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Chicago Tribune
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Gene ‘Daddy G' Barge, music producer, actor and band leader, dies at 98
South Side saxophonist and songwriter Gene Barge inspired the Gary U.S. Bonds hit 'Quarter to Three,' released several albums of his own, produced music for Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Natalie Cole and later dabbled in acting, with roles in films including 'The Fugitive' and 'Under Siege.' 'He was very talented, he was funny and he had a great sense of history not just about the music business but he had a worldview of history and would talk on many different levels on things,' said film director and South Side native Andrew Davis, a longtime friend who cast Barge in multiple films. Known as 'Daddy G,' Barge, 98, died of natural causes Feb. 2, said his daughter, Gina. He lived in the South Side Douglas neighborhood, and previously was a longtime resident of the Chatham neighborhood. Born James Garfield Barge Jr. in Norfolk, Virginia, Barge picked up the name 'Gene' at an early age, his daughter said. His father worked in Norfolk's Navy Yard, and he brought young Gene — up to that point a clarinet player — a tenor saxophone that a sailor had left on a torpedo-damaged ship. The sax quickly became his instrument of choice. Barge left high school to join the Air Force, his daughter said, and he returned to school after active duty. Initially interested in becoming an architect, Barge attended West Virginia State College, where he received a degree in music in 1950. Barge taught high school English and history in Norfolk for a time, but felt the pull of music and left teaching to play with area jazz and rhythm and blues bands. He released an instrumental, 'Country,' which became a regional hit in 1955, and also put together his own band. R&B singer Chuck Willis invited Barge to join his touring band and to a recording session. After another saxophonist wasn't delivering in the studio, Willis asked Barge to step in for a take on the classic blues song 'C.C. Rider.' Willis' song topped the R&B chart and crossed over as well, performing nicely on the pop chart. Barge eventually returned to Norfolk, where he worked for a record label run by songwriter and producer Frank Guida. Barge formed a band, the Church Street Five, and wrote an instrumental, 'A Night with Daddy G,' the title providing the source of his nickname. A fellow Norfolk native, Gary U.S. Bonds, took the song and added lyrics, calling it 'Quarter to Three.' It went on to become a hit that was covered by several musicians, including Bruce Springsteen. Around 1964, Barge moved to Chicago to take a job at Chess Records as a staff musician and producer, overseeing the label's rhythm section. Barge played on Fontella Bass' hit 'Rescue Me' and produced Buddy Guy's 1967 album, 'Left My Blues in San Francisco.' Barge later said the label's owners, the Chess brothers, struggled to adapt to rhythm and blues music.. 'They felt the blues, but they really didn't know a lot about R&B,' Barge told the Tribune in 1997. 'They only came up if one of the blues artists came in, like if Muddy was going to do something.' Barge also released his own album, 'Dance with Daddy G,' in 1965. He also assembled a big band for local special occasions, the Gene Barge Orchestra. After Chess closed in 1975, Barge independently produced two hit albums for Natalie Cole. He also briefly worked as a gospel music producer for Memphis-based Stax Records, though he continued to be based in Chicago. Through some work with advertising agencies, Barge connected with Davis, who was working on his first film, 'Stony Island.' The 1978 movie was about an up-and-coming R&B band and Davis hired Barge to play the role of the band's mentor. Tribune film critic Gene Siskel, in his review of 'Stony Island,' praised Barge for bringing 'a quiet dignity to his role' and likening Barge's portrayal as a hip adult who speaks 'young people's language through music.' 'He was perfect in the role,' Davis said. 'I was so grateful to him because he helped me get my career off the ground.' Roles for Barge followed in action films such as 'Above the Law, 'Under Siege,' 'Chain Reaction,' 'The Fugitive,' 'The Package' and 'The Guardian,' all directed by Davis. Music remained front and center for Barge, however, and in the early 1980s, the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger asked Barge to join the band on its 1982 European tour. He also joined the Chicago-based band formerly known as Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, which was renamed Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings. Barge remained a part of that band almost until the COVID-19 pandemic, his daughter said. Barge also produced a one-off album by an ad hoc group of Chicago pro athletes, including Dan Hampton, Troy Murray and the legendary Walter Payton. Known as the Chicago Six, the group played together during offseasons in the late 1980s. In the early 2000s, Barge was a consultant for 'The Blues,' a seven-part PBS documentary series made by executive producer Martin Scorsese that examined various aspects of blues music. Carlton 'Chuck D' Ridenhour of the hip-hop group Public Enemy was featured in one episode, and Barge was asked to play a solo on Public Enemy's 2005 album, 'New Whirl Odor.' The result was a lengthy song co-written by Barge and Ridenhour titled 'Superman's Black in the Building.' Barge's self-released 2013 album, 'Olio,' boasted guest appearances from Buddy Guy and Otis Clay. By his early '90s, playing the sax no longer was an option due to battles with sciatica and then with emphysema, his daughter said. A first marriage ended in divorce. Barge's second wife, Sarah, died in 2008. Barge also is survived by another daughter, Gail Florence; two sisters, Celestine Bailey and Kim Williamson; a brother, Milton; two grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. Services were held.
