August 02, 2008 11:30 pm
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By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
It’s June of 1957, and Chuck Berry is rocking the charts with one hit single after another.
Bob Massey, then about age 17, recalls the day he was playing a Berry tune on an electric guitar in his bedroom with the window open. The window was open because houses in those days did not have air-conditioning units.
In the house next door lived Bob Macy, then about age 13, whose bedroom window was directly across from Massey’s window. Macy heard the new sound that would soon be called rock ’n’ roll. He was intrigued by what he heard.
“There were two young boys, Bill Macy, Bob’s brother, and Bob, both with their heads out the window,” said Massey. “I was playing Chuck Berry guitar licks when a voice says: ‘Hey!’
“I stopped playing and answered. Bob replied: ‘Would you teach me to play rock ’n’ roll on a saxophone?’ I said, ‘Sure. Get a sax, and I will tell you what notes to play and let you play in my band,’” Massey recalled.
“Two hours later and after a trip to Ernie Williamson’s, he yells from the window: ‘Hey, can I bring my sax over?’ That’s how it started. Two kids playing rock ’n’ roll,” said Massey.
Within two weeks, Macy had mastered the notes with a fingering chart. Within three months, he was playing well enough to become a member of Massey’s band, the Midnighters. The encounter would launch Macy’s nearly 50-year career as a saxophone player. He would perform with most of the major bands that emerged from the Joplin area from the late 1950s through the 1990s.
He also performed with such greats as B.B. King, Neil Diamond, B.J. Thomas, and Steve and Cassie Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Macy died of colon cancer on July 16 at a nursing home in St. Augustine, Fla. He was 62. His obituary appears in today’s death notices.
The loss has deeply saddened his friends.
“I remember 40 years ago when we were in Wichita (Kan.) We recorded Bob Dylan’s song, ‘Memphis Blues Again,’ said Johnny Rose, a local guitar player who performed with Macy. “Bob was part of the horn section, and Steve Gaines was singing.
“I was playing the guitar on it. I was 16 at the time. It was unbelievable. It’s too bad we lost the masters of that.”
Rose said Macy brought soul and taste to whatever he did.
“That was the whole thing. He had the feel for it and the heart for it. He knew how to paint outside the lines. He was experimental,” he said. “But in his heart, he was a jazz artist, and it was all about promoting the jazz.”
Jim Snyder, of Joplin, was the manager of Smooth Mahuti, a band that Macy performed with in local clubs for many years.
“Right out of high school, he moved to Southern California. His career started in a big way in the (Los Angeles) area,” said Snyder. “He hooked up with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He was consumed by cutting-edge jazz. He was a musician who was trying to get farther than anyone I knew.
“He was always pushing the limit. He had electronics hooked up to his saxophone in the 1960s. He could sound like Jimi Hendrix on a saxophone. He did stuff that had never been done before. His horn was everything.”
During his time in Los Angeles, he also played with the Coasters and Jerry Lee Lewis.
To describe Macy as an extraordinary saxophone player, Snyder said, understates his talent.
“He was as talented a sax player as anybody could be. He could hit any note,” he said.
Macy showcased his talent for jazz on a regular basis in the mid-1970s at the Jazz Hoot, a Joplin club that featured jazz artists. He also played regularly at the Baghdad Club, a jazz nightspot in Kansas City.
“He played the tenor saxophone most of the time, but he could play the baritone and soprano at the same time,” said Michael Ray, drummer for Smoot Mahuti for 20 years. “He did that at the Jazz Hot. He could play all of the woodwind instruments and the flute.
“He hit the right notes, and it was bluesy and gutsy. He was not all over the place. He started with rock ’n’ roll, went to jazz early in life and then seemed to migrate to the blues.”
Macy last performed in 2006 at the Family Worship Center in St. Augustine. Snyder said he had recently acquired a new saxophone.
Looking back at his time with Macy in the 1960s, Massey said, “We played together in the Shadows, the Beltones, and in another group called William and the Conquerors. We traveled in a Ford Mustang with a trailer on the back. The four of us would make $100 each for a show and about $400 a week. That was good money then.
“Bob was very reliable. He was good at his instrument. He remembered all of his solos.”
Massey said each year on New Year’s Day he would receive a telephone call from Macy.
“He would start: ‘Do you remember where we were on this date in 1958?’ I would say: ‘We were playing at the Pittsburg (Kan.) Country Club,’” recalls Massey. “Then we would tell the rest of the story, which I can’t repeat for the newspaper.
“I’ll miss that call.”
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