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The Persuasions - Artist Profile
The story of the Persuasions begins in February or March of 1962 as Jimmy "Bro" Hayes remembers it. It was one of those beginnings which seemed serendipitous at the time, yet in retrospect seems fated. All the future members of the Persuasions moved to New York City independently, from different states. They hadn't gone to school together or grown up together. Yet starting about 1960, every day they all went to a basketball court at Green and Washington (pictured on the We Came To Play album) to play with about thirty or forty other guys. After playing, everyone would sing together. Jimmy Hayes heard some of the voices were singing in harmony, but he couldn't identify the individuals. One evening he invited the group as a whole to come to his apartment to have a rehearsal and get together a little group, knowing that his tiny apartment couldn't hold everyone, nor would everyone show up. Four other guys showed up that night. They began to sing before even knowing one another's names. We know them as the Persuasions. They feel it was a spiritual thing.For a few years they sang in basements, garages and in the subway, where they found a great echo. One of their garage sessions was recorded while they were "just messing around." It was being played in a Jersey City record store which piped the sound onto the street when David Dashev walked by, heard it and sent the tape to Frank Zappa, who loved it. The decision to go to California and record was a momentous one as a couple of the group had families and they all had jobs. When they said OK they didn't even have a name. Jimmy Hayes was reading the Bible and saw Persuader in it. When he explained to the group his idea, because they were going to have to persuade people to follow a cappella music, everyone agreed immediately.
At the time lots of groups ended their names with ions (Temptations, Impressions, etc.) so rather than Persuaders they became Persuasions. Frank flew the guys to California in 1968 to record on his Straight Records label. The album released was a combination of the studio recordings and some very early live tracks. It was a beginning.
In l969 the Persuasions recorded an album in two tiny studios in Jersey City, NJ. It wasn't released until ten years later. The big label to pick them up was Capitol Records, who released three albums in the early 1970s, including "Street Corner Symphony", which had some tunes listed on the charts and has been their best selling album. The middle of the seventies was a time of upheaval and experimentation. Record labels just didn't know how to market the group. A&M Records tried to make them into a pop group on a couple of instrumentally accompanied albums. Jayotis Washington left the group for a while to be replaced by Willie C. Daniels. The guys zeroed back into their a cappella roots on their one release on Elektra, "Chirpin”, and have never strayed since, though they have done various background gigs for Joni Mitchell, Ned Sublette and many others.
It hasn't been a smooth path for the five Persuasions. Both the ups and downs have been in their lives aplenty. It was as low as it could be when Herbert, "Toubo" Rhoad passed away, on the road, in December of 1988. It was up when Spike Lee had them perform on the television special about a cappella music in 1990. That show and the CD released, entitled "Do It A Cappella", was an important moment for both the Persuasions and a cappella music. For the field in general, it put it on the map in a way that had never been done before. For the Persuasions, it established their position in the field as the premier group. They had sung their songs through the decades of a cappella drought and kept the spirit of a vital music alive. Now, as the field of a cappella music flourishes once more, we have to thank these five guys. Jerry Lawson is the lead singer, one of the best ever, who also was primarily responsible for creation of their original music. Jayotis Washington is the first/second tenor who came from Detroit and adds the Motown sensibility to the group, in addition to the beautiful, soaring, high tenor. Perhaps "Sweet" Joe Russell has the most powerful voice at second tenor, but for sure, though all but Jayotis began their singing in southern churches, he adds the gospel element to the group. Jimmy "Mr. Bass Man" Hayes is the bass singer. Not only is his one of the deepest voices singing a cappella but the foundation of all their music begins with his vocal line. As he's the one who initiated the whole thing, so his role as foundation of the group has dual meaning. Then there was Herbert "Toubo" Rhoad, whose solid baritone just glued everything together.
The Persuasions at iTunes
Written: 15th Jun, 06
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