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credit: KOSHTRA TOLLE
The saga of Howard Tate is, in the truest sense of the
word, inspirational. Spanning sixty tumultuous years;
rich with triumph and tragedy, popular acclaim and bitter
betrayal, it is, simply put, the stuff of legend.
But, like any great story, it’s only as good as
its ending. Fatefully, for Howard Tate, and no less
than the millions of true believing blues fans across
the country and around the world, his life has all the
satisfying resonance that comes from just rewards attained,
long-delayed promises fulfilled and a genuinely happy-ever-after
future.
That future begins with REDISCOVERED, his thrilling
new album on Private Music / Arista Associated Labels
and the first new release by this quintessential blues
vocalist in over three decades. What happened to Howard
Tate in all those long intervening years not only makes
for a breathtaking testament to the tenacity of the
human spirit; it, in itself, is the spirit that adorns
these twelve beautiful and moving new tracks.
Tate was one of the brightest lights of the mid-to-late
Sixties R&B scene. Even among such giants as Otis
and Percy and Wilson, Tate stood out. It was a reputation
due in large part to an incendiary live show, his landmark
1967 debut album Get It While You Can, and a creative
partnership with producer and songwriter Jerry Ragovoy,
the man behind such R&B perennials as “Time
is on My Side” and “Piece of My Heart.”
Yet even as a string of Top 20 hits -- including “Look
at Granny Run Run,” “Stop,” and “Ain’t
Nobody Home” -- were followed up by second album
in 1974, a chapter depressingly familiar to many black
music stars of the era was beginning to unfold. Unscrupulous
promoters, unrelenting tour schedules, and unconscionable
royalty payments conspired to suck the pleasure and
profit out of Tate’s career. By the mid-Seventies
he had walked away from it all, leaving behind an unfulfilled
musical destiny and a legion of disappointed fans.
It is here that Howard Tate’s story takes a dark
and dangerous turn, tinged by self-destruction and tragedy.
Returning to his native Philadelphia, he began selling
insurance to support his wife and six children, one
of whom – a thirteen year old daughter –
perished in a house fire in 1976. A slow-motion descent
into drugs and alcohol landed him on the mean streets,
where he lived hand to mouth until he reached bottom
in 1994 and found God waiting for him there.
Forming the itinerant Gift of the Cross church, meeting
in the living rooms of his small but fervent congregation,
Tate took on his new mantle with a dedication and devotion
that turned his life around, freeing him from drugs
and alcohol and giving him a compassion for the homeless
and hopeless in whose company he had been.
But the miracles in the life of Howard Tate were only
beginning. Even while he tended to his flock, his longtime
producer Jerry Ragovoy had embarked on his own quest
to find Tate. “Ever since the late Seventies I
had been getting calls from promoters and club owners
wanting to book Howard,” Ragovoy recalls. “I
tried everything I could think of to find him, but it
was as if he’d dropped off the face of the earth.”
But Ragovoy wasn’t the only fan that kept the
flame burning for Howard Tate. Philadelphia area DJ
Phil Casden had at the same time launched a one-made
crusade on his radio show for information leading to
the whereabouts of the blues legend.
Interest and demand for the brilliant blues of this
once-forgotten prodigy grew following the 1995 re-release
of Get It While You Can, even as the liner notes of
album referred to the artist in the past tense. But
as Mark Twain once quipped, reports of his death had
been greatly exaggerated.
News of a chance encounter with a fellow musician in
a Philadelphia supermarket on New Year’s Day,
2001, reached Casden’s radio show and was quickly
conveyed to Ragovoy. “It was amazing,” the
producer and songwriter confides. “I immediately
got in touch with him. I had no notion of working with
him again until I heard him speak for the first time.
I could tell right away that he still had it. His voice
was strong and clear, which in itself is a miracle considering
all he had been through over the years.”
The next step had a gratifying sense of inevitably as
Ragovoy arranged for Tate to begin performing again,
including appearances at the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage and Portland Oregon’s Waterfront Blues
Festivals.
“I had some doubts about stepping back into that
part of my life,” Tate confesses, “But when
I prayed, God said, ‘I gave you that voice and
there is beauty in all music.’ But in the end
the only thing that persuaded me to start singing again
was Jerry Ragovoy. We go together like a hand and glove.”
“When I first heard him in the studio I almost
fell off my chair,” continues Ragovoy. “He
had lost absolutely none of his range and timbre and,
if anything, his voice had gained some coloration. Hearing
him again was like stepping back thirty years.”
Yet, as much as the overdue reunion effortlessly picked
up where the two had left off, it also served to set
the agenda for a remarkable new chapter in their musical
partnership. Working in studios near Ragovoy’s
Atlanta home base, Tate divided his time between pastoring
his flock and recording a new album with a top-flight
support crew of musicians, included the famed Uptown
Horns. Ragovoy produced, performed on keyboards and
contributed a sheaf of original songs (including “Either
Side of the Same Town” co-written by another longtime
Tate fan, Elvis Costello) that rank easiest among the
finest of his long career.
The result is Rediscovered, and rarely has an album
been more aptly titled. With such consummately crafted
and passionately performed standouts as the rousing
opener, “Mama Was Right”; the decidedly
funky “Organic Love (100% Natural),” the
emotionally resonant “All I Know Is The Way I
Feel,” and Tate’s unforgettable rendition
of the Prince classic “Kiss,” Rediscovered
is nothing less than the re-introduction of classic
R&B artistry for a whole new generation.
And, throughout all the extraordinary twists of fate
that have marked the life of Howard Tate, he remains
faithful to the hard-won truths that have taken him
this new beginning. “Getting back in the studio
and singing again was great,” he concludes. “But
in the back of my mind I always try to remember what
I’m doing it for. It used to be about the glory,
but this time God told me straight up to take whatever
money I made and put it to building a rehab center and
a homeless shelter. I guess it’s His way of reminding
me where I’ve come from …and how far I’ve
still got to go.” |