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Gene Barge, R&B saxophonist who played on landmark hits, dies at 98
Galvanized by Mr. Barge's moaning tenor saxophone, 'C.C. Rider' reached No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1957 and stalled just outside the Top 10 on the pop chart. In 1963, Mr. Barge was featured on Jimmy Soul's calypso-derived 'If You Wanna Be Happy,' a No. 1 pop and R&B hit. Mr. Barge also played the wailing tenor part on Fontella Bass's 'Rescue Me' (1965) and supplied the rhythmic drive, with members of the Motown house band the Funk Brothers, for Jackie Wilson's 'Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)' (1967). Both records topped the R&B chart and crossed over to become Top 10 pop hits. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up His greatest acclaim, though, came in 1961 with 'Quarter to Three,' a No. 1 pop single recorded with the R&B shouter Gary U.S. Bonds. Hoping to capitalize on the success of 'New Orleans,' his first big hit, Bonds created 'Quarter to Three' by adding lyrics to 'A Night With Daddy G,' a churning instrumental that Mr. Barge had recently written and recorded with his band the Church Street Five. Advertisement 'Oh, don't you know that I danced/ I danced 'til a quarter to 3/ With the help, last night, of Daddy G,' Bonds sings on the opening chorus. ('A Night With Daddy G' would prove to be doubly auspicious when Dion borrowed its melody for 'Runaround Sue,' a finger-snapping wonder that topped the pop chart in late 1961.) Despite having the benefit of Mr. Barge's snaking saxophone runs — and despite the record's affinity with the twist dance craze of the day — 'Quarter to Three' was an unlikely sensation. Muffled and lo-fi, it sounded as if it had been recorded in a bathroom or a stairwell. 'This record is fuzzy, muzzy and distorted,' British television producer Jack Good wrote in a 1961 issue of Disc, the popular weekly music magazine. 'According to present-day technical standards it is appalling. However, for my money, the disc is not just good, it's sensational and revolutionary.' Advertisement An exuberant fusion of doo-wop, Black gospel, and incipient frat rock, 'Quarter to Three' not only inspired the big-beat rock 'n' roll of the Beatles and the garage-rock of bands like the Kingsmen and the Sir Douglas Quintet. It also provided a blueprint for the sax-and-vocal exchanges between Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, a rapturous call and response that came to define the E Street Band, which often performed 'Quarter to Three' in concert. Breaking into pop music when the saxophone was ascendant (and before it was supplanted by the electric guitar), Mr. Barge was as distinctive and versatile a stylist as King Curtis, if less well known. Over six decades, he played on or produced records by Muddy Waters, the Chi-Lites, and the incendiary Detroit funk band Black Merda. He also toured with Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, and the Rolling Stones. James Gene Barge Jr. was born on Aug. 9, 1926, in Norfolk, Va., the oldest of eight children of James and Thelma (Edwards) Barge. His father played banjo and worked as a welder in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. His mother managed the home. Mr. Barge played clarinet in high school and took up the saxophone only after his father brought home a waterlogged tenor that he had found on a torpedo-damaged ship. He was 20 at the time and had just completed two years in the Army Air Forces. After graduating from West Virginia State College in 1950 with a degree in music, he taught high school and pursued music as an avocation. Jazz was a formative influence, especially the effervescent phrasing of the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Advertisement The first recordings Mr. Barge made under his own name were a pair of instrumentals for Checker, a subsidiary of Chess Records, in 1956. 'Country,' his first single, was a hit along the Eastern Seaboard. 'When Chess heard it, they said, 'What the hell is that?' Mr. Barge said of the record in a 2007 interview with Virginia Living magazine. 'They had never heard a saxophone sound like that before. They even gave it a word: funk. That was the reputation I got — that Gene Barge could play funky.' Around 1960 Mr. Barge began his brief but fruitful association with producer Frank Guida, whose Legrand label released 'A Night With Daddy G' and Bonds's early singles. Mr. Barge and Bonds had a second major hit together with 'School Is Out,' which reached the Top 10 in 1961. In 1964, as independent record labels with national distribution increasingly dominated regional markets, Mr. Barge abandoned teaching — and Norfolk's small Legrand imprint — and moved to Chicago to work for Chess Records. He played on R&B hits including Little Milton's 'Grits Ain't Groceries' and Koko Taylor's 'Wang Dang Doodle' and produced albums, including Buddy Guy's acclaimed 1967 effort, 'Left My Blues in San Francisco.' In the late 1960s, he also directed the musical ensemble of the Chicago chapter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Operation Breadbasket, an organization