. LLOYD PRICE’S BAND
PLAYING FOR Lloyd Price’s “ Turn Table” and “Small’s Paradise”
FROM CHAPTER 26,27, etc.
The following pages will contain many photo ops with "Frye" and all those who loved him, musicians and fans alike. When Richard and several of his friends came to Massachusetts with me in 1971, We played together in a band called "The Flames'" We had no affiliation with James Brown And the Famous Flames, but there were some co-incidentals. Eventually we would hire a singer named James and of course he had James Brown's act down to a science. The band had been living here for a few months before we picked up "Jimmy" . We were already somewhat established and didn't really need the singer, but he was so talented and available , so we couldn't pass him up. No one had any idea that some of us would continue to live here. I had lived in Mass. for some time prior to meeting Richard and the rest of the musicians from New York. Most of the Guys were form the Queens area. I was living in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn at that time. I was also working as a sign maker for a sign shop on Nostrand Ave in Brooklyn, when....
The following story explains how I met Richard Allen Frye. This excerpt is part of a 300-page book that I have been working on for the past 3 years. The book is still not complete, but I am still working on it. The book has not been edited yet, so there may be some discrepancies. It is sad to note that some of the pieces will go un-remembered as a result of this unfortunate incident. Richard was aware of this endeavor and we spent many hours reminiscing and trying to remember every aspect of the times we enjoyed together. Understand that this was just one of projects on which he and I were working. I will continue in his honor to complete as many of the projects as I can.
RICHARD FRYE ROLAND COSBY
Eventually I would hook-up with some musicians from Queens. The group had recently loss their bass player to some college in the south. I met the guys through a music agent that had come to the sign shop, and through conversation he knew I was a bass player looking for a band to join. The agent hooked me up with Richard and I took it from there. I went to Richard’s house in Queens to meet a couple of the guys in the band. When we arrived at the house, he introduced me to his parents. They welcomed me and told us to have a good time. They had no idea that I would be running off with their son in a few months. Who knew? We had a meeting and jam session in his basement. The guys liked me, and they accepted me into the band. Of course I was very happy about that, and I knew my cousin Bobby would be happy as well. Now my mission was complete. I had been in the city for almost two months before I got the hookup, but I knew New York was very competitive and I shouldn’t have expected more than that. Even my neighbor next door was an accomplished bassist and he wasn’t working. He was very surprised as well that I had gotten a job so quickly.
The name of the band was “The Flames”, and they we well known in their little New York circle. Most of the gigs they had done were in the Queen’s area and downtown Manhattan. After I joined the band we continued to play at some of the same places where they had already performed. We became a little more sophisticated by adding a couple more horns and a male singer. The singer’s name was Jimmy and he did a lot of James Brown songs. He was a very energetic little guy who really couldn’t sing much better than James Brown, but he did have the dancing part quite together. In fact, if it weren’t for his dancing we would have sent his butt back to Long Island, where he originated. He lived in the Far Rockaways, and when we went to meet him for the first time, we found out why it was called the Far Rockaways. The area was obviously nothing more than a New York landfill with virtually no trees or wildlife other than rats and roaches.
When we emerged from the subway, we found ourselves in an area that looked like the aftermath of an atomic explosion. To be precise it looked like it had been hit by a Neutron bomb, but I don’t think we had that capability in the early seventies. The cement streets were cracked, and un-kept. The town looked deserted and it reminded me of some western cowboy town, with occasional tumbleweed floating by. This Rockaway needed to be far. Far away the city where no one could see it. Most of the stores were closed and many of the buildings were deserted, as if everybody decided to get up and leave at the same time. Typically the liquor store; convenience store and the check-cashing store were the businesses still there, most other stores were closed. The few people I saw were heading for the check-cashing place. Un-employment rates were high at that time and the city needed somewhere to place the people who were on welfare, and I think this was the place. We met Jimmy at his apartment, where we listened to a couple of tapes he had made of his previous band. The tapes sounded very good, so we help him gather his gear and we were out of there.
