This Sunday night one of the best soul voices in history is playing a small show at Café DuNord (market and sanchez). Howard Tate is criminally overlooked but is a voice on par with Sam Cooke, Al Green or Solomon Burke. It’s rare enough to see a voice of this caliber and historical significance, much less at a small club like DuNord.

Here’s the short version of his story:

Howard Tate’s musical career began in 1966 with his debut record, Get It While You Can whose three hit songs – the title track, “Ain’t Nobody Home,” and “Stop” - garnered him critical acclaim. Rolling Stone called the album “a spectacular showcase of suave, muscular gospel-powered singing, heavily influenced by Sam Cooke, with a joyous, shrieking falsetto that became Tate’s trademark.”

Despite his successes, Tate was unhappy with how the music business was treating him in the early 1970s – Tate never saw a dime in royalties and felt like he was being taken advantage of – and soon decided to walk away from the industry and never look back. To all who knew him, Howard Tate completely vanished off the face of the earth for nearly 30 years. After facing hardships and spending a good part of the 1980s on the streets of Philadelphia, he turned his life around and began again as a minister in the early 1990s. Then in 2001, a musician Tate had toured with back in the 1960s ran into him in a supermarket, and within hours Tate’s old producer, Jerry Ragovoy, was calling – resulting in his return to the studio and the Grammy-nominated Rediscovered.

Music luminaries have recognized and celebrated Tate’s trademark voice throughout the years, with Elvis Costello calling him “the missing link between Jackie Wilson and Al Green.” Among the well-known musicians that have all covered songs originally recorded by Tate are Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Grand Funk Railroad, the Band and Ry Cooder.

Tate is now performing both in the U.S. and internationally with his eight-piece band and acoustic

If you go to his website - http://www.howardtate.net/ - you can hear a few songs from a recent live record, which show not only his voice but how it’s remained literally unchanged by time.

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ivylander says:

His "Sorry Wrong Number" (to name the song that immediately comes to mind) is the work of an immortal.

Posted about 1 year ago | Delete