Steve Cropper via Matrix

Steve Cropper

THE INTEGRATED GLOBAL
CREATIVE ECONOMY

promulgated by
The Brazilian Ministry of Culture

fomented by
The Bahian Secretary of Culture

fomented by
The Palmares Foundation
for the promotion of Afro-Brazilian Culture

fomented by
The National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples

I CURATE/pathways out

Network Node

Name: Steve Cropper
City/Place: Nashville, Tennessee
Country: United States

CURATION

from this node by: Matrix+

Life & Work

Bio: If Yankee Stadium is “the house that Babe Ruth built,” Stax Records is “the house that Booker T, and the MG’s built.” Integral to that potent combination is MG rhythm guitarist extraordinaire Steve Cropper. As a guitarist, A & R man, engineer, producer, songwriting partner of Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd and a dozen others and founding member of both Booker T. and the MG’s and The Mar-Keys, Cropper was literally involved in virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970.Such credits assure Cropper of an honored place in the soul music hall of fame. As co-writer of (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, Knock On Wood and In The Midnight Hour, Cropper is in line for immortality.

Born on October 21, 1941 on a farm near Dora, Missouri, Steve Cropper moved with his family to Memphis at the age of nine. In Missouri he had been exposed to a wealth of country music and little else. In his adopted home, his thirsty ears amply drank of the fountain of Gospel, R & B and nascent Rock and Roll that thundered over the airwaves of both black and white Memphis radio. Bit by the music bug, Cropper acquired his first mail order guitar at the age of 14. Personal guitar heroes included Tal Farlow, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Chet Atkins, Lowman Pauling of the Five Royales and Billy Butler of the Bill Doggett band.

The aspiring musician quickly became buddies with another guitar playing teenager named Charlie Freeman and together the two schoolmates formed a band they dubbed the Royal Spades. A hybrid version of the Spades, renamed The Mar-Keys, wrote and recorded a popping instrumental entitled Last Night in early summer 1961. Released on Satellite Records, the record shot into the Top 5 on both the pop and R & B charts, When a California company also called Satellite Records threatened to sue over use of the name, the Memphis-based Satellite metamorphosized into Stax.

By the time of the Mar-Keys record, Cropper was something of a studio veteran, already having played sessions for Sun, Duke-Peacock and Hi Records. It was only natural, then. that shortly after quitting the Mar-Keys during their first tour, Cropper was given the keys to the Stax studio and became, along with company co-owner Jim Stewart, the label’s de facto A& R man and engineer.

For the next decade Cropper’s career was wed to Stax. Booker T. & the MG’s were born when Cropper, keyboardist Booker T. Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg were hired for a session in late summer 1962 at the then-fledgling Stax Records. When the rockabilly singer the quartet was ostensibly hired to accompany finished early, the four musicians whiled away their time jamming on a blues. Unbeknownst to any of them, Stax co-owner and erstwhile engineer Jim Stewart turned on a tape deck. Satisfied with the results, the four newly constituted band members worked up a second side which came to be known as Green Onions. A dynasty had begun. In 1964 Steinberg left the band and was replaced by Cropper’s high-school friend Donald “Duck” Dunn.

Green Onions became an instrumental anthem for both black and white America, peaking at number One on Billboard’s Rhythm and Blues charts and number three on the pop charts. Mo’ Onions soon followed, as did Soul Dressing, Boot-leg, My Sweet Potato, Hip Hug-Her, Groovin’, Soul Limbo, Hang ‘Em High, Time Is Tight, Mrs. Robinson, Something and Melting Pot.

Booker T. Jones gradually eased his way away from Stax at the turn of the decade. When Cropper, Dunn and Jackson did not follow suit, the MG’s ceased to be an active unit. Cropper himself left the label in the fall of 1970 to start up, with Jerry Williams and former Mar- Key Ronnie Stoots, the Trans-Maximus (TMI) recording studio and record company. In the first half of the 1970s, Cropper produced and played on sessions recorded at TMI or Ardent by the likes of Poco, Jeff Beck, Jose Feliciano, Yvonne Elliman, John Prine, Dreams and Tower Of Power. Later production successes included Tower of Power’s 1978 LP We Came To Play and John Cougar’s 1980 release Nothing Matters And What If It Did.

In 1977, with Stax alumni Willie Hall filling in for the late Al Jackson, the MG’s briefly reunited to record the Universal Language LP for Asylum. Shortly thereafter Cropper and Dunn joined Levon Helm’s RCO All-Stars and then received a call from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd which resulted in the formation of the Blues Brothers Band. The original incarnation of the Blues Brothers recorded three albums, including the number one Briefcase Full of Blues, and made a hilarious eponymously-titled feature film.

