Dec. 26, 1970: United Sound

 

United Sound was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2003 – same year I was – and their brief HOF bio notes that they were among the first racially-mixed groups to play the nightclub circuit locally. They also toured nationally and were successful for a many a year, providing a gig for numerous players in the area. Most durable performer of the group is undoubtedly singer Isaac (Ike) Smith, who has fronted a bunch of bands, most recently the Boogie Monsters. 

Dec. 26, 1970

‘United Sound’ Makes The Moves

You’ve Got to See Them

As Well as Hear Them 

Satan’s Roost, one of the twin citadels of rock on Transit Road near Lockport, is so jammed with cars for Wilmer & The Dukes this particular Sunday that you wonder if Keystone 90s is even open.

Turns out Keystone is jammed too. Poke through the lumpy, ice-covered parking lot and you hear what sounds like a soul band. Hustling beat. Organ. That’s United Sound.

What you hear outside is only about half the story. United Sound is a show band. You gotta watch them to get the full effect.

* * *

BEHIND that four-way mike stand (just like the Delfonics), the four male singers bob and weave in their red outfits around demure Dottie Hooks, also in red and wearing a long-fringed vest.

The tables are full, people are dancing and the group is urging them onward with a long “Dance to the Music.” It’s hard to find a good sight line and, during the hunt for a vantage point, booking agent Frank Sansone materializes.

“You know,” he says, “they’ve got almost as many clothes as they’ve got equipment.”

There’s nine in the band and they’ve got new outfits every set. It’s best when they’re some place with a dressing room. Once they had to change on stage, slipping one at a time inside a sheet held up by the rest of the group.

* * *

“YOU CAN’T get into a bigger place like Eduardo’s or the Chez Ami unless you’re doin’ a show-type thing,” says drummer and spokesman Carl Hooks. “The show will appeal to the older crowd while the younger crowd is dancing to all their favorites.”

“It sells more,” bass vocalist Larry Gilbert will tell you, “plus people look at you more.”

* * *

THE GROUP has taken songs from at least 35 sources – from James Brown to George Harrison – and Larry plots the choreography. When the group decides a song will fit into their show, Larry takes the record home, listens to it and figures out the moves.

The moves are slower in “California Dreamin’,” although diehard Mamas & Papas fans might object to the way it’s rearranged. Lead singer Bill Miller works it up and the music reels behind him.

For the next set, the singers reappear in bright jumpsuits and launch into “Heed the Call,” “Feelin’ All Right,” “Oh My Lord” and “Ball of Confusion,” in which the singers duck in and out of place.

* * *

SANSONE agrees the group could use an extra set of PA columns. The voices, of course, have to rise above the instruments – primarily Dave Taberski’s organ – and at that volume the columns mush the sound when all five vocalists are going.

“We’re in a rut,” Carl says, “because of finances. We’d like to get out and buy a truck and travel, but we haven’t really been able to make that move.”

The treasury for equipment grows every time somebody shows up more than 10 minutes late for early evening practices in a private dining room in UB’s Tower Dorm, which Carl is a resident adviser. Anyone who misses practice loses half his pay for the week.

“We just generally go and set up,” Carl explains. “We’ve got this fine system. If you get out of line, just throw in $5.”

On the Friday before the Keystone appearance (the group is there every Sunday, plus they’re at St. Amelia’s in Tonawanda this Tuesday), the entire band was packed into the living room of Carl and Dottie’s suite listening to the results of Thursday night’s Black Student Union dance in Goodyear Hall.

It was a tape Bob Romanowski’s KRC Associates made from the PA system and the vocalists sat there shaking their heads whenever the harmonies slipped.

“Listen, I could play you a tape from about 9 months ago and we sound totally different,” Carl says. “The sound has picked up so much.”

* * *

THE GROUP rehearsed most of 1969 in a gym at St. Mary’s Seminary, Franklin and North streets, trying out horn players and all. They really didn’t start to move until they got to Brownie’s Upper Terrace last February.

“We were getting $15 a man,” Carl says, “and we were 10 pieces then. The first two weeks there was no crowd, then the place was packed. We drew crowds when we were bad back then because of the show.

“Brownie’s is a small place and there’s a real reactive crowd,” he continues. “We were kinda scared and skeptical about it, but they really dug the white people in the group.

“Especially John. He’s funky. One night we told them: ‘John gonna do the Funky Chicken for you all,’ And they’re all sayin’, ‘Come on, ain’t no white folks can do no Funky Chicken.’ So John gets up like this and he does the Funky Chicken, you know? He can really dance. The crowd couldn’t believe it. They loved John.”

* * *

DURING the summer, the group played a free outdoor concert at UB and drew people from another band playing indoors. “It got so they wouldn’t play unless we were takin’ a break,” Carl notes.

They and Lavender Hill played along with the UB Marching Band in that halftime show for peace that ABC-TV’s football executives thought would be too controversial. “We’re not political,” Carl points out. “We’re just entertainers.” And they even had an offer to tour with the Delfonics.

“A guy from Philly Groove Records had Nat Turner’s Rebellion up here at the Pine Grill,” Carl says, “and he came out to hear us at the Keystone. The first night he missed out on it, but he came back the following night. But we couldn’t go then because we had too much school and work.”

* * *

WHAT about Carl and Dottie’s baby? “I’ll just get a little stool to sit on,” Dottie says, “and keep on going.”

“That baby,” Carl says, “is probably gonna be born singin’.” 

The box/sidebar: 

Some Nice Harmonies 

Pertinent and impertinent information about United Sound:

Carl Hooks, 23, drums, native of Los Angeles, graduate of Grambling College, finishing his MA in student personnel counseling at UB, married.

Dorothy (Dottie) Hooks, 21, vocals, East High School graduate, attending UB, Carl’s wife, expecting a child.

Bill Miller, 23, first tenor voice, Emerson Vocational, attending Community School of Music, 5-year Marine veteran, two tours in Vietnam, single.

John Martin Jr., 21, baritone vocals, East High, attending Community Music School, married, one child.

Isaac Smith, 20, second tenor voice, East High, attending Buffalo State, married, one child.

Larry Gilbert, 19, bass vocals, East High, attending Community Music School, single.

Phil Guarmatta, 20, guitar, Seneca Vocational, single.

John Kam, 20, bass guitar, Canisius High, attending Canisius College, single.

Dave Taberski, 20, organ, Canisius High, attending Canisius College, single.

* * *

JOHN MARTIN, Bill and Larry, formerly together in The Torinos, got together in March 1969 with Isaac, a veteran of The Ambassadors, to form a vocal group.

Then they added Dottie, an operatic singer they knew in high school, and tried unsuccessfully to give her coloratura voice a Motown touch. “We just couldn’t change it,” she shrugs.

John Martin and Phil had worked day jobs together. John remarked that he had a vocal group and Phil said he knew some instrumentalists.

“We came to see them,” Phil says, “and we heard a lot of nice harmonies – a lot of groups you don’t hear good singers – so we kept comin’.”

* * *

CARL, WHO before he came to Buffalo vowed that he wouldn’t play the drums again, met and dated Dottie at UB. When the group’s original drummer left, they talked Carl into taking back his vow. For good measure, they even chipped in and got him a $50 drum set.