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- The Dtroit News, Michigan, Friday, 10 August 2012
Briefly
Visitation for Detroit musician Johnnie Bassett is from 3-8 p.m. today at the Phe Funeral Home, 17600 Plymouth, Detroit. Service are at 11 a.m. Saturday at New st. Mark?s, 243318 8 Mile Detroit. The much-admired blues man?s family needs help with funeral expenses; donations are welcome to the ?Johnnie Alexander Bassett Memorial Fudn? at any PNC Bank Branch.
Boston.Com
Johnnie Bassett, 76, Detroit bluesman with jazzy style
August 11, 2012, By Terence McArdle, Washington Post
WASHINGTON ? Johnnie Bassett, a blues singer and guitarist with an urbane, jazzy style whose studio work included the early recordings of Smokey Robinson and the ¬Miracles, died Aug. 4 at a hospital in Detroit. He was 76.
His death, from liver cancer, was confirmed by his publicist, Matt Lee.
Mr. Bassett?s brand of swing and jump blues with a small horn section often contrasted with the rock-flavored guitar work of other headliners at blues festivals.
Growing up near Detroit, he began playing guitar in his early teens and started a jump blues band with singer and ¬pianist Joe Weaver while in high school. The group, the Blue Notes, performed at talent shows sponsored by local promoter Frank Brown in Detroit?s black community.
Mr. Bassett?s shimmering chord work can be heard on the classic 1954 doo-wop ballad ??The Wind,? by Nolan Strong and the Diablos.
Outside the studio, the Blue Notes backed up singers Dinah Washington and LaVern Baker at the Flame Show Bar in ¬Detroit.
After service in the US ¬Army, Mr. Bassett returned to Detroit in 1965 and spent several years as a sideman and, ¬occasionally, a featured singer in blues and jazz bands.
In 1991, he formed a jump blues band, the Blues ¬Insurgents, with drummer R.J. Spangler, keyboardist Bill Heid, and saxophonist Scott Petersen. The Blues Insurgents ¬released several albums including 1998?s ??Cadillac Blues,? co-produced in Memphis by former Al Green arranger, Willie Mitchell.
Johnnie Alexander Bassett was born in Marianna, Fla., where his father was a bootlegger and restaurateur. The family moved to the Detroit area in the mid-1940s.
He leaves his wife, Deborah Campbell of Oak Park, Mich.; a daughter; three stepchildren; a brother; four grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
The Detroit News, August 6, 2012
Detroit?s ?gentleman? bluesman backed greats
By Susan Whitall, Detroit News Music Writer
Johnnie Bassett, Detroit's beloved "gentleman of the blues," died of liver cancer on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, at St. John Hospital, Detroit. Mr. Bassett, whose calm, courtly demeanor belied a ferocious musical talent, was 76.
It was just over a month ago that his album "I Can Make That Happen," his second on Mack Avenue Records' Sly Dog sublabel, was released. Mr. Bassett fell ill in July and had been hospitalized for less than a month.
The soft-spoken guitarist was a human link to Detroit's musical glory days, having played behind such talents as Little Willie John, John Lee Hooker and Dinah Washington during Detroit's vibrant 1950s, and on early sessions for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (for Chess and Tamla). Mr. Bassett was also a session guitarist for Fortune Records, where he played behind Andre Williams, the Diablos and the Five Dollars.
Chris Codish played keyboards in Bassett's most recent band, the Blues Insurgents, and co-produced his last two albums. "He was the jazz/blues gentleman," Codish said. "He may not have gotten the popular acclaim, but the musicians knew, he was inspirational. I had so many nights playing music with him that were transcendent experiences."
Because the veteran musician didn't complain of pain, the recurrence of his cancer took his bandmates by surprise.
"The music kept him going," Codish said. "We'd sometimes start the night and he'd say, 'Oh, I'm not feeling it' or whatever, but by the end of the night, he'd be smiling and feeling good. The beautiful thing about music is, it heals you."
Mr. Bassett was born in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 9, 1935. The Bassetts moved to Detroit in 1944, and while he was still a student at Northwestern High School, Mr. Bassett started playing guitar at talent shows, theaters and nightclubs around Detroit with a friend, pianist Joe Weaver.
Mr. Bassett, Weaver and their group, the Blue Notes, were rehearsing in the
back room of Joe von Battle's Hastings Street record store when they inadvertently made their first record ? von Battle had a tape recorder going.
"The record '15:40 Special' came out of that, released on Deluxe," Mr. Bassett recalled. Mr. Bassett and the Blue Notes were playing hotspots such as Basin Street East and the Frolic Showbar before they were old enough to drink. Once, R&B legend Dinah Washington found herself stranded at the Frolic without her band.
"Dinah said, 'Well, all these people are here, so the show must go on. Do you guys play any blues?'" Mr. Bassett remembered. "'That's what we do.'"
After serving in the Army from 1958-60, Bassett stayed in Seattle, playing in an organ trio, and soon met Jimi Hendrix.
"He used to come sit in," Mr. Bassett said. "Guitar Shorty was headlining, then we'd do the blues session, then (Hendrix would) do little funky stuff."
His career got a boost when he signed with Mack Avenue's Sly Dog label in 2009, and he was a favorite of label owner Gretchen Valade. After she heard his rendition of Ray Charles' "Georgia on My Mind," Valade insisted that he include it on his album "The Gentleman is Back."
Mr. Bassett is survived by his wife, Deborah; a daughter, Benita Litt; as well as children Lynn Cole, Courtney Campbell and Kenneth Pringle; a sister, Louise Lawson; and brothers William Bassett and Jimmie Studdard.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1935 - 2012 (76 years)