The whole band met back at the trombone player’s house for our first rehearsal with the singer. We were jamming big time when our agent came by to inform us that we would be playing at Lloyd Prices’ place as the house band. This was really great news and now I knew for sure that I would be playing on a regular basis. The money would go far to supplement my income, even though I was doing very well at the sign shop and helping my cousin with his exterminating business. We played on a regular basis for Lloyd and his club was doing well every weekend. It was a fun gig because it allowed us time to get the band tight before we would hit the road. At the club we met “Red”Prysock, the brother of Arthur Prysock, who invited us to some after hours sessions at his house. He was a practical joker and over a period of time we would be careful whenever we hung out with him. He was really a funny guy and became very good friends of the band. We also met and played at a birthday party for Ruth Brown. Other guess included Willis “Gator tail” Jackson,”Gator’s Groove” and Chuck Willis, “C.C.Rider”,”What am I living for.” After playing for Lloyd for some time, we started to venture out more and more, and the party would be one of the last we would have in New York. We were all pumped up after the party and the band met at the trombone player’s house to finish the party we couldn’t have at the club. We were very happy with our playing and we had a good show with our imitation “James Brown” character. In the middle of our glee and while the tremendous ‘bones’ were being passed around the room, we thought it was time to hit the road. In a mysterious flash of a thought we grabbed our instruments and whatever we had with us and jumped back into the van, which was already loaded with the equipment and headed north to the Cape Cod.
I had contacted a friend in Marion and he helped me set up a gig at the Woodchips, a cool little Cape Cod nightclub. The club was set off the road in the back woods of Wareham, and could pack in a hefty crowd whenever there was a good band playing there. The word was out when we arrived on a Friday night to play. We had put together a dynamite show that we knew would go over big, and it did. I had lived in the town just a few years back and I knew everybody anyway, or at least they knew me. It was really cool to see some of my old friends and it seemed like everybody it town was there. Remember that I was one of the quintessential hell raisers from the past and the big party man of Onset and a lot of my friends were there to support me. The people were ready to party and we were ready to deliver. It had to be one of the best shows that ever came to the place. We had a fat band with four horns and this James Brown character out front who was an extraordinary dancer beyond a reasonable doubt. Even though the name of the band was the “Flames” and we had a singer named Jimmy, there was no attempt to push ourselves as a James Brown copy. We did “Top 40” tunes and nothing original accept a few musical breaks. Jimmy was a mere happenstance, and we only had him as an extenuation of the band. The J.B. thing was his act and we just played the music for him.
After partying all night, we were all buzzed and we certainly shouldn’t have been driving, but we all had driver’s licenses and thought we would take turns driving if we got tired. We just wanted to get the hell out of the city. We had already played a couple of times on the cape and the guys really like the area. Everybody was anxious to go and no one had any problems with leaving their friends and families behind, in exchange for the life of a vagabond. These guys had seen enough of the city and they were eager to get out of town. Of course everybody had his or her own personal reason for leaving, but the confidence we had mustered, as a band was probably the most motivating thing. Dobby, the trumpet player, was rolling a joint with one hand while he and I was walking in pouring rain. He was holding an umbrella in the other hand as we headed to the subway following a rehearsal one night. I was quite impressed. I had never seen anyone do that before. I couldn’t believe how perfect the thing was. “I can’t do that with two hands,” I said. He chuckled and explained to me how he had learned that while in jail. Then he continued to explain that being in jail in city was another reason why he wanted to go to a different place. Robert, the guitar player was a Jehovah’s Witness, and he felt like the whole world was after him, plus he needed to get away from the religious fanatics that were trying to brainwash him. The drummer, Lonnie was relatively sane. He was young and adventurous and just wanted to go along for the ride.
Richard and I were the sanest in the group, but I’m not sure for how much that accounted. All of the se guys had a fairly good lifestyle, living in their little middle-class brick bungalows in Queens. The adventure of being out there on the road, playing music and meeting new people was totally irresistible to these guys and me. That’s why we made our move. The music was calling us. I was in New York for only a year and I was already set to leave. I was a loose goose and didn’t try to account for time or become attach to anything or anyone. I had my camera and bass and that’s all I cared about. After all, I had been trapped in the military for four years, and I probably just needed to stretch my wings. Here I go again, I thought as we loaded our stuff into the band. My attitude was numb and I really didn’t give much thought to the fact that I was just leaving my friends, my apartment, my jobs and everything I had worked so hard to accomplish during my stay in the city.
page by RolandCosby12/28/05