Bruce Thompson (raw Umber, 24 Karat Black, Chocolate Sunday) Interview

[boba]

Hi. Today on my radio show I interviewed Chicago musician and producer Bruce Thompson. Bruce was born in Indianapolis but at a young age moved to the Harold Icke projects on the South Side of Chicago. His first professional recording happened when he played organ on the Emotions' first Stax/Volt record, "So I can love you" (the backing track was actually recorded in Chicago). Bruce and his parents moved to Morgan Park right before Bruce started high school. Bruce saw local Morgan Park group Raw Umber performing and joined the band as a keyboard player, playing on their 3 released 45s. The group broke up when one of the members was drafted in 1971. Bruce soon joined the air force.

On returning from the military, Bruce began working as an organ demonstrator at a Wurlitzer store. At the store, the road manager for the band 24 Karat Black approached Bruce. 24 Karat Black were originally a Cincinnati group called the Ditalians; the group recorded a legendary funk / rare groove LP on Enterprise records. Several of the original Ohio members had left the group and Bruce and several other Chicago musicians joined the group as replacements. Bruce toured with the group for two years and even recorded an unreleased 24 Karat Black LP.

After the group broke up Bruce came back to Chicago and, with the former Chicago members of 24 Karat Black, formed a group called Chocolate Sunday. The group cut a single -- Second Story Man / Beautiful Sounds, on the local Chicago Dynamic record label. Bruce worked at the studio set up by the label, engineering and producing records by the Nikki Buzz band and Split Evolution. The label and studio soon folded, without distributing or promoting the Chocolate Sunday single. Bruce joined the Mel Hayes Boogie Man Orchestra (who had a national hit "Lady Lady Lady" in 1976) and performed with the band for about 5 years. Bruce also started his own studio and has been engineering, producing, and playing on local Chicago recordings for the last 30 years.

You can check on the interview on my webpage at:

www.sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html

thanks,

Bob