June 23 - Jerry Carrigan and Dave Bartholomew Died

Jerry Carrigan died, he was 75. He was the drummer of the first edition of Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section along with Norbert Putnam and David Briggs. He eventually moved to Nashville and became one of the most sought after studio musicians there. His first job for Elvis was in June 1970 and "I've Lost You" was the first song. In the picture Jerry Carrigan is seen during a break in a recording session at RCA Studio B in 1971 top-row left.

Modern Drummer did an interview with Jerry Carrigan:

RF: Speaking of Sam Phillips, what about your work with Elvis Presley?

JC: I first worked with him in 1970. What a thrill that was! The first thing we did was “I’ve Lost You.” I never was crazy about what I played on that stuff, but he always wanted you to have a charging feeling about everything. He wanted you to push him to the wall. I thought it sounded like I was rushing all the time, but they loved it. He would stand out in the middle of the studio, just like being on stage, and he would face you. He would wiggle and point to you when he’d want you to do a fill or something. The first week I worked with him, we did 35 tunes. One of them was “Letter To Sylvia.” We blasted through that stuff. We started at 6:00 at night and worked until 6:00 the next morning. He was definitely nocturnal. He was wonderful. I’ll tell you, when he walked into that studio and I saw him for the first time, there was no doubt that a real star had just appeared. He used to change clothes three times during the evening. It was like a performance.

RF: Just to get into different moods?

JC: Yeah. One time I did a Christmas record with him in July. We walked in, and there was a Christmas tree in there with presents under it.

Dave Bartholomew Died

Dave Bartholomew, the producer, arranger, composer, trumpet player and bandleader who had a major hand in the shaping of New Orleans rhythm and blues and early rock ’n’ roll, died on Sunday in New Orleans. He was 100. Dave Bartholomew, co-writer of “One Night”, “One Night of Sin” and “Witchcraft”. 

From the NY Times:

An influential figure who worked mainly behind the scenes, Mr. Bartholomew was best known for the hits he produced for and wrote with Fats Domino, including “Ain’t That a Shame” (originally released under the name “Ain’t It a Shame”) and “Blue Monday.” Under Mr. Bartholomew’s direction, Mr. Domino placed 65 singles on the Billboard pop chart from 1955 to 1964. Among rock ’n’ roll singers, only Elvis Presley had more during that period.

Dave was one of rock ’n’ roll’s first great producers, he created what might have been the first rock ’n’ roll record with ‘The Fat Man,’ ” a hit for Mr. Domino in 1949. There was nothing else like it at the time. He put a heavy backbeat behind an old blues tune, and it became rock ’n’ roll. That “big beat,” as it came to be known, was supplied by the drummer Earl Palmer, one of several unerringly funky musicians whom Mr. Bartholomew recruited to work in his band.  Besides appearing on his sessions, this tight ensemble played on Little Richard’s volcanic mid-50s hits “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally.” It also backed Sam Cooke, with a young Allen Toussaint on piano, during his 1960 tour of the United States.
A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He was given a Trustees Award, for lifetime achievement, by the Recording Academy in 2014.

(Flaming Star / Modern Drummer Magazine / FECC / NY Times)