Onzy Matthews

Onzy Durrett Matthews, Jr. (January 15, 1930 – November 13, 1997) was an American jazz pianist, singer, arranger, composer, and television and movie actor. He is best known for the big band arrangements done for the Lou Rawls albums Black and Blue and Tobacco Road, as well as arrangements for several of Ray Charles' 1960s releases. He had his own big band for many years and recorded numerous tracks for Capitol Records, including two albums released under his own name. He later had a close relationship with the Duke Ellington orchestra, working as a pianist, arranger and conductor through the late 1960s and 1970s.

Onzy Durrett Matthews, Jr. was born on January 15, 1930, to Onzy Matthews and Leola Jones in Fort Worth, Texas. He grew up in Dallas until his early teens when his mother moved to Los Angeles seeking better-paying work. His early exposure to music was through singing in a church gospel choir.

Matthews knew early on that he wanted to be a musician: "music was his calling." He graduated from high school early, at the age of 16, and primarily wanted to be a singer. "I taught myself to accompany myself on piano and then I found out you had to have arrangements." In the early 1950s, he enrolled in the Westlake College of Music in Hollywood and studied voice, ear training and harmony; much like Berklee School of Music they were proponents of the Schillinger System. He auditioned for band leader Les Brown as an arranger; Brown helped Matthews focus on what to keep in an arrangement that works, and what to discard.

In 1959, Matthews contacted Dexter Gordon who was active in the Los Angeles jazz scene at the time. Matthews' first big band was started with the help of Gordon and fellow saxophonist Curtis Amy. The group started with a book of 21 charts from Matthews, and rehearsed on Wednesday nights for 5 months until they finally booked gigs in the area. The group was a conglomerate of all-star Los Angeles jazz/studio artists who immediately took a liking to playing Matthews' inventive, blues-based orchestrations; the first players coming through his band included Gordon, Amy, Sonny Criss, Jack Sheldon, Carmell Jones, and Red Mitchell. Curtis Amy included two of Matthews' original tunes on his Pacific Jazz albums Meetin' Here and Way Down in 1961 and 1962 respectively. Dexter Gordon recorded Matthews' original tune "Very Saxily Yours" for his Gettin' Around album on Blue Note, but the track was not released until 25 years later on the CD re-issue. Matthews became known around Los Angeles as an adept arranger and musical director; his first professional arranging assignments came at this time with Lionel Hampton, Della Reese, Ruth Price, and Gene McDaniels. The first tune of Matthews to be commercially recorded was in 1956, when clarinetist Maurice Meunier, who had played with Lionel Hampton, recorded in France. Meunier had got a copy of Matthews' "Blues for the Reverend" through his association with the Hampton band the year before.

Much like other black jazz artists of that time, it was particularly difficult for Matthews to break prejudice and color barriers. He said at the time: "They said the band was too mixed, a couple of whites or a couple of Negroes would be O.K. but not 50/50." He was confronted by an agent who hired an all-white group for a Las Vegas show rather than Matthews' mixed band. His frustration extended to A&R representatives for Decca, Columbia, and Capitol, who liked the sound of the band and his music but expressed concern after seeing the racially mixed band in person.

Matthews' group in the early 1960s was finding work as a big band in Los Angeles; most of his players were shared, alternating with Gerald Wilson's big band (another integrated big band) every other weekend at the Metro Theatre in Los Angeles. The group also had a long running gig on Monday nights at the Virginia Club in Los Angeles.

Players for Matthews' big bands and recordings in Los Angeles included Bud Brisbois, Curtis Amy, Bobby Bryant, Dick Hyde, Teddy Edwards, Earl Palmer, Jay Migliori, Conte Candoli, Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Horace Tapscott, Gabe Baltazar, Joe Maini, Ollie Mitchell, Herb Ellis, Carmell Jones, Sonny Criss, and Jack Nimitz. These included both black and white studio musicians, which continued to present a problem until Matthews worked with the much younger producer Nick Venet after he signed to Capitol. Singers that Matthews featured and wrote for, on their regular live gigs, included Ruth Price, Jimmy Witherspoon, Big Miller, and June Eckstine.

Lou Rawls was signed to Capitol Records in early 1961 and had a breakthrough set of hits with Les McCann and the album Stormy Monday. Nick Venet was in charge of Rawls, and introduced him to Matthews. In August 1962, they recorded 13 new charts arranged by Matthews that featured Rawls' resonating baritone voice. Eleven of those charts would comprise Rawls' LP Black and Blue, which charted for three weeks in Billboard magazine from April 1963, reaching no.130. Both men were back in the studio at Capitol in July and August 1963 to record more tracks, which made up Rawls' album Tobacco Road. Both albums were re-issued in 1969 on a Capitol release, Close-Up, which charted for three weeks in Billboard starting in August 1969, peaking at no.191. The band for the two Rawls LPs is essentially the personnel of the Onzy Matthews big band from that time. Matthews' arranging style was a perfect fit for Rawls, but the pair did not re-unite for any other releases for Capitol. Two other sets of singles sessions with Rawls from 1963 have never been issued. Matthews' band continued to back Lou Rawls on live concerts and events during the late 1960s.