When the Blues Brothers ceased active duty after the passing of Belushi in the spring of 1982, Cropper continued to be in constant demand as both a producer and session guitarist. He also found time to resume his solo career, recording two albums for MCA in 1980 ( Playin’ My Thang) and 1982 ( Night After Night). His first solo album, With a Little Help From My Friends, had been recorded for Stax back in 1969.

In 1997, Steve Cropper and Booker T. and the MG’s career was enshrined in print in Rob Bowman’s, Soulsville U.S.A. : The Story of Stax Records (Schirmer Books). In spring 1998 Fantasy Records issued a three-CD Booker T. and The MG’s box set.

During the whole period of the MG’s glorious renaissance, Cropper has also been busy fulfilling his commitments to The Blues Brothers Band, who have issued two recent CD’s: Live In Montreaux, on WEA International in 1990, and Live From Chicago’s House Of Blues, on the House Of Blues label in 1997.

With John Goodman taking the place of the late John Belushi, The Blues Brothers’ second feature film, Blues Brothers 2000, was released in February 1998.

Cropper also continues to be an in-demand musician and producer. His string-bending talents being most recently showcased on the latest Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy (Heavy Love) and Johnny Lang (Wander This World) albums. He also contributed his talents to efforts from Elton John and Steppenwolf.

In the producer’s chair, he has most recently piloted Joe Louis Walker’s last three albums: 1995’s The Blues Of The Month Club, 1997’s Great Guitars and Preacher And The President (Verve).

Finally, Croppers multiple talents are routinely called upon for movie soundtracks, such as John Carpenter’s 1998 blockbuster Vampires.

In addition to his commitments to the MG’s and The Blues Brothers, Steve Cropper has started his own label (Play It, Steve! Records), whose inaugural release, entitled Play It, Steve!, was released in February 1998.

Nudge It Up A Notch, featuring Steve Cropper and Felix Cavaliere, was released July 29, 2008, on Stax. It’s such an interesting collaboration that even the record label is synonymous with great R&B. Renowned guitarist and R&B legend Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MGs, the Blues Brothers, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave) and vocal/keyboard legendFelix Cavaliere (leader of The Rascals) convened to create an album of incredible proportions.

Then, in 2010, Cropper and vocalist/keyboardist Felix Cavaliere reconvened for their second collaborative recording. Sparks flew at the crossroads of Memphis soul and East Coast R&B when Stax Records released Midnight Flyer.

In 2011, Cropper was approached by producer Jon Tiven (who he’d previously worked with on the first of his two collaborations with Felix Cavaliere) about collaborating on a tribute album to the 5 Royales, and jumped at the chance. Dedicated: A Salute to the 5 Royales combines the talents of a red hot studio band — Cropper, bassist David Hood, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, percussionist Steve Ferrone, drummer Steve Jordan, and Neal Sugarman and Tiven on horns. In addition, Cropper and Tiven enlisted a stellar group of vocalists to perform 5 Royales standards: Lucinda Williams, Sharon Jones, Bettye LaVette, Delbert McClinton, Willie Jones, B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, Buddy Miller, Dan Penn, Brian May, Steve Winwood, John Popper, and Dylan LeBlanc, fronting a great cast of backing singers.

Perhaps the ultimate testament to Steve Cropper’s immense contribution to popular music over the last four decades was his ranking by England’s Mojo Magazine in 1996 as the number two guitarist of all-time (Jimi Hendrix was number one). And in 2003, Rolling Stone magazine readers voted him among the Top 100 Guitar Players of all-time.

As impressive as that is, Steve Cropper’s legacy as a solo artist, member of Booker T. and the MG’s and the Blues Brothers, session musician and producer is far from complete. Steve also owns a state-of-the-art recording studio in Nashville called Insomnia Studio. Here’s looking forward to the next few decades.

Steve Cropper Curated
pathways in

What's Been Happening?

