Who was/is Aftermath ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Aftermath
The 1953 New Orleans sessions would be relegated to a footnote to all but the artists themselves. Kilpatrick went back to New York to wine and dine Dinah Washington in order to re-sign her. The seduction included a couple of dinners with her and her entourage that ran up outrageous bills of six to seven hundred dollars. When Mercury complained, Kilpatrick told the president Irv Green, "Well, by god you sign her then!" Soon Green called Washington and Kilpatrick into his office and presented her with full-length white mink coat -- a 'hot' (apparently stolen) item which Green had obtained for four thousand dollars or more. Dinah turned around and said, "Where's that contract?" Kilpatrick would soon record a new hit for Dinah in the fall of 1953, the very risque TV Is The Thing (This Year), though she soon turned to more mainstream material and became a jazz/pop legend.
Ironically, the incident with the drunk saxophonist in New Orleans would have more effect on Kilpatrick’s life than the recording sessions themselves. “I got in trouble because I wouldn’t pay him,“ says Kilpatrick.“ And [James] Petrillo [head of the American Federation of Musicians union] got on my case about that thing.That’s the last recording I did in New Orleans, because I told both the colored local [musician’s union] and the white local if that’s the way they treated producers down in New Orleans, I’d stay the hell out of there!
However, Murray Nash (who passed away on April 17, 2000 in Ocala, Florida) apparently had at least one more very significant Louisiana connection, as he reportedly put together Crowley record man Jay Miller with Ernie Young of Excello Records in 1955, thus helping to create a Louisiana to Nashville pipeline that produced powerful swamp blues records for over a decade.
And, of course, Mercury later released many great swamp pop records (Sea of Love by Phil Phillips, This Should Go on Forever by Rod Bernard, etc.), as well Fats Domino’s classic 'Domino '65' live album.
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Various - Record Label Profiles
The Mercury New Orleans Sessions (2-CD)
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