Evelyn and Al Downing

Evelyn Downing Sings...

"Angel Eyes"

Featuring Al (A.J.) Downing Jazz Quintet

AJD Records

1976

 

Side 1 - 36261

Angel Eyes / Sunshine Of My Life / Rainy Day / Help Me Make It Through The Night / Bye Bye Blackbird / Satin Doll

 

Side 2 - 36262
When Sunny Gets Blue / There Will Never Be Another You / Bunny / Love Will Keep Us Together / Blue Groove

 

AJD Records 

2121 25th Street So.

St. Petersburg, Fla. 33712   

 

Recorded at Titan Sound Studio Largo, Florida

★ 

 

Evelyn Downing

Evelyn Jean Downing was born on February 13, 1950 to Alvin and Bernice Downing, the second of three daughters.

Evelyn attended Sixteenth Street Jr. High School and graduated from Dixie Hollins High School.During her high school years, her parents nurtured her gifted singing ability by featuring her vocal talents in many of her father's performances.  Her style was her own.  She was encouraged, guided and inspired by her parents and as a result of their love of jazz, they founded the Allegro Music Society, now known as the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association.  Her father served as president, her mother served as vice president and Evelyn was the first member of the association.  After graduating from high school, she studied Theatre Arts at Carnegie Tech in Philadelphia, Pa. and attended Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Fl.   In the early 70's, Evelyn successfully began a career as a professional jazz vocalist featured with her late father, renowned jazz pianist and music educator, Alvin J. Downing.  Her most prized accomplishment was recording the album "Angel Eyes" with her father.  She performed with a variety of jazz artists in cities throughout the United States including Atlanta, Georgia, Naples, Miami, Tampa, and St Petersburg, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, Denver, Colorado and Los Angeles, California.  Early in her career while performing in Atlanta, she was recognized as the top performing artist at Pascal's and the Clock of Fives Dinner Club located in the Regency Hotel.  She was known for her elegant wardrobe especially designed for her by the late internationally known designer Patrick Kelly. 

Alvin “Al” Joseph Downing was born in 1916 in Jacksonville, Florida.

   

Al Downing is legendary to those who remember the golden days of jazz in St. Petersburg.

 Piano talent and a desire to perpetuate jazz among young people everywhere were two qualities Al possessed from the time he was a young man in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. He formed his first band in high school, pursued music throughout his college days and organized music programs at Gibbs High School when he moved to St. Petersburg, in 1939.

Al served with the Tuskegee Airmen before leading the 613th Army Air Force Band in Tuskegee. He then moved on to other military bands in the U.S. and Japan. When he retired in 1961 as a major, Al went back to school for a Master of Music before returning to St. Petersburg. He taught first at Gibbs and then for another 20 years at St. Petersburg Junior College.

Retiring in 1983, he continued teaching privately. He was recognized as an Ambassador of Jazz by the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Foundation and named Tampa Bay’s Favorite Artist by Players Magazine. Al firmly believed in an organization to promote jazz and in 1981, he formed the Al Downing Florida Jazz Association. It merged in 1989 with the Tampa Bay Jazz Society and has existed as the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, Inc. ever since.

Al died in 2000, but his outstanding reputation as a performer, an educator and a humanitarian carries on. To honor him, Perkins Elementary School for the Arts and International Studies dedicated its theater to his memory in 2001. In 2004, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast placed his likeness in the role models mural in their newly renovated, historic Royal Theater performing arts center.

Sources : 

• http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Evelyn-Downing/1212042372
• http://aldowningjazz.com/history.php
• http://www.jazzlandcafe.com/
• http://www.sptimes.com/News/022200/TampaBay/Al_Downing__83__jazz_.shtml
  
  

Avolanche on Big A

Avolanche

Big A 006
1975
36101 ~ You Know My Love
R.Ostrow - D. George - F.Ramos

36102 ~ Good Seed
Frank Ramos-Nick Petta

Produced by Chet Bennett
Recorded at Titan Sound Studios, Largo, Florida

This Tampa-based dance/disco band enjoyed the following year (1976) a local hit with "Mister Boogie Man" (Boblo Records). They backed Jimmy Ellis (Orion) on his "Live With Avalanche" LP in 1978 (also on Boblo)

Bennett stands by studio recording console

Altough the red door is unpretentious looking and sits back from the road, Titan Sound Studios is an ultra-professional recording establishment with a 16-track system.

Chet Bennett, guitarist, bassist and back-up singer for some of the early rock stars (such as Roy Orbison, Freddie Cannon and Kini Lester), became interested in the « back room » where the technicians worked.

His music career and electronics education was interrupted, however, by a three-year stint in Vietnam with Special Forces. Returning to the states, Bennett moved to Largo and enrolled at the Clearwater campus of St. Petersbrug Junior College.

Born to a family of musicians in Providence, R.I., Bennett said that during his career he grew to « like the southern sound (of rock music) better than the northern sound. The southern musicians use more acoustic instruments and their sound is free and more natural.’

While attending SPJC, Bennett opened Titan Sound Studios as a part-time hobby, but when demand exceeded the time he could devote to a hobby Bennett turned the studio into a full-time operation.

Six years later, the studio is a thriving 24-hour business. Besides Bennett, three other people play prominent roles in the continuing success of the studio –his wife Marion, Charles Klimp and John Covington.

Marion : When she’s not teaching marine biology at Largo Senior High School, Marion takes calls, pays the bills, checks to see that everyone is comfortable and sometimes sings back-up.

Chuck Klimp : Trained in marketing and sales, Klimp is actively in contact with major producers and record companies.

John Covington’s job is to keep the equipment in top working condition. To do this, he has more than a thousand feet of wire set in a six-foot console to work with.

From "Part-time hobby is now thriving", [edited] article by Christina K. Cosdon, published in the St. Petersburg Times August 12, 1974.

Check out Chet Bennet's website.

The Delrays on Phart

Delrays
Label : Phart

31855 – Pure funk – Part 1
31856 - Pure funk – Part 2

Produced by John Wilcox
Recorded, re-mixed at Titan Sound Studio, Largo, Florida
Arrangement C. Robinson, L.Newsome

.

The Joyful Noise

,
The Joyful Noise
Classic LP, no release number
30561/30562
Recorded at Classic Sound and Recordings, Inc., Largo, Florida.

side one

Joyful Noise
Peacemakers
Life Love And Peace
‘Cause Jesus Loves Me
Jim’s Things
Come To Jesus

side two

High On Jesus
Thank You Jesus
Amazing Grace
Where Could I Go
One, Two, Three
I’d Like To See Jesus Come


Gospel Christian group from St Petersburg, Florida. If you are interested by Jesus music on vinyl, then Heavenly Grooves is THE place to visit.

Note : the cover design may look like a déjà-vu. That's because it was indeed used by a few other LPs releases manufactured by RITE (The sounds of the Zakons for instance).


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