A video was posted re Steve Cropper:

01 Steve Cropper
- June 22, 2020
Booker T. Jones → Soul has been recommended via Steve Cropper.
- June 22, 2020
Booker T. Jones → Songwriter has been recommended via Steve Cropper.
- June 22, 2020
Booker T. Jones → Record Producer has been recommended via Steve Cropper.
- June 22, 2020
Booker T. Jones → R&B has been recommended via Steve Cropper.
- June 22, 2020
Booker T. Jones → Multi-Instrumentalist has been recommended via Steve Cropper.
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Songwriter
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Soul
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

R&B
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Recording Studio Owner
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Record Producer
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Nashville, Tennessee
- June 22, 2020
A category was added to Steve Cropper:

Guitar
- June 22, 2020
Steve Cropper is matrixed!
- June 22, 2020

ENGLISH (pra Portuguese →)

THE MATRIX BEGAN IN AFRICAN BRAZIL BUT NOW ENCOMPASSES THE WORLD

Explore above a complete (and vast) list of artists and other members of the global creative economy interconnected by matrix. If you fit, join them (from the top of any page) and create your own matrix page.

WHY BRAZIL?

Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles — jungle and desert and dense urban centers — both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.

Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil's national music — the pandeiro — the hand drum in the opening scene below — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).

Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil's culturally fecund nordeste/northeast, where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa (Lagoon of the Canoe) and raised in Olho d'Águia (Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil's aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.

Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming a scintillatingly unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.

Nowhere else but here. Brazil itself is a matrix.

✅—João do Boi
João had something priceless to offer the world.
But he was impossible for the world to find...
✅—Pardal/Sparrow

PATHWAYS
from Brazil, with love

THE MISSION: Beginning with the atavistic genius of the Recôncavo (per "RESPLENDENT BAHIA..." below) & the great sertão (the backlands of Brazil's nordeste) — make artists across Brazil — and around the world — discoverable as they never were before.

HOW: Integrate them into a vast matrixed ecosystem together with musicians, writers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers, fashion designers, educators, chefs et al from all over the planet (are you in this ecosystem?) such that these artists all tend to be connected to each other via short, discoverable, accessible pathways. Q.E.D.

"Matrixado! Laroyê!"
✅—Founding Member Darius Mans
Economist, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of Brazil

The matrix was created in Salvador's Centro Histórico, where Bule Bule below, among first-generation matrixed colleagues, sings "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor... The time has come for these bronzed people to show their worth..."

Music & lyrics (Brasil Pandeiro) by Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil. Video by Betão Aguiar of Salvador.

...the endeavor motivated in the first instance by the fact that in common with most cultures around our planet, the preponderance of Brazil's vast cultural treasure has been impossible to find from outside of circumscribed regions, including Brazil itself...

Thus something new under the tropical sun: Open curation beginning with Brazilian musicians recommending other Brazilian musicians and moving on around the globe...

Where by the seemingly magical mathematics of the small world phenomenon, and in the same way that most human beings are within some six or so steps of most others, all in the matrix tend to proximity to all others...

The difference being that in the matrix, these steps are along pathways that can be travelled. The creative world becomes a neighborhood. Quincy Jones is right up the street and Branford Marsalis around the corner. And the most far-flung genius you've never heard of is just a few doors down. Maybe even in Brazil.

"I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
✅—Susan Rogers
Personal recording engineer: Prince, Paisley Park Recording Studio
Director: Music Perception & Cognition Laboratory, Berklee College of Music
Author: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

"Many thanks for this - I am touched!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
That most fabled cellist in the United Kingdom (and Brazilian music fan)

"I'm truly thankful... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Blue Note recording artist

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Founder of The Klezmatics

"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Compositions recorded by Yo Yo Ma and played by orchestras around the world

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, manager)
✅—Kamasi Washington

RESPLENDENT BAHIA...

...is a hot cauldron of rhythms and musical styles, but one particular style here is so utterly essential, so utterly fundamental not only to Bahian music specifically but to Brazilian music in general — occupying a place here analogous to that of the blues in the United States — that it deserves singling out. It is derived from (or some say brother to) the cabila rhythm of candomblé angola… …and it is called…

Samba Chula / Samba de Roda

Mother of Samba… daughter of destiny carried to Bahia by Bantus ensconced within the holds of negreiros entering the great Bahia de Todos os Santos (the term referring both to a dance and to the style of music which evolved to accompany that dance; the official orthography of “Bahia” — in the sense of “bay” — has since been changed to “Baía”)… evolved on the sugarcane plantations of the Recôncavo (that fertile area around the bay, the concave shape of which gave rise to the region’s name) — in the vicinity of towns like Cachoeira and Santo Amaro, Santiago do Iguape and Acupe. This proto-samba has unfortunately fallen into the wayside of hard to find and hear…