headed locally by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Barge later ran the gospel division of Stax Records and, over the ensuing decades, worked as a freelance musician, producer, and arranger, most notably on Natalie Cole's Grammy-winning single 'Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).' In the late 1970s he took a detour into acting, eventually landing roles in Hollywood action thrillers 'Under Siege' (1992) and 'The Fugitive' (1993). Advertisement Mr. Barge remained active into the 2000s, serving as a consultant for Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS documentary series 'The Blues' and playing on records including Public Enemy's 'Superman's Black in the Building' and with avant-garde jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson. 'Gene Barge is the flyest octogenarian I know,' Chuck D of Public Enemy told Virginia Living in 2007. 'To go from Muddy Waters to Public Enemy is a good trick.' In addition to his daughter Gina, Mr. Barge leaves another daughter, Gail Florence; three siblings, Celestine Bailey, Kim Williamson, and Milton Barge; two grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. His wife, Sarah Barge, died in 2008. His first marriage ended in divorce. Mr. Barge's career might not have gotten off to the start it did with Chuck Willis's 'C.C. Rider' were it not for his patience and good humor. After playing the grinding riff on the demo that persuaded Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to record it as a single, he was flown to New York for the session, only to find that another saxophonist had been hired instead. 'Ertegun and Wexler told me they were going to pay me, but they didn't want me to play,' Mr. Barge told Virginia Living. 'I went down to the liquor store, man, got me a pint and sat down on the floor to listen to them. They did 27 takes and weren't satisfied. So Chuck said, 'Look, why don't you let Gene run down one to get the feel?' So I ran down one and they said, 'Hold it, that's it, you got it. Let's cut it.'' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
New York Times
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Gene Barge, R&B Saxophonist Who Played on Landmark Hits, Dies at 98
Gene Barge, one of the last surviving saxophonists of the golden age of R&B, whose career ran the gamut of 20th-century Black popular music, died on Sunday at his home in Chicago. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter Gina Barge. Known by the nickname Daddy G, Mr. Barge played on landmark hits of the rock and soul era, beginning with Chuck Willis's swinging remake of the blues standard 'C.C. Rider.' Galvanized by Mr. Barge's moaning tenor saxophone, 'C.C. Rider' reached No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1957 and stalled just outside the Top 10 on the pop chart. In 1963, Mr. Barge was featured on Jimmy Soul's calypso-derived 'If You Wanna Be Happy,' a No. 1 pop and R&B hit. Mr. Barge also played the wailing tenor part on Fontella Bass's 'Rescue Me' (1965) and supplied the rhythmic drive, with members of the Motown house band the Funk Brothers, for Jackie Wilson's 'Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)' (1967). Both records topped the R&B chart and crossed over to become Top 10 pop hits. His greatest acclaim, though, came in 1961 with 'Quarter to Three,' a No. 1 pop single recorded with the R&B shouter Gary U.S. Bonds. Hoping to capitalize on the success of 'New Orleans,' his first big hit, Mr. Bonds created 'Quarter to Three' by adding lyrics to 'A Night With Daddy G,' a churning instrumental that Mr. Barge had recently written and recorded with his band the Church Street Five. 'Oh, don't you know that I danced/I danced 'til a quarter to 3/With the help, last night, of Daddy G,' Mr. Bonds sings on the opening chorus. ('A Night With Daddy G' would prove doubly auspicious when Dion borrowed its melody for 'Runaround Sue,' a finger-snapping wonder that topped the pop chart in late 1961.) Despite having the benefit of Mr. Barge's snaking saxophone runs — and despite the record's affinity with the twist dance craze of the day — 'Quarter to Three' was an unlikely sensation. Muffled and lo-fi, it sounded as if it had been recorded in a bathroom or a stairwell. 'This record is fuzzy, muzzy and distorted,' the British television producer Jack Good wrote in a 1961 issue of Disc, the popular weekly music magazine later absorbed into Record Mirror. 