Cornell Dupree, RIP

The Zelig of Soul Music

Oh, dear. Cornell Dupree passed away. It’s OK if you have to search for the name. He’s one of those fellows that makes the world go ’round, but you rarely catch with their feet on the pedals. By his own estimate, he played on 2500 albums. Seems low to me.He had emphysema, and perished waiting for a lung transplant. The last video of him on YouTube shows him still onstage last year with an oxygen tank.

He started, more or less, here: King Curtis.

I’d be hard-pressed to name a better rhythm section than Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Purdie, and Cornell Dupree.

I like Atlantic Records stuff from the late sixties and the seventies, so Cornell Dupree is a daily staple at our house. He probably shows up at your house, too, whether you know it or not. Have you heard of any of these people?

• Aretha Franklin
• King Curtis
• Donny Hathaway
• Joe Cocker
• Brook Benton
• Bonnie Raitt
• Paul Simon
• Sam Cooke
• Wilson Pickett
• Sam and Dave
• Hendrix
• Fats Domino
• Miles Davis
• Mariah Carey
• Bill Withers

He opened up for the Beatles, and was in the first Saturday Night Live band. He worked.

He died three days ago at his home in Forth Worth, the city of his birth, still married after 53 years to his wife Erma, with two sons and a daughter and nine grandchildren, none farther away than Dallas. To be able to achieve so “ordinary” a family life in that business might be the most extraordinary thing about him of all. Rock steady, and missed.