User:Rudypoo/sandbox
David Lastie | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | David Lastie |
| Born | November 11, 1934 New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Died | December 5, 1987 (aged 53) New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Genres | Rhythm and blues, Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Saxophonist, bandleader, composer |
| Years active | c.1952 – 1987 |
David Lastie, Sr. (November 11, 1934- December 5, 1987[1]) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues saxophonist, bandleader, and composer from the musical Lastie family[2] who played and recorded for more than thirty years.[3]
David Lastie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up in the lower 9th Ward of the city. His parents Frank and Alice Hill Lastie raised six children- Chester, Melvin, David, Joseph, Walter, and Betty Ann.[4] Frank Lastie was a disciple of faith healer Mother Catherine Seals, who had brass musicians in her services in the Spiritual church and was a trombonist herself. Seals persuaded Deacon Lastie to play drums in church. He went on to teach his sons Melvin, David, and Walter to play music in church. Daughter Betty Ann became a gospel singer, following in the family musical tradition.[5] David Lastie later recalled, "Oh yeah, you had to go to church if you wanted to stay in my house. All our background history of music comes from the church."[6] As a young man he became interested in the saxophone. His older brother Melvin met sax player Ornette Coleman on a job in Natchez, Mississippi, and invited him to move in with the Lastie family in New Orleans. Coleman and Melvin practiced together. "I went to church with him and his father, and I took the alto, David's horn, and I played there every Sunday," Coleman recalled. He lived with the Lastie family for close to a year. David learned fingerings on the sax from Leroy Sergion, an alto player in Melvin's and Roy Brown's band. He sketched out the sax keys on a piece of board and would play along with his brother and Sergion. He also took lessons from Buddy Hagan, who played in Fats Domino's band. He was a fan of popular saxophonists like Louis Jordan, Jimmy Forrest, and Jimmy Liggins.[7] At age 15 he was making deliveries for a retail drug establishment.[8]
In the early 1950s Lastie joined the House Rockers, started by his uncle Jessie Hill who played the drums. The group played R&B music in neighborhood clubs, as well as in hillbilly bars in St. Bernard Parish[9] In 1952 Gulf Coast promoter Percy Stovall put together a band with Lastie on tenor sax, Eddie Lang (born Eddie Lee Langlois) on guitar, and Huey "Piano" Smith on piano to back guitarist/ singer Guitar Slim on a tour of the South. They recorded two sides in Nashville for Jim Bulleit's (of Bullet Records) J-B label, "Certainly All" b/w "Feelin’ Sad". By 1953 Lastie was back in New Orleans. He joined Cha-Paka-Shaweez[7], a musical ensemble which featured James "Sugar Boy" Crawford on piano and vocals. The group was formed in 1950 at Booker T. Washington High School, and had previously recorded for Aladdin Records. Leonard Chess of Chess heard them rehearsing at a local radio station, and they recorded a series of sides for Chess subsidiary Checker Records in 1953 and 1954. Chess changed the name of the band, still under contract to Aladdin, to Sugarboy and the Cane Cutters. The records sold well locally but failed to reach the national charts. One song, "Jock-A-Mo", became a Carnival perennial in New Orleans.[10] Lastie later said of his time with Sugarboy, "We had a hell of a band. Sugar Boy loved to play. Man when I was hooked up with Sugar Boy, we were working five, sometimes six nights a week."[11] In 1965 New Orleans girl group The Dixie Cups reached #20 on the U.S. Billboard chart with the song under the name "Iko Iko". Since then numerous versions have been released in the U.S. and abroad.[12] Lastie left Sugarboy and the Cane Cutters in 1954 to form the first Lastie Brothers combo with his brother Melvin. Also in that band were Reveal Thomas on piano, Lawrence Guyton on guitar, and Jessie Hill on drums. This short-lived version broke up in 1954. David Lastie went for a western tour with R&B singer Smiley Lewis. He remembered, "I wrecked the band’s car after my first night in Tijuana. I lost the car and most of my money to the Mexican police, so we had to ride in Smiley’s car 'Lillie Mae'." After that he went back on the road with Sugarboy Crawford and Papa Lightfoot.[7] The Lastie Brothers band reformed to play at the Caffin Theater with a new member, pianist "Spider" Bocage, later known as Eddie Bo. Bo soon recorded "I'm Wise" and "Hey Bo" on Apollo Records, after which he was signed by the Shaw Booking Agency. He built a band with himself on piano, David Lastie and Robert Parker on saxes, Walter "Popee" Lastie on drums, and Irving Banister on guitar. They toured the United States backing Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Amos Milburn, and Charles Brown.[13]
References[edit]
- ^ "David Lastie, Sr". radioswissjazz.ch. Radio Swiss Jazz. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ "nola.com- In New Orleans Jazz, Many Roads Lead to the Lasties by Chelsea Brasted". Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
- ^ "On This Day in Louisiana Music History". satchmo.com. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ "Betty Ann Lastie Williams". rhodesfuneral.com. Rhodes United Fidelity Funeral Home. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ^ Berry, Jason (September 2000). "Rhythm With a Spirit". New Orleans Magazine. 34 (12).
- ^ Broven, John (May 29, 1983). David Lastie Interview transcript. John Broven Collection at the Library of Congress.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c Berry, Jason; Foose, Jonathan; Jones, Tad (1986). Up From the Cradle of Jazz- New Orleans Music Since World War ll. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-0854-4.
- ^ "David Lastie". ancestry.com. United Staes Census Bureau. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ Hannusch, Jeff. Jessie Hill- Can’t Get Enough (Of That Ooh Poo Pah Doo) (Media notes). Bandy Records.
- ^ Goldberg, Marv. "The Sha-Weez". uncamarvy.com. Marv Goldberg's Yesterday's Memories Rhythm & Blues Party. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
- ^ Hannusch, Jeff (1985). I Hear You Knocking’- The Sound of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues. Swallow Publications. ISBN 0-9614245-0-8.
- ^ Collier, Beth. "What Does Iko Iko Mean?". substack.com. Substack. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ Hannusch, Jeff (2001). The Soul Of New Orleans: a Legacy of Rhythm and Blues. Swallow Publications. ISBN 0-9614245-8-3.