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Jun 29 2006

Backgrounder: Philly Music History

The Philadelphia Music Scene Then And Now

The Avenue of the Arts, also known as Broad Street, is the backbone of Philadelphia and the center of the city’s arts community. Anchoring the street is the $265 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home to the Philadelphia Orchestra and seven other resident companies. History is preserved here as well as in the Philadelphia Music Alliance’s Walk of Fame, Philadelphia International Records and the Clef Club of the Performing Arts.


The 1960s doo-wop era, the Philly Sound of the 1970s, the jazz scene typified by artists ranging from John Coltrane to Grover Washington Jr., the classical juggernaut known as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the new-generation version of Philadelphia soul music, typified by Musiq and Jill Scott, are all related in some way. A glimpse at the history of Philadelphia music shows how intertwined all of these strands really are.

Philly Jazz:
While Broad Street became known as a mecca for classical music, it soon established itself as a strong base for jazz music as well. Pep’s (Broad & South Streets), the Uptown (Broad Street & Susquehanna Avenue) and Zanzibar (19th Street & Cecil B. Moore Avenue) were three of the clubs that nurtured some of the country’s jazz greats. The Heath Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Jimmy Oliver, Clifford Brown, Benny Golson and the incomparable Philly Joe Jones were all either born, raised or professionally proven in Philly or its environs. Also part of this club are Lee Morgan, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith and Lady Day – the great Billie Holiday.

Grover Washington Jr., in many ways, placed Philadelphia on the map for a new generation of listeners in the 1980s – as did Stanley Clarke and McCoy Tyner. Christian McBride, Uri Caine, Joey DeFrancesco, Terell Stafford and the Eubanks Brothers continued the tradition through the 1990s, and a new generation of musicians, all in their 20s – Orrin Evans, Rodney Green, Jaleel Shaw, Jafar and Farid Barron – are waiting in the wings to take over where the greats left off.

Bernie Lowe, Dick Clark and Doo-Wop:
As the 1950s turned into the 1960s, the doo-wop craze swept the nation, and the epicenter of that craze was in Philadelphia. In 1956, entrepreneur Bernie Lowe established Cameo and Parkway Records, which launched the careers of artists such as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, the Dovells, the Tymes and Dee Dee Sharp. By the 1960s, DJs such as Jerry Blavat, Hy Lit, Doug “Jocko” Henderson and others were playing doo-wop and rhythm-and-blues on their radio programs. At the same time, a young TV host named Dick Clark began playing host to doo-wop, R&B and soul and pop musicians on his show American Bandstand. It became an institution in American pop culture, airing daily after school and playing host to the top pop stars in the country. It was also one of the first integrated music shows on American television.

Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International Records:
There would be no 1970s soul, no R&B, no disco, without Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Their raw, gospel-driven sound combined with sophisticated, precise musical arrangements and socially conscious lyrics paid off with 175 gold or platinum albums and 80 number one pop singles. Gamble, from Southwest Philadelphia, and Huff, from Camden, New Jersey, met in the early 1960s (in an elevator at the Shubert Building, now the Academy of Music) and went on to write and produce for many stars.

Gamble composed their first hit, Expressway To Your Heart, in 1966 as he sat in Schuylkill Expressway traffic on the way to his girlfriend’s house. But it was not until 1972, when Gamble set up Philadelphia International Records on South Broad Street, that their impact was truly felt. Employing a staff of up to 100 writers and lyricists (such as Linda Creed) and recording at Joe Tarsia’s Sigma Sound studio, Gamble and Huff worked with artists such as the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Paul, The Intruders, the Trammps, the Three Degrees and MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother), making an indelible impact on black music and pop music in general. Today, Philadelphia International Records maintains a catalogue of more than 3,000 recorded songs, which often find their way into commercials (such as Old Navy, Office Max, Verizon and Coor’s Beer) and are sampled by recording artists like Angie Stone, Nellie, Jay Z and Bette Midler.

The Fabulous Philadelphians:
The Philadelphia Orchestra, founded in 1900, is one of the world’s greatest classical music organizations and one of the most prolific recording artists in history. It was under Eugene Ormandy, who wielded the baton from 1936-1980, and Riccardo Muti, who led the orchestra until 1993, that the Orchestra gained its highest degree of prominence.

One of the most important moves Gamble and Huff made was to differentiate their sound from Motown’s by incorporating strings, horns and harps. The arrangements, crafted by classically trained Thom Bell, brought a huge degree of sophistication to 1970s black music. MFSB, a large aggregation of Gamble and Huff session players that hit it big in 1974 with the first proto-disco hit “TSOP” (The Sound of Philadelphia). MFSB was composed almost totally of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians who played and taught classical music by day and disco, soul and jazz at night. In fact, many of the orchestra’s best musicians worked as private teachers to some of Philadelphia’s best jazz players.

The New Philly Sound:
In the early 1990s, a group of hip-hoppers with jazz and R&B backgrounds, including drummer Ahmir Thompson, the son of doo-wop icon Lee Andrews, created the Roots, a hip-hop collective that believed in live beats and accompaniment in rap. The Roots are still at the epicenter of a new movement where organic soul sensibilities are of utmost importance. What started out as a hardcore underground movement is blowing up gigantically not just in Philadelphia but nationally. Heavily influenced by one of the most sophisticated spoken-word scenes in the country, rappers such as Bahamadia laid the foundation for Eve; old-school pioneer Schoolly D still remains resonant in the gritty style of Beanie Sigel from South Philadelphia. Singer Jill Scott has, with the help of the Roots and keyboardist/producer James Poyser, created her own brand of neo-soul. Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith’s former alter ego and still occasional collaborator, produces and records much of Philadelphia’s new music at his Touch of Jazz Studios in Northern Liberties; Musiq Soulchild and Pink have hit the R&B and pop charts, respectively, with their distinctive Philly-based styles.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside™ a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality. For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit www.gophila.com or call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park, at (800) 537-7676.

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