Cornell Dupree - Legend of R&B Guitar - ASK ZAC 21

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac
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today we're gonna talk about Cornell
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Dupree got to turn the tremolo off on my
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amp so that don't hear that thump in the
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whole time so just so you know I'm you
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know got my telly and I'm going straight
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into the amp no pickguard going full on
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Dupree so a bit of history Cornell
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Dupree was born in Dallas in December of
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1942 you know of course he you know
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learned how to play the guitar well
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enough that the Great King Curtis Curtis
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Ousley found him and convinced him to
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move to New York and of course he moved
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up there to play with King Curtis and
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the Kingpins and well you know that's a
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it's a great gig and threw that gig
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he played with Bobby Womack some because
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they were both playing with a Sam Cooke
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for a bit I played with Jimi Hendrix for
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a bit you know and yeah I continued to
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play with King Curtis and really got his
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big break when he played on the tune I
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was playing at the beginning of the
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episode a rainy night in Georgia Brook
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Benton's version and of course that's a
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Toni Jo white tune and a quick aside
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being that I'm from Kingsville Texas
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which is near Corpus Christi Toni Jo
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white moved to Kingsville and the early
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1960s and my dad used to go see him play
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live said he was kind of a Elvis
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impersonator at the time and then later
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in the 60s while still living in the
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Kingsville Corpus Christi area he wrote
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rainy night in Georgia
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Polk Salad Annie and some of those other
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tunes that appear on his early albums so
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back to mr. Dupree
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yeah plan on rainy night in Georgia was
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a huge launch for him and so soon he was
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playing on a lot of Atlantic sessions
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King Curtis and the kingpins started
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being Aretha Franklin's road band and
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studio band and you know Jerry Wexler
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very famously said that he loved Cornell
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because he could hire him as the only
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guitar player on the session and have
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both lead and rhythm covered in a lot of
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earlier Atlantic sessions especially
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like if you think about the classic
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Aretha stuff you had two or three guitar
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players on there so you might have
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Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Womack and Joe
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South or you know Chips Moman you know a
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mixture of those guys you know playing
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on things but Wexler loved Dupree's you
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know kind of way that he could weave
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around both playing rhythm and lead and
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fills and such probably my favorite
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besides raining out in Georgia he he
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worked with a Donny Hathaway and they
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did Donny Hathaway live album which I
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love that album and there's a great
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recently they put out a version of that
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that's just the material with with with
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Dupree on it because the original album
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is half Phil Upchurch because part of
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it was cut in LA and part of it was cut
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and both was cut live but Phil Upchurch
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played on the LA stuff and of course
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Cornell played on the New York stuff
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yeah and then you have stuff with Eric
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Gayle and Steve Gadd and Richard T and
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you have in the Joe Cocker things and
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you know all sorts of great stuff
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Cornell was such a part of the New York
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establishment and continued to play in
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the clubs there and
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you know what an amazing player and what
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an influential player so that's kind of
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the the Nikol version of you know of
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Cornell Dupree I'm said that I'd you
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know of course he passed away a number
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of years ago and I never got to you know
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interview him email him or anything like
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that I certainly would have liked to
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have I was you know dependent on you
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know research I want to thank Michael
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Ross my friend and who's a writer for a
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guitar player and premier guitar and he
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has a wonderful article on Cornell
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Dupree in his forgotten heroes series
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and I'm gonna put a link to that in the
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description also there's this great book
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that call rhythm and blues guitar by
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Cornell Dupree also with Dave Rubin and
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this is a great source because he they
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did a good job of telling Cornell Dupree's
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 story and and having a lot of
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great information in that so there's
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that let's talk a bit about his Cornell
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Dupree gear and then we'll talk
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something I will talk some about his
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playing
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so of course early on he played a
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variety of guitarists by the time you
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know he's playing with King Curtis he
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was playing a guild guitar that had
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dearmond pickups and in the rhythm and
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blues guitar book he indicates that King
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Curtis was not happy with his guitar
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tone and he ended up finding his santen
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with a Telecaster and you know he he got
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a telly like this so this is a 1967
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Telecaster and you know from the looks
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of his it's a maple cap neck like mine
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and I've taken the pickguard off in his
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honor and yeah it looks like he had
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either a 67 or 68 tele and this is what
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he used you know unmodified on like
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rainy night in Georgia and you know the
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Aretha stuff
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it seems later on he added a dearmond
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pickup and there was an added little
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plate here
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and the plate had a selector switch to
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turn the pickup off and on and that
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guitar is as far as I can tell it seems
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to be owned by a collector in Japan so
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that's where his original late 60s
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Telecaster is of course after playing
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the telly he played a series of yamaha
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signature models until is until a
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Cornell Dupree is passing the strings he
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used are interesting and and I've gone
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so far as to replicate the the set that
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he used and and but for the time it was
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not unusual so Cornell Dupree used what
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was called Fender rock and roll strings
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so the standard string at that point was
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you know like twelve through fifty
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something and had a wound third or you
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know Ernie Ball started making you know
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strings in 62 and Fender started
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offering a light gauge set that they
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called their rock and roll set and it
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was it was interesting and that's what
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you know Dupree used and so it's ten for
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the high string 13 for the B string 15
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for the g string okay we're gonna talk
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more about that later 26 for the D
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string 32 for the a string and 38 for
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the low E string so now this was the set
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and so this is the set that Jimi Hendrix
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used it's a set that Duane Allman and
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Eric Clapton Roy Buchanan Danny Gatton I
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mean on and on and on this was kind of
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like they easy to get like gauge string
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set it's kind of what everyone used and
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so you have the gauges that are kind of
