Tag Archives: Woodstock Birthdays

Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

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Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

October 5, 1949 – January 16, 1996
Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode
Kermode, Joplin, Sam Andrew, Snooky Flowers
“Yours Is the Light” from Santana’s Welcome album. Music by Michael Shrieve lyrics by Richard Kermode. Vocal by Flora Purim

In the band v in a band

It seems to me that the more members a band has,  the less likely all members are well-known.  That may be especially so when the leader is very well known.

Janis Joplin was a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, though after awhile the band’s name seemed to become Janis Joplin and Big Brother.

When Joplin left Big Brother in 1968 she formed a back up band. And being in a back up band is not quite the same thing as being in the band.

Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

WY > NY > CA

Richard Kermode was born in Lovell, Wyoming and grew up in Buffalo, NY where he became a well-respected keyboardist. In 1969 he moved to California just in time for Janis Joplin to add him to her new Kozmic Blues Band. He was also just in time to be in the band for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

Post Janis

When Janis Joplin died, Kermode became mainly a sessions musician including three albums for Carlos Santana:  Welcome (1973), Lotus (1974), and Dance of the Rainbow Serpent (1995).

He also played with the group Malo. Jorge Santana, Carlos’s brother, was one of that band’s founders. He developed a passion for Latin music while playing with Malo and worked with numerous Latin jazz, salsa and Brazilian bands. He also recorded with Patti LaBelle, Luis Gasca, Pete Escovedo, Airto and Purim.

Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

Illnesses 

In 1990 he suffered severe kidney and liver ailments, but recovered. He was able to resume his musical career and played in bands on USO tours. He toured South Korea and Japan.

In 1994 he moved to Denver to work on salsa music projects.

Yours Is the Light

Yours is the light that will always shine
And shine eternally, eternally
Mine is the search, never ending search
Until I am with you
For you, fill my life
All my days and nights
With memories of you

Yours is the light that will always shine
And shine eternally
Mine is the search, never ending search
Until I am with you
For you, fill my life
All my days and nights
With memories of you
Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

Kenmore memories

Kermode died on January 16, 1996. He was 49 There are many touching memories by his high school friends at the Kenmore West High School Class of 1965 site.  

Richard was one of the most respected musicians in Buffalo in the 1960’s – wanting to be a jazz player. When Richard left WNY in 1969 to take that immense talent to California as one of Buffalo’s premier jazz keyboardist, he had no way of knowing he would end up on multi platinum and gold albums as keyboardist…

Kozmic Keyboardist Richard Kermode

Musicminder.com site w Kermode links and info

Birthdays, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

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Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

“Take This Winter Out of My Mind” by Full Moon (1972)

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

September 19, 1936 –  January 11, 2002

I was one of those white suburban kids growing up in a very white suburban neighborhood that I didn’t realize was whites-only because no real estate agencies and owners would rent or sell to non-whites. Segregation northern style. Quiet but omnipresent.

We white suburban kids did not realize we were listening to our own American blues when we heard Eric Burdon sing “House of the Rising Sun” or Mick Jagger sing “You Better Move On.”

British bands like the Animals and Rolling Stones reinterpreted American blues, but bands like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were revitalizing or simply continuing the blues tradition.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

Gene Dinwiddie

Gene Dinwiddie, or Brother Gene Dinwiddie as he was often known, was part of that tradition.

He had already been playing in bands for 10 years when he joined Butterfield which presented him the opportunity to record. The American music scene was typically as segregated as my home town. Whether it be exclusionary tactics by record companies, recording studios, publishers, or venues, black musicians faced barriers at each entry. I certainly cannot speak for Gene Dinwiddie or any black musician, but I could understand the inclination of joining a band led by a white musician with hopes that the white musician would have access that he did not.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie

Paul Butterfield Blues Band

He joined Paul Butterfield Blues Band in mid-1967 in time for the group’s appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival.

“Love March” became the band’s best known song because of its inclusion on the Woodstock album. It was Dinwiddie and drummer Phillip Wilson who lead on that song.

The longer Dinwiddie was in the band, the more he influenced its sound. The band ended in 1971, but a few of its members including Dinwiddie formed Full Moon.

Brother Gene Dinwiddie also played as a session musician with BB King, Melissa Manchester, Jackie Lomax, and Gregg Allman.

His most visible appearance on record in the 1990s was playing tenor sax on Etta James’ album Stickin’ to My Guns.

Remembering Brother Gene Dinwiddie
Today in history

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

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David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

David Clayton-Thomas at the 38th annual Festival of Friends at Hamilton, Ontario’s Ancaster Fairgrounds on August 11, 2013

Born September 13, 1941

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

Canadian born in England

From his site: David in wartime England, 1942

David Clayton Thomas’s father, Fred Thomsett, was a Canadian soldier serving in England during World War II. Thomas’s mother, Freda May Smith met Thomsett while playing the piano to entertain troops at a London hospital.

David Henry Thomsett was born  in Surrey, England. After the war, the family settled in Willowdale, a suburb of Toronto. David and his father had a difficult relationship and David ran away when he was 14.

He became homeless, slept in parked cars or abandoned buildings, and stole food and clothing to survive.

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

Canadian jails

Authorities arrested him several times and Thomas lived his teen years jails and reformatories. By a fortunate chance, a released inmate left Thomas an old guitar. His love of music, perhaps remembering his mother’s love, too, kindled.

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

Freed Canadian

Released in 1962, he found Toronto’s music scene.  Ronnie Hawkins, famous for breaking in the members of The Band, helped Thomas.

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

David Clayton Thomas

He became David Clayton Thomas to distance himself from his former self and eventually fronted his own band: David Clayton-Thomas and The Fabulous Shays. Their 1964 successful recording of John Lee Hookers’ “Boom Boom” led to an appearance on the American TV show, Hullabaloo.

Thomas began to make blues his mainstay. His next band, The Bossmen, uniquely included jazz musicians. In 1966, the Bossman had a hit with the song “Brainwashed” written by Thomas.

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

Blood, Sweat and Tears

The same year, Thomas traveled to NYC with John Lee Hooker and stayed there when Hooker left for Europe. Bobby Colomby, Blood, Sweat and Tears drummer, heard Thomas sing and invited him to join the re-aligned band.

The first album, Blood, Sweat and Tears, with Thomas was BS & T’s most successful. Released on December 11, 1968 it reached Billboard’s #1 album on March 29, 1969. It stayed a top album for seven weeks altogether. Five top singles came from the album, and it received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970.

The album also earned them an invitation to the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

David Clayton Thomsett Thomas

Post BS & T

Add Thomas’s name to the long and ever-growing list of musicians who found the pace of life on the road too grueling. Despite the band’s success, he left the group in 1972.

He did not leave music.

Thomas composed for Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Maynard Ferguson, and others.  He has released his own albums and continues to perform today.

Albums

Year Album Title Record Label
1965 David Clayton Thomas and the Shays à Go-Go Roman
1966 David Clayton Thomas Sings Like It Is! Roman
1969 David Clayton-Thomas! Decca
1972 David Clayton-Thomas Columbia
1972 Tequila Sunrise Columbia
1973 David Clayton-Thomas (Harmony Junction) RCA
1977 Clayton ABC Music
1996 Blue Plate Special DCT
1999 Bloodlines DCT
2001 The Christmas Album Fontana North / Maplecore
2005 Aurora Justin Time
2006 In Concert: A Musical Biography Justin Time
2008 The Evergreens Fontana North / Maplecore
2009 Spectrum
2010 Soul Ballads Fuel
2013 A Blues for the New World Antoinette
2015 Combo Audio & Video Labs, Inc.
2016 Canadiana Antoinette / Ils / Universal
2018 Mobius Ils
2019 Say Somethin’ Antoinette
David Clayton Thomsett Thomas