Roland Janes

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Roland Janes (born August 20, 1933 in Brookings , Arkansas ; † October 18, 2013 in Memphis , Tennessee ) was one of the session musicians at Sun Records from 1956 and was jointly responsible for the development of the "Sun Sound" for rockabilly recordings.

Life

Childhood and youth

Roland Janes was one of seven children who grew up in northwest Arkansas. His parents and siblings played instruments, his uncle was a member of the country band Pop & The Midnight Ramblers , in which Roland Janes was allowed to play temporarily. In 1942 he moved to St. Louis with his now divorced mother . From 1946 he learned to mandolin , Les Paul became one of his musical role models with his Gibson guitar. In 1953 he came to Memphis through the US Marine Corps , where he switched to guitar in his spare time.

Beginnings

After his release he played in Memphis for the swing band of the pianist Doc McQueen at the Hideaway Club . Here he came into contact with Jack Clement , who was planning to found his own record label in Memphis with Fernwood Records . Before it was founded, the record label took Billy Lee Riley with his backing band, the later Little Green Men , under contract, which was taken over by Sun Records in early 1956. Riley's backing band also included Roland Janes and Jimmy Van Eaton , as well as Marvin Pepper and Jimmy Wilson . In early 1956, Buzz Busby recorded the song Rock'n'Roll Fever in Fernwood Studio , on which Roland Janes played lead guitar for the first time as a session musician (alongside Ronald "Slim" Wallace on bass and Johnny Bernero on drums).

Session musician with Sun Records

In March 1956 he played with Billy Lee Riley's recordings of Think Before You Go / Trouble Bound , which had been mixed at the WMPS radio station in Memphis and recorded in Slim Wallace's garage. With the demonstration tape, Jack Clement then went to Sam Phillips from Sun Records, who was supposed to create a master tape of it. The was particularly convinced of Trouble Bound , and Riley got on June 15, 1956 a recording contract with Sun Records; Janes was hired as a session guitarist at the same time. In May 1956, Trouble Bound / Rock With Me Baby , still with the Fernwood die numbers, was released as Sun # 245. Rock with Me Baby was the first track for Roland Janes that he recorded as a session guitarist in April 1956 at the Sun Studio.

Between 1956 and 1960 he played as a regular session musician on over 150 recordings and in almost all of Jerry Lee Lewis' studio recordings in the Sun studio. His clear and often melody-bearing guitar work shaped the "Sun Sound" in addition to the technical recording component. On June 5, 1957 Janes was even allowed to monitor the recordings of Two Young Fools in Love / I'm Getting Better All the Time for Barbara Pittman as a sound engineer , but to Jack Clement's annoyance he forgot to turn on the echo function; the titles were published without echo. His own Roland Janes band (with Billy Lee Riley on second guitar and Eddie Cash as singer) recorded five songs on February 11, 1959 ( Hey Good Lookin ' , Little Bitty Pretty Girl , Rolando , Roland's Blues and Uncle Sam Rock ) which were not published until 1987. On February 25, 1959 he played for Charlie Rich in the titles Rebound / Big Man . His guitar work is in the foreground of the instrumental titles Patriotic Guitar and Guitarville from May 1959, released on the small label Judd Records (# 1012). On October 14, 1959, his last session took place for Roland Janes, where he accompanied the later country star Charlie Rich in the songs Lonely Weekends / Everything I Do Is Wrong . At the end of 1959, Roland Janes left the Sun Records label with his long-time partner Billy Lee Riley .

Between 1956 and 1960 Janes played on recordings by Billy Lee Riley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hayden Thompson (September 6, 1957: Fairlane Rock / Blues, Blues Blues ; Sun # 605), Ed Bruce , Ray Scott , Jimmy Pritchett , Luke McDaniel (January 6, 1957: High, High, High ; Sun # 620) and many other lead guitars, with which he emerged as Sun's most important studio musician alongside Jimmy Van Eaton. He was instrumental in the "Sun Sound".

Departure of Sun

In January 1960 he founded his own record label Rita Records with Riley , which had a single hit with Harold Dorman's Mountain of Love (Rita # 1003; February 1960). When Rita went bankrupt, he founded Sonic Studios in 1962 , which were closed again in 1974. This is where Jerry Jaye's instrumental hit My Girl Josephine (April 1967) was born. In 1977 Janes became a sound engineer and producer for the Sounds of Memphis Recording Studios before returning to Sam Phillips in 1982.

Roland Jane's guitar technique was almost surgically precise and characterized by almost kinetic energy, thus completing the musical energy that arose from the Sun sound. Sam Phillips had found a guitarist who could subordinate his own personality and virtuosity to the demands of a music session.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ passings: Roland Janes, Sun Records Guitarist, Memphis Legend (1933 - 2013) . VVN Music, October 18, 2013.
  2. ^ John Floyd, Sun Records - An Oral History , 1998, p. 67.
  3. ^ A b Colin Escott / Martin Hawkins, Good Rockin 'Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock'n'Roll , 1991, p. 160.
  4. ^ Ken Burke, Country Music Changed My Life , 2004, p. 77.
  5. ^ Adam Komorowski: Rockin 'Memphis , Liner Notes and Discography, pp. 44-54; Proper Records (2008)
  6. ^ Rich Kienzle: Rock & Roland Janes . In: Guitar Player, May 1988, pp. 98-101

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Janes, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rockabilly musician
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Brookings, Arkansas
DATE OF DEATH 18th October 2013
Place of death Memphis , Tennessee