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wacky by today's standards but they were
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standard at the time then also the
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construction method is different now the
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the unwound strings are the same is what
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we use now but the WAM strings are
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different these are round core which
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means the the core of the string is
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round
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and then it has a solid nickel you know
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wrap on it
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now how that's different is today's
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strings are hex core and they have
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nickel-plated steel so what that means
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is the hex core helps the the wine stay
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on there better and then the
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nickel-plated steel has more output so
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the strings that our hero's used are
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quite different than than what we're
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using now the strings we're using now
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have more bass output they're louder so
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I changed to the set and this is of
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course fenders not making those strings
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anymore this is a recreation made by
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pyramid and I'll put a link to these
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also and they even call it the Jimi
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Hendrix inspired set and again it's ten
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thirteen fifteen twenty six thirty to
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thirty eight so there you have it so
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while we're still on gear of course
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Cornell
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mainly used fender amps I'm sure you
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know New York is kind of known
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especially in the in the 60s and 70s
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there were a lot of ampeg amps at
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studios and I'm sure he probably used
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those also but he was known for using a
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Fender Twin you know live or showman or
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whatever kind of amp there was so now
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let's talk about his playing and since
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we just kind of covered gear let's talk
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about how those strings affected his
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playing well you know of course you have
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kind of a lightish kind of low-end and
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then you have this really you know
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fairly light g-string well if you listen
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to Cornell's
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you know soloing like you'll hear more
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of it like on the the donny hathaway
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live album and you know maybe on some
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other like the Aretha live at the
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Fillmore you hear some of it but you'll
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notice that he will Bend more wildly you
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know on that g-string and you know it's
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pretty obvious that he was you know
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influenced on by Albert King and so
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you'll hear these bins where let's say
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he's playing in the key of a and it's a
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pretty common move
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take that c-note on the g-string and
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bend it up a half step to a c-sharp
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so it's kind of a minor third major
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third Bend but Cornell will bend a lot
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from this C to the D so you get that
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whole step in and he's doing it
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seemingly with his first finger so you
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get this kind of thing so you get so you
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know see you have it or you have these
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kind awful yeah and he would do some
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some double string pins and things like
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that so that's something that was
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influenced by you know the string gauge
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that he was using another thing of
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course you have the you know the the
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kind of double stop things like you know
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like on ring night in Georgia which was
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actually I played it E the originals in
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D so you could
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you know that that kind of thing
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another thing he's kind of really known
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for is playing like these sixth and then
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kind of hitting you know like again
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we'll stay in the key a just to make it
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easy but he would like and then hit the
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tonic so uh so it's a fairly common move
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you know for Mr. Dupree that's a
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that's a great great thing you can also
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you can do it you can do it otherwise
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but you don't you kind of lose that high
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note but it sounds better view and of
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course he did the normal kind of double
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stops things and rhythm and and he was
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kind of known for the Cornell bounce and
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also you know it's funny you know a lot
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of a lot of stuff you know people got
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credit for things they didn't play you
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know and no offense to Cornell Dupree at
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all but he got credit for playing for
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originating the part on you know Memphis
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soul stew well Reggie Young came up with
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that part and I recorded it originally
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but Cornell certainly you know played it
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great and and played a little different
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and of course he had his own kind of
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rhythm thing that he did so you know
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[Music]
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that kind of thing yeah so those are
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just a little bit of Cornell Dupree isms
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also I wanted to talk about one of the
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things I think is real interesting is
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just that nexus of rhythm and blues kind
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of soul guitar players and how you find
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out that they they were all hanging out
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and they were all you know kind of
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rubbing off on each other and in this
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rhythm and blues guitar book that I
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mentioned earlier
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Cornell talks about playing on raining
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on Georgia and saying that the influence
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you know what what influenced him to
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play like that was Curtis Mayfield so
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I've done a couple other you know
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episodes on you know you know kind of
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arm be guitar players like you know
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Bobby Wommack and and Reggie young and
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and I didn't mention Curtis Mayfield and
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I kind of thought well you know he used
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that different you know tuning where is
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f sharp and and you know but no he was a
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huge huge influence and I should have
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mentioned him on other things but so
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yeah so Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield
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and you know Cornell Dupree and Jimi
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Hendrix I mean all those guys were
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rubbing off on each other and I guess
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you know really Curtis Mayfield was kind
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of influencing those guys more than he
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was being influenced but yeah Cornell
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gives due credit to Curtis Mayfield for
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for the stuff that he played on rainy
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night in Georgia yeah I just think
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that's really interesting you know again
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you know Cornell Dupree playing with
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Jimi Hendrix Bobby Womack and Cornell
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Dupree playing with Sam Cooke and on and
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on so it's it's a it's a fun thing and I
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love you know you know that kind of soul
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guitar kind of thing
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and yeah so that's kind of my take on
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Cornell Dupree love him love is playing
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I'm going to create a Spotify playlist
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and you know and kind of choose my
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favorite Cornell Dupree things you know
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from through the years I have to admit
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again that Donny Hathaway live album is
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a is a favorite so anyway you know so
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take your pick guard off plug in plug
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straight into your amp you don't need
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any effects of course every once while
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he'd do volume swells with the with the
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volume control and stuff like that but
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yeah enjoy thank you for joining me and
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I hope you have a great week
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Thanks bye bye