'According to present-day technical standards it is appalling. However, for my money, the disc is not just good, it's sensational and revolutionary.' Mr. Good's assessment of the record proved prescient. An exuberant fusion of doo-wop, Black gospel and incipient frat rock, 'Quarter to Three' not only inspired the big-beat rock 'n' roll of the Beatles and the garage-rock of bands like the Kingsmen and the Sir Douglas Quintet. It also provided a blueprint for the sax-and-vocal exchanges between Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, a rapturous call and response that came to define the E Street Band, which often performed 'Quarter to Three' in concert. Breaking into pop music when the saxophone was ascendant (and before it was supplanted by the electric guitar), Mr. Barge was as distinctive and versatile a stylist as King Curtis, if less well known. Over six decades, he played on or produced records by Muddy Waters, the Chi-Lites and the incendiary Detroit funk band Black Merda. He also toured with Ray Charles, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Sources differ as to how Mr. Barge came to be known as Daddy G. The sobriquet, though, was already gaining traction before the release of 'Quarter to Three,' when the Philadelphia disc jockey Hy Lit adopted 'A Night With Daddy G' as the theme song for his radio show. Shortly afterward, the doo-wop group the Dovells paid homage to Mr. Barge on their 1961 hit 'Bristol Stomp,' singing, 'We ponied and twisted and we rocked with Daddy G.' James Gene Barge Jr. was born on Aug. 9, 1926, in Norfolk, Va., the oldest of eight children of James and Thelma (Edwards) Barge. His father played banjo and worked as a welder in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. His mother managed the home. Mr. Barge played clarinet in high school and took up the saxophone only after his father brought home a waterlogged tenor that he had found on a torpedo-damaged ship. He was 20 at the time and had just completed two years in the Army Air Forces. After graduating from West Virginia State College in 1950 with a degree in music, he taught high school and pursued music as an avocation. Jazz was a formative influence, especially the effervescent phrasing of the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young. The first recordings Mr. Barge made under his own name were a pair of instrumentals for Checker, a subsidiary of Chess Records, in 1956. 'Country,' his first single, was a hit along the Eastern Seaboard. 'When Chess heard it, they said, 'What the hell is that?' Mr. Barge said of the record in a 2007 interview with Virginia Living magazine. 'They had never heard a saxophone sound like that before. They even gave it a word: funk. That was the reputation I got — that Gene Barge could play funky.' Around 1960 Mr. Barge began his brief but fruitful association with the producer Frank Guida, whose Legrand label released 'A Night With Daddy G' and Mr. Bonds's early singles. Mr. Barge and Mr. Bonds had a second major hit together with 'School Is Out,' which reached the Top 10 in 1961, but enjoyed only modest success after that. In 1964, as independent record labels with national distribution increasingly dominated regional markets, Mr. Barge abandoned teaching — and Norfolk's small Legrand imprint — and moved to Chicago to work for Chess Records. While there he played on R&B hits like Little Milton's 'Grits Ain't Groceries' and Koko Taylor's 'Wang Dang Doodle' and produced albums, including Buddy Guy's acclaimed 1967 effort, 'Left My Blues in San Francisco.' In the late 1960s, he also directed the musical ensemble of the Chicago chapter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Operation Breadbasket, an organization headed locally by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Barge later ran the gospel division of Stax Records and, over the ensuing decades, worked as a freelance musician, producer and arranger, most notably on Natalie Cole's Grammy-winning single 'Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).' In the late 1970s he took a detour into acting, working locally in Chicago (he made his screen debut in the independent 1978 film 'Stony Island') before eventually landing roles in Hollywood action thrillers like 'Under Siege' (1992) and 'The Fugitive' (1993). Mr. Barge remained active into the 2000s, serving as a consultant for Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS documentary series 'The Blues' and playing on records like Public Enemy's 'Superman's Black in the Building' and with the avant-garde jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson. 'Gene Barge is the flyest octogenarian I know,' Chuck D of Public Enemy told Virginia Living in 2007. 'To go from Muddy Waters to Public Enemy is a good trick.' In addition to his daughter Gina, Mr. Barge is survived by another daughter, Gail Florence; three siblings, Celestine Bailey, Kim Williamson and Milton Barge; two grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. His wife, Sarah Barge, died in 2008. His first marriage ended in divorce. Mr. Barge's career might not have gotten off to the start it did with Chuck Willis's 'C.C. Rider' were it not for his patience and good humor. After playing the grinding riff on the demo that persuaded Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to record it as a single, he was flown to New York for the session, only to find that another saxophonist had been hired instead. 'Ertegun and Wexler told me they were going to pay me, but they didn't want me to play,' Mr. Barge told Virginia Living. 'I went down to the liquor store, man, got me a pint and sat down on the floor to listen to them. They did 27 takes and weren't satisfied. So Chuck said, 'Look, why don't you let Gene run down one to get the feel?' So I ran down one and they said, 'Hold it, that's it, you got it. Let's cut it.''