There’s a lot of spectacle in Bahia…

Carnival with its trio elétricos — sound-trucks with musicians on top — looking like interstellar semi-trailers back from the future…shows of MPB (música popular brasileira) in Salvador’s Teatro Castro Alves (biggest stage in South America!) with full production value, the audience seated (as always in modern theaters) like Easter Island statues…

…glamour, glitz, money, power and press agents…

And then there’s where it all came from…the far side of the bay, a land of subsistence farmers and fishermen, many of the older people unable to read or write…their sambas the precursor to all this, without which none of the above would exist, their melodies — when not created by themselves — the inventions of people like them but now forgotten (as most of these people will be within a couple of generations or so of their passing), their rhythms a constant state of inconstancy and flux, played in a manner unlike (most) any group of musicians north of the Tropic of Cancer…making the metronome-like sledgehammering of the Hit Parade of the past several decades almost wincefully painful to listen to after one’s ears have become accustomed to evershifting rhythms played like the aurora borealis looks…

So there’s the spectacle, and there’s the spectacular, and more often than not the latter is found far afield from the former, among the poor folk in the villages and the backlands, the humble and the honest, people who can say more (like an old delta bluesman playing a beat-up guitar on a sagging back porch) with a pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine) and a chula (a shouted/sung “folksong”) than most with whatever technology and support money can buy. The heart of this matter, is out there. If you ask me anyway.

Above, the incomparable João do Boi, chuleiro, recently deceased.

PORTUGUÊS (to English →)

O MATRIX COMEÇOU NO BRASIL AFRICANO MAS AGORA ENGLOBA O MUNDO

Explore acima uma lista completa (e vasta) de artistas e outros membros da economia criativa global interconectados por matrix. Se você se encaixar, junte-se a nós (do topo de qualquer página) e cria sua própria página matrix.

POR QUE BRASIL?

O Brasil não é uma nação européia. Não é uma nação norte-americana. Não é uma nação do leste asiático. Compreende — selva e deserto e centros urbanos densos — tanto o equador quanto o Trópico de Capricórnio.

O Brasil absorveu mais de dez vezes o número de africanos escravizados levados para os Estados Unidos da América, e é um repositório de divindades africanas (e sua música) agora em grande parte esquecido em suas terras de origem.

O Brasil era um refúgio (de certa forma) para os sefarditas que fugiam de uma Inquisição que os seguia através do Atlântico (aquele símbolo não oficial da música nacional brasileira — o pandeiro — foi quase certamente trazido ao Brasil por esse povo).

Através das savanas ressequidas do interior do culturalmente fecundo nordeste, onde o mago Hermeto Pascoal nasceu na Lagoa da Canoa e cresceu em Olho d'Águia, uma grande parte da população aborígine do Brasil foi absorvida por uma cultura caboclo/quilombola pontuada pela Estrela de Davi.

Três culturas — de três continentes — correndo por suas vidas, sua confluência formando uma quarta cintilante e sem precedentes. Pandeirista no telhado.

Em nenhum outro lugar a não ser aqui. Brasil é um matrix mesmo.

✅—João do Boi
João tinha algo inestimável pro mundo.
Mas ele era impossível pro mundo encontrar...
✅—Pardal/Sparrow

CAMINHOS
do Brasil, com amor

A MISSÃO: Começando com a atávica genialidade do Recôncavo (conforme "RESPLANDECENTE BAHIA..." abaixo) e do grande sertão — tornar artistas através do Brasil — e ao redor do mundo — descobriveis como nunca foram antes.

COMO: Integrá-los num vasto ecosistema matrixado, juntos com músicos, escritores, cineastas, pintores, coreógrafos, designers de moda, educadores, chefs e outros de todos os lugares (você está neste ecosistema?) de modo que todos esses artistas tendem a estar ligados entre si por caminhos curtos, descobriveis e acessíveis. Q.E.D.

"Matrixado! Laroyê!"
✅—Membro Fundador Darius Mans
Economista, doutorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Presidente do Brasil

O matrix foi criado no Centro Histórico de Salvador, onde Bule Bule no clipe, entre colegas da primeira geração no matrix, canta "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor..."

Música & letras (Brasil Pandeiro) por Assis Valente de Santo Amaro, Bahia. Vídeo por Betão Aguiar de Salvador.

...o empreendimento motivado na primeira instância pelo fato de que em comum com a maioria das culturas ao redor do nosso planeta, a preponderância do vasto tesouro cultural do Brasil tem sido impossível de encontrar fora de regiões circunscritas, incluindo o próprio Brasil.

