Monday, 11 October 2010
Archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and mortician (21 March 1940 – 10 October 2010) known as the King of Rock 'n' Soul and the Bishop of Soul and described as the most unfairly overlooked singer of soul's golden age.
There are big men, and then again there are BIG men, and I don't recall seeing too many bigger than the late great Solomon Burke. To the average bloke in the street that's probably a case of Solomon Who? but where Hughesy's concerned, while I was never a huge fan, Solomon Burke, the King of Rock and Soul will always be the only singer able to sing like that seated on a throne.
In my (admittedly limited) understanding of these things, powerful singers get that tone from the diaphragm, and as I sit tapping out this R.I.P. I find it hard to imagine how anyone could produce the soulful roar emitted by Mr Burke on the Live at North Sea Jazz 2003 DVD, which is where I realised just how big this man was, while sitting down.
It must all be in the posture.
There's some indication of his size in the scene from The Big Easy where New Orleans police lieutenant Remy McSwain (Dennis Quaid) calls on ghetto mobster Daddy Mention, played by Burke, but you need to catch that DVD or some YouTube footage to appreciate how remarkable the man was.
We frequently make comments like when they made him they broke the mould, but it's hard to imagine many more charismatic and idiosyncratic performers than Solomon Burke. He wasn't one to stick within boundaries, and had a string of entrepreneurial activities that would have matched his family of family of twenty-one children, ninety grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren. Mind you, with that many kids he probably needed to.