Gabriel's Trumpet

memphis

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Memphis, TN
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www.bluesicon.net
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Here are some pictures of Ben Cauley, Folllowing the pictures is a brief explanation of his bio:
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The Bar-Kays were formed in Memphis, Tennessee sometime in the mid-sixties and originally consisted of James Alexander (bass), Ronnie Caldwell (organ), Ben Cauley (trumpet), Phalon Jones (sax), Carl Cunningham (drums) and Jimmy King (guitar). In early '67, they were signed to Volt, a Stax subsidiary. Al Jackson, the drummer with Booker T & the MGs, took a special interest in the Bar-Kays from the start and groomed them into a funky, instrumental R&B combo in the Mar-Keys' mold. Soon thereafter, the Bar-Kays became Stax' second house band, supporting Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and many other of the label's premier artists. The Bar-Kays' first single in their own right, "Soul Finger," became a huge hit on both the R&B and pop charts in the spring of '67 and an album with the same title was issued as well. That summer, Otis Redding chose the Bar-Kays to be his regular backing band and it was on route to a gig on December 10, 1967 that tragedy struck. The plane, carrying Otis and the Bar-Kays, crashed into the frozen lake Monono, near Madison, Wisconsin. Everyone on board was killed except trumpeter Ben Cauley, who miraculously survived and bassist James Alexander, who had not been on the plane.
In 1968, James Alexander and Ben Cauley, together with Allen Jones (the Stax writer and producer who would continue to work with the Bar-Kays until his untimely death in the late eighties) reformed the group and recruited Harvey Henderson (sax), Ronnie Gordon (keyboards), Michael Toles (guitar) and drummers Willie Hall and Roy Cunningham. Once again, the Bar-Kays, particularly the rhythm section but also the horns, served as Stax' house band and backed countless artists, such as Rufus Thomas, Albert King and The Staple Singers. The solid, bluesy funk rhythms on Isaac Hayes' ground-breaking, platinum selling LP "Hot Buttered Soul" were supplied by the Bar-Kays too. Although their own singles and the "Gotta Groove" LP, issued in 1969, sounded much like a continuation from where the first edition of the band had left off, the post-crash Bar-Kays seemed unable to come up with a major hit a la "Soul Finger."
 

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