Ralph Bass
| Ralph Bass | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ralph Basso, Jr. |
| Born |
May 1, 1911 The Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 5, 1997 (aged 85) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer A&R scout |
| Years active | 1941–1997 |
| Labels |
Black and White Savoy King Chess MCA |
Ralph Bass (1 May 1911 – 5 March 1997), born Ralph Basso, Jr., was an American rhythm-and-blues record producer and talent scout for several independent labels. He was a pioneer in bringing black music into the American mainstream. During his career he worked in key roles for Black & White Records, Savoy Records, King Records, Federal Records, and Chess Records, recording some of the greatest performers in black music, including Etta James, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Earl Bostic, and groups such as the Platters and the Dominoes. Bass was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a nonperformer.
Bass was born in the Bronx to an Italian-American Catholic father and a German-American Jewish mother. As a young man, he visited the South and experienced the emotional power of black music in dance clubs. When he began his career as a record producer, racial segregation kept black performers marginalized, with many relegated to one-night stands performing only to all-black audiences in a network of theatres and nightclubs known the chitlin' circuit. Bass decided to focus his career on bringing black music and black performers into the entertainment mainstream.
Bass got his start in the 1940s as an A&R man at Black & White Records, where he produced and recorded, among others, Lena Horne, Roosevelt Sykes, Jack McVea (Bass suggested he record "Open the Door, Richard", which became a hit record) and T-Bone Walker (including Walker's landmark "Call It Stormy Monday"). From there he went on to help build two of the most successful independent record labels, Savoy Records, in New Jersey, and King Records, in Cincinnati, Ohio. During this period, Bass toured the South with various blues bands and noted the large size of the audiences, still predominantly black but with an increasing numbers of whites. He sensed that the audience was changing.
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