Phil Upchurch, a prolific session musician who performed guitar on data by artists similar to Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and George Benson, died Nov. 23 in Los Angeles. He was 84.
His dying was confirmed by his spouse, Sonya Maddox-Upchurch, who didn’t specify a trigger or say the place in L.A. he died.
Among the many basic songs Upchurch took half in creating within the studio had been Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman,” which topped Billboard’s R&B chart for 3 weeks in 1978, and “Workin’ Day and Night,” from Jackson’s 1979 solo breakthrough, “Off the Wall.” He additionally performed on Hathaway’s vacation staple “This Christmas” and on 1972’s “Live” (which was recorded on the Troubadour) and on two variations of the instrumental “Breezin’”: Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó’s 1971 recording, which launched the music composed by Bobby Womack, and Benson’s hit rendition from 1976, which helped drive Benson’s album by the identical title to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Upchurch was born July 19, 1941, in Chicago and was taking part in music professionally by age 16. Jimmy Smith, the jazz organist, was an early inspiration, he instructed The Occasions in 1996; Smith’s albums, he stated, had been his “bibles.” In 1961, Upchurch scored successful beneath his personal title with “You Can’t Sit Down,” a swinging, organ-driven quantity that later went to No. 3 on the Sizzling 100 in a rendition by the Dovells. In 1963, Upchurch performed on a proto-rap spoken-word LP by Muhammad Ali, then generally known as Cassius Clay, known as “I Am the Greatest!”
Upchurch served within the U.S. Military for 2 years in Germany within the mid-’60s; when he returned, he rapidly grew to become a fixture at Chicago’s Chess Information, the place he labored on classes by the likes of Ramsey Lewis, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters and made a number of data of his personal with Hathaway as a member of his studio band.
Within the ’70s he performed on Mayfield’s soundtracks for the flicks “Superfly” and “Sparkle,” the latter of which additionally featured Aretha Franklin. Among the many many different acts Upchurch carried out or recorded with had been the Staple Singers, Natalie Cole, Minnie Riperton, Bob Dylan, Anita Baker and Dr. John.
