Esquerita - Rockin' this Joint

Esquerita (Steven Quince Reeder Jr.) é mais um dos gênios jogados pra escanteio da história do rock. Auto-didata no piano, largou a escola em 1950 e entrou pro coral gospel Heavenly Echoes, de Nova York. Depois disso, ele entrou pro circuito de R&B de Dallas-Nova Orleans no começo dos anos 50, adotando suas camisas coloridas, seu topete imenso e seus óculos femininos. Acredita-se que ele tenha influenciado Little Richard (prova disso seriam as primeiras gravações de Richard em Nova Orleans, que nada ou pouco tinham do estilo pelo qual ele ficaria famoso posteriormente).
Esquerita conseguiu, através de Paul Peek, guitarrista de Gene Vincent, um contrato de gravação com a Capitol Records, decidida a conseguir "outro" Little Richard, que foram compiladas no LP "Esquerita" de 1959, o único álbum de estúdio gravado por ele, além de vários singles. No começo dos anos 60, ele fez algumas gravações pra Motown, mas as mesmas nunca viram a luz do dia, até onde eu sei.
Continuou gravando singles e trabalhando como músico de estúdio durante os anos 60, mas no começo dos anos 70, sua carreira começou a decair, tocando em clubes novaiorquinos durante a década, até que no meio da década de 80, descobriu-se que ele trabalhava num estacionamento / lava jato, vindo a falecer em de AIDS 1986, mesmo que ainda seja relativamente desconhecido, sua influência e importância vem sido reconhecidas em vários meios, tendo sido inclusive homenageado numa música de Mick Jones com o B.A.D.

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Esquerita (born Steven Quince Reeder Jr.) is another rock'n'roll genius who got thrown away to the musical gutter. Self taught at the piano, his career started in 1950, when he dropped high school to join a NY-based gospel chorus Heavenly Chorus. After that, he joined the Dallas - New Orleans R&B circuit, adopting his flamboyant shirts, 60 inch pompadour and female sunglasss, supposedly influencing Little Richard (a proof of that comes from Richard's first New Orleans recordings, portraying little or nothing of the wild style that eventually made him famous).
Thanks to Paul Peek, the Blue Caps guitarist, Esquerita got a recording contract with Capitol Records, who wanted to get it's own "version" of Little Richard. These recordings got released as an eponymous LP in 1959, his only proper studio album, besides recording a bunch of singles. In the early 60s, he made a few recordings for Motown, but as far as I know, thse recordings never saw the sunlight.
He kept recording and working as a session musicians through the 60s, but his career started to go downhill in the early 70s, playing in small NY clubs during the decade. It's known he worked in a parking lot in the mid 80s, until his death due to complications with AIDS in 1986. Even though he's still sorta unknown, his influence and importance gets more recognized in certain circles day by day, even winning a tribute song by Mick Jones (at the time, with B.A.D.), called Esquerita.


1. Oh Baby
2. Please Come Home
3. Sarah Lee
4. I Live the Life I Love [Version 1]
5. Katie Mae
6. Wait a Minute Baby
7. Rockin' the Joint
8. Golly Golly, Annie Mae
9. I Found Her
10. Hey Miss Lucy
11. I'm Battie over Hattie
12. Crazy Crazy Feeling
13. Esquerita and the Voola
14. She Left Me Crying
15. Why Did It Take You So Long
16. Gettin' Plenty of Lovin'
17. Believe Me When I Say Rock 'N' Roll Is Here to Stay
18. Laid Off
19. I Live the Life I Love [Version 2]
20. This Thing Called Love
21. Get Back Baby
22. Baby Come Back
23. Baby, You Can Depend on Me
24. Just Another Lie
25. You Can't Pull Me Down
26. I Need You
27. Maybe Baby
28. Hole in My Heart


Download

Houve um pequeno erro de tags, o álbum (e a arte no zip) são de um disco chamado Capitol's Collector Series, mas o álbum se chama Rockin' this Joint, na verdade. Foi mal :(

There was a little tag mistake, the album (and the art in the zip) are from the Capitol's Collector Series album, but the posted one's called Rockin' this Joint, actually. My bad :(