothing; performing with the Jazz Crusaders and Hampton Hawes; taking Paul Chambers place with Jimmy Cobb and Wynton Kelly after Chamber's death; and memories of his tenure with Mary Lou Williams.

He discovered Buddhism from one of his sisters, whom he asked do one of the Buddhist chants for some of his bandmates. They thought it was swingin'. Not long after he began chanting he had a memorable experience with Herbie Hancock's band. He started a gig off (the other band members were tired from hanging out all night and day from the previous evening), playing solo, with Billy Hart accompanying. “The ideas just flowed; the band and everyone from the back of the club came to the front and stared." After the set Hancock pulled him to the back, and asked, “What was that? I've never heard you play like that!" Buster told him about the great results he and his sister were having from chanting, and Hancock began doing the same. (Hancock later introduced Wayne Shorter to the art of Buddhist meditation.)

Buster Williams ended the magical night, in which he brought to life jazz lore, the way he began it, by discussing his father's legacy to him: “He was my mentor and my hero."

Arlene Talley, guest of Harlem Speaks on October 26, 2006, was born and raised in Harlem New York on July 23, 1933. She presently works at St. Nicks Pub, where she performs jazz each Saturday.

She started singing at the age of six years old, often performing at Masonic dances, where her father was a member. At 23 Talley began working at The Club Lido, on 125th street and 5th Avenue. There she met Redd Foxx, Still Austin, Ruth Brown, and Frank “Floor Show" Cully.

She stayed on at the Lido every weekend approximately six months. Then Talley began singing with Frank Cully at the Apollo Bar on 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Frank Culley nabbed a contract with Atlantic Records, and she recorded her debut song, “Little Miss Blues with him. On the flip side was “Round about Midnight," which became a hit.

In 1944, Talley went on the road with Culley and was introduced to a manager, Nat Nazarro, who introduced her to the Isley Boys. Nazarro put together a group with Talley and The Isley Boys known The Cousins. They sang together at The Apollo Theatre for a full week under that name. After the Apollo, they went to The Howard Theater in Washington D. C. under the banner of Arlena and the Isley Brothers, performing for three weeks.

She began singing with Art Blakey in 1946, worked with him for a year, and met Illinois Jaquet at the Apollo Bar in 1947. He heard her soulful voice and hired Talley for his band. They traveled on the road to Virginia and Alabama, and encountered Jim Crow Laws--white people could dance on the main floor, but black people had to stay upstairs in the balcony. The group had to go in the back door instead of using the front door. She also worked at the Apollo Theatre with Jaquet, and also performed with him at Atlantic City, Montreal and Quebec.

After raising her children, Talley resumed singing at neighborhood clubs in Harlem, where she lives today. She's been singing on and off at the St. Nick Pub for approximately 20 years with her own band, “Arlene and the Crew." The Harlem Speaks series, supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced by the Jazz Museum in Harlem's Executive Director, Loren Schoenberg, Co- Director Christian McBride, and Greg Thomas Associates. The series occurs at the offices of the Jazz Museum in Harlem, located at 104 East 126th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, from 6:30pm- 8:30pm.

This discussion series is free to the public.