BLP 4190

Frederick Roach - All That's Good

Released - August 1965

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 16, 1964
Conrad Lester, tenor sax; Freddie Roach, organ; Calvin Newborn, guitar; Clarence Johnston, drums; Marvin Robinson, Phyllis Smith, Willie Tate, voice.

1444 tk.8 Blues For 007
1445 tk.15 Busted
1446 tk.22 Loie
1447 tk.32 Cloud 788
1448 tk.33 All That's Good
1443 tk.45 Journeyman

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Journeyman	Freddie Roach	October 16 1964
All That's Good	Freddie Roach	October 16 1964
Blues for 007	Freddie Roach	October 16 1964
Side Two
Busted	Harlan Howard	October 16 1964
Cloud 788	Freddie Roach	October 16 1964
Loie	Kenny Burrell	October 16 1964

Liner Notes

YOU never need a road map to find soul people. Anywhere you travel you have only to look for the double parked cars, little brown children running (seemingly everywhere), windows thrown wide open in summer emitting sounds of blaring radios and containing the heads of more little brown children, some laughing or crying or delivering messages from headquarters...."SKEETER...SKEEEETA, MOMMA SAID TO COME UPSTAIRS." Somewhere (from the schoolyard, I think) comes a voice "SHADUP...I'M COMING."

As always in every soul center, there's "the scene," "the avenue," "the strip," consisting of stores...well let's see...there's the candy store where the sluggers hang out. The candy is old and dusty, and on a ledge in the window you can see the brown newspapers, some six months old. But of course, snuff is a moving item, also loose cigarettes (penny a piece). But the real function is to take those choice numbers for the "Negro sweepstakes."

Next door, the barber shop, '*Baldy Williams' place" where the town is surveyed by the barber in the first chair who has time on his hands now that the young boy in the last chair has gotten all the young customers to "gas" their hair. So now Baldy's function is to entertain the customers as they sit under the dryers (smile) with news of who hit the digit this week — dialogue:

  Baldy: '"Did y'all heat 'bout Sonny hittin' foi three dolla's?" 
  Customer: "1 thought it was only twenty-five cents." 
  Baldy: i'You mean tha's all he had left when that broad he got was through." 

Then there is Old Doc Rivers, 'been pushin' pills in the corner drug store for twenty years. Beans the counterman has been there for ten of those years, started as a delivery boy, but now he's just as good at giving people what they think they need as Doc is.

Of course there is the "814 Club" where everyone hangs out. Cross corner of Soulville. You Would see everyone if you stood there enough, for everyone passes through there during the day. The bartender affectionately known as "Evil Eye" mainly because he could look so mean at a troublemaker that the guy would get the message and leave. To get to the back, you pass through a door marked "Family Entrance." It is usually crowded with people (unrelated) dancing the "slop," "jerk," or those other soul dances.

Around the corner, in the alley between Hogan's Hardware and Arnie's Liquor Store, the guys gather to sing the latest rhythm and blues hits. They form a Circle, arms on each other's shoulders, they sing, carefully avoiding the eyes of those listeners standing nearby, stopping only long enough to take a swig from the half gallon wine jug, and to laugh self-consciously at their impromptu harmonies.

But usually Soulville center is that little store front church always popping up where the rents are low. The windows are painted, usually white, or have colored cellophane. There is a painting on the window, Christ on the cross, the shepherds tending the flock. The sign above the door proclaims:

  The Chruch Of God in Christ 
  Rev. R. E. Walker Minister 

and tacked to the door a poster: "This SUNDAY ONLY. The Willing Workers of C.O.G.I.C. will present The Dixie Humming Birds and The Five Blind Boys in a battle of song. Donation $1.00." Passing there this Sunday you would hear the singing Just A Closer Walk With Thee. You would hear the natural harmonies soaring out onto the street. The rhythm of hands, clapping, and tambourines playing that familiar upbeat which seems to impel you to stop and listen to the music. And so the idea for this album was born, a collection of tunes representing the culture in Soultown. Not a particular place, but dedicated to the soul centers everywhere.

The voices you hear are Phyllis Smith, soprano, Willie Tate, alto, and Marvin Robinson, baritone.

They are heard here singing together for the first time, and the natural approach they have to this material proves that they, as all of us, have roots that run so deep that it would be impossible to run away from them, but then who's running? For remember...All That's Good.

—FREDERICK ROACH

Cover Photo by RONNIE BRATHWAITE
Models; GRANDASSA MODELS
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER