Charles Chalmers

Charles Chalmers is a saxophonist, session musician, backup singer, songwriter and producer. He has written several hit songs for many recording artists, and has also arranged & performed on many grammy winning recordings. Seven of those recordings are in the Grammy Hall of Fame : Al Green's "Let's Stay together"; Aretha Franklin's "Respect," "Chain of Fools" & "Natural Woman"; Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man"; and Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" and "Land of a Thousand Dances." He also holds an Album of the Century award for his work on Aretha Franklin's, "I Ain't Never Loved a Man the Way that I Love You."

Charlie Chalmers began playing music in his high school marching band.

By age 19, he had toured with Jerry Lee Lewis and worked extensively with Charlie Rich.

Chalmers came to the attention of Bill Black, who called Chalmers for a session. Not long after working with Black, Willie Mitchell asked Chalmers to play on some of his recordings. Chalmers played lead sax on Mitchell's instrumental, "Soul Serenade". Mitchell then called Chalmers to work regularly on his productions, not only as a saxophone player, but also as an arranger and back up singer. Chalmers helped arrange and sang backup on "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green with a group that came to be called Rhodes, Chalmers, & Rhodes. They also sang on Green's album, I Can't Stop, produced by Mitchell, for Blue Note Records, (2003).

Before recording with Al Green, Chalmers was asked to go to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to play on a Wilson Pickett recording date for Atlantic Records. "Land of a Thousand Dances" and " Mustang Sally" were two of the songs he recorded with Pickett that week, and it was then that Chalmers met Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd. Chalmers arranged the horns and played sax on many Aretha Franklin songs, including "I Ain't Never Loved A Man", "Respect", "Do Right Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Dr. Feel Good", and "Natural Woman".

...
Wikipedia