Airtown seems to be a label whose main focus was to release records by Tommy Wills (that he owned the label probably helped). Sure there are other artists (organist Frank DeVito is one that comes to mind along with some other cool stuff they licensed), but it's pretty much Tommy Wills 45s that turn up semi-often.
Tommy Wills was(/is?) a sax player & this 45 dates from the late 60s. The A side is a pretty corny medley of 'Born To Lose' & 'I Can't Stop Loving You' as a tribute to Ray Charles but on the flip you get the nice funky blues track 'Funky Sax'. Tommy Wills has a couple of other funky 45s (including a version of 'Four Corners') but primarily was a middle-of-the-road soul/pop/country sax stylist (think a less famous but a bit funkier Ace Cannon & you might get the idea).
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Filed under: 45's and 7's, Country / Blues, Jazz, Soul / Funk
I knew Tommy Wills in the 60s and 70s while disc jockeying on radio in Springfield and Dayton Ohio. He was sort of a poor-man’s cross between Earl Bostic and Boots Randolph. A fine showman in person, and a really nice guy. I still have one of his albums, on which were some great musicians including Cal Collins.
I have a couple of Tommy Wills lps on the Terry Gregory label distributed by Airtown.
TG lp 1000 (Man With A Horn -Tommy Wills combo) is his first lp with Cal Collins on some tracks. It sounds like there were two seperate groups here from the musicians listed. Half the tracks are Wills originals with the others being popular music of the day.
TG lp 1005 (Soulful Moods of Man With The Horn) is a quartet date with Frank DeVito on organ, Cal Collins on guitar and Fred Garey on drums. Mainly popular tunes of the day with a couple of Wills originals.
No dates given but I guess late 60s early 70s.
Is Tommy Wills still alive? Any more information about him?
Tommy is still kicking and recently played at his 85th birthday party bash at the Jazz Kitchen in Indy, but unfortunately I missed it as I was travelling. I played a gig with him the fall before last, and also played at his 80th birthday celebration. He still gigs around Indy a lot–mostly in a duo setting I think.
I played the B3 on that album. I think it was ’68 or ’69. I also played at the 80th & 85th B-Day Jams of Tommy. He’s still lookin’ and soundin’ good. Looking forward to the 90th.
Wow, Frank DeVito, good to hear from you. I like your 45 of “Organ Grinder Swing” on the Airtown label.
I played one job with Tommy and Fred. It was a last minute gig when his organ player (Ray Bridgeford) couldn’t make the gig. I was 19 at the time. So, it was guitar, drums, and sax. We started with Honky
Tonk. At the end of the first verse/chorus, Tommy looked at me and said “take it.” At that point, it was guitar and drums. What a scream, not to mention a growing point for me. You can’t buy lessons like that.
Nice solo, Frank