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| The Persuasions - Holiday Celebration |
FEATURING:
Joe Russell - vocals
Jim Hayes - vocals
Ray Sanders - vocals
Jayotis Washington - vocals
BJ Jones - vocals |
THE PERSUASIONS are the undisputed heavyweight champions of a cappella. They are to singing what Muhammad Ali was to boxing—invincible, innovative, original, beautiful.
Together since they started singing on the stoops of Brooklyn in 1961, The Persuasions have released 18 albums, and have recorded or performed with artists including Liza Minelli, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, The Neville Brothers, Country Joe McDonald, B.B. King. Their music has turned up in films from Joe and the Volcano to E.T.
The Persuasions continue to record solid albums, generally on smaller labels. They’ve mixed it up a bit, recording a children’s album, On the Good Ship Lollipop, in 1999, followed by successive tribute albums to Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles. Over these years they’ve amassed a collection of fans more diverse than just about any soul group you’ll find. They’re a real treasure.
The original five Persuasions—Jerry Lawson, Jimmy Hayes, Joe Russell, Jayotis Washington, and Toubo Rhoad—carried the a cappella torch alone through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, until the genre suddenly acquired mainstream popularity as an outgrowth of rap. (Rhoad died in 1988, and the baritone slot is now filled by former Drifter Bernard “B.J.” Jones.) Jerry Lawson left the group in late 2003 to pursue other options and has been replaced Ray Sanders who has performed with the Velours and the Paragons.
Rolling Stone rated their 1977 album, Chirpin’, one of the hundred best works of the 1970s. Rock critic and author Greil Marcus has called their style a “perfect marriage of passion and intelligence.” Mix Magazine wrote “The Persuasions are four parts of one voice, one spirit.” Cash Box proclaimed in 1996, “These all-vocal, instrument-free heroes paved the way for today’s platinum a cappella acts, Take 6 and Bobby McFerrin, as well as the retro-hip-hop styles of Boyz II Men and Color Me Badd.” Or, as Tom Waits once said, “These guys are deep sea divers. I’m just a fisherman in a boat.”
Their film documentary, Spread the Word: The Persuasions Sing A Cappella, produced and directed by Fred Parnes, drew nothing but praise from publications ranging from The New York Post to the Hollywood Daily Variety. (It airs periodically on PBS.) Andy Klein of the L.A. Reader wrote: “Feeling depressed? Life got ya down? Is that your problem, Binky? If it is, I can think of no greater remedy than to watch Fred Parnes’s documentary, Spread the Word: The Persuasions Sing A Cappella—a funny, moving, and invigorating look at a vocal group that is one of America’s national treasures. . .Actually, I can think of one greater remedy for despondency: if the Persuasions happen to be playing around town, go see them. No film could possibly capture the sheer joy and energy of the group live.”
They all came from church and secular musical backgrounds, and from the start, their repertoire was a mix of gospel, soul, and pop. They graduated from parties to doo-wop shows (although doo-wop makes up only a small part of their repertoire), In the mid-60s, they worked with Robert F. Kennedy in various projects to aid African-Americans in the inner cities.
The Persuasions were discovered by Frank Zappa, of all people, in 1968. So striking and formidable was their vocal prowess that Zappa signed them to his Straight label (Warner Brothers) merely on the strength of hearing them perform over the phone—after a friend called from a New York nightclub, declaring, “Frank, you’ve got to hear this.”
Following the Straight album, A Cappella, The Persuasions signed with Capitol and recorded three of the most arresting vocal albums in history: We Came to Play, Spread the Word, and Street Corner Symphony. They covered tunes by Bob Dylan, Kurt Weill, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, The Temptations, Joe South, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lennon and McCartney. From there came a procession of acclaimed albums on Rounder, MCA, A&M, Elektra, Flying Fish. Their 1997 Christmas album, You’re All I Want For Christmas, was recommended by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Urban Network magazine.
Over the years, rock-dominated radio never quite knew how to market them. Record companies sometimes didn’t bother to try. After all, they had no band, and their material was eclectic. Were they a novelty? Folk? R&B? It took Tower Records at least 20 years to stop filing their records and CDs in “oldies,” “vocals,” and “R&B,” and finally just give them their own category where they belonged: “Rock and Pop.”
Why the eclecticism? Because they don’t believe in categories. “We love all kinds of music: Brook Benton, gospel, blues, Frank Zappa—hell, we even do ‘I Woke Up In Love This Morning,’ a song I heard on The Partridge Family TV show! It’s all music. Give it to us, and we’ll do it Persuasions-style.”
From Dylan’s “The Man in Me” to Zappa’s withering commentary, “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing,” The Persuasions imbue songs with a conviction, heart, and humor that perhaps even the authors didn’t intend. Their commitment to varied material still confounds the label-conscious music business.
As the group says “We ain’t no novelty act or nostalgia or any of that. We’re truth.” After 37 rollicking and sometimes harrowing years, The Persuasions’ motto remains intact: “We still ain’t got no band.”
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