Assim, algo novo sob o sol tropical: Curadoria aberta começando com músicos brasileiros recomendando outros músicos brasileiros e avançando ao redor do globo...

Onde pela matemática aparentemente mágica do fenômeno do mundo pequeno, e da mesma forma que a maioria dos seres humanos estão dentro de cerca de seis passos da maioria dos outros, todos no matrix tendem a se aproximar de todos...

Com a diferença que no matrix, estes passos estão ao longo de caminhos que podem ser percorridos. O mundo criativo se torna uma vizinhança. Quincy Jones está lá em cima e Branford Marsalis está ao virar da esquina. E o gênio distante que você nunca ouviu falar tá lá embaixo. Talvez até no Brasil.

"Obrigada por me incluir neste matrix maravilhoso!"
✅—Susan Rogers
Engenheiro de gravação pessoal para Prince: Paisley Park Estúdio de Gravação
Diretora: Laboratório de Percepção e Cognição Musical, Berklee College of Music
Autora: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

"Muito obrigado por isso - estou tocado!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
Merecidamente o violoncelista mais lendário do Reino Unido (e fã da música brasileira)

"Estou realmente agradecido... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Artista da Blue Note

"Obrigada, esta é uma ideia brilhante!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Fundadora do The Klezmatics

"Este é um trabalho super impressionante! Parabéns! Obrigada por me incluir :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Composições gravadas por Yo Yo Ma e tocadas por orquestras ao redor do mundo

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, empresário)
✅—Kamasi Washington

RESPLANDECENTE BAHIA...

...é um caldeirão quente de ritmos e estilos musicais, mas um estilo particular aqui é tão essencial, tão fundamental não só para a música baiana especificamente, mas para a música brasileira em geral - ocupando um lugar aqui análogo ao do blues nos Estados Unidos - que merece ser destacado. Ela deriva (ou alguns dizem irmão para) do ritmo cabila do candomblé angola... ...e é chamada de...

Samba Chula / Samba de Roda

Mãe do Samba... filha do destino carregada para a Bahia por Bantus ensconced dentro dos porões de negreiros entrando na grande Bahia de Todos os Santos (o termo refere-se tanto a uma dança quanto ao estilo de música que evoluiu para acompanhar essa dança; a ortografia oficial da "Bahia" - no sentido de "baía" - foi desde então alterada para "Baía")... evoluiu nas plantações de cana de açúcar do Recôncavo (aquela área fértil ao redor da baía, cuja forma côncava deu origem ao nome da região) - nas proximidades de cidades como Cachoeira e Santo Amaro, Santiago do Iguape e Acupe. Este proto-samba infelizmente caiu no caminho de difíceis de encontrar e ouvir...

Há muito espetáculo na Bahia...

Carnaval com seu trio elétrico - caminhões sonoros com músicos no topo - parecendo semi-reboques interestelares de volta do futuro...shows de MPB (música popular brasileira) no Teatro Castro Alves de Salvador (maior palco da América do Sul!) com total valor de produção, o público sentado (como sempre nos teatros modernos) como estátuas da Ilha de Páscoa...

...glamour, glitz, dinheiro, poder e publicitários...

E depois há de onde tudo isso veio... do outro lado da baía, uma terra de agricultores e pescadores de subsistência, muitos dos mais velhos incapazes de ler ou escrever... seus sambas precursores de tudo isso, sem os quais nenhuma das anteriores existiria, suas melodias - quando não criadas por eles mesmos - as invenções de pessoas como eles, mas agora esquecidas (pois a maioria dessas pessoas estará dentro de um par de gerações ou mais), seus ritmos um constante estado de inconstância e fluxo, tocados de uma forma diferente (a maioria) de qualquer grupo de músicos do norte do Trópico de Câncer... fazendo com que o martelo de forja do Hit Parade das últimas décadas seja quase que doloroso de ouvir depois que os ouvidos se acostumam a ritmos sempre mutáveis, tocados como a aurora boreal parece...

Portanto, há o espetáculo, e há o espetacular, e na maioria das vezes o último é encontrado longe do primeiro, entre o povo pobre das aldeias e do sertão, os humildes e os honestos, pessoas que podem dizer mais (como um velho bluesman delta tocando uma guitarra batida em um alpendre flácido) com um pandeiro (pandeiro brasileiro) e uma chula (um "folksong" gritado/cantado) do que a maioria com qualquer tecnologia e dinheiro de apoio que o dinheiro possa comprar. O coração deste assunto, está lá. Se você me perguntar de qualquer forma.