Today, June 23rd, we celebrate the life and times of James Walter Jimmy Castor (June 23, 1940 – January 16, 2012); an African-American pop and funk musician. He is best known as a fun disco/funk saxophonist, with his biggest hit single being 1972s million seller, Troglodyte (Cave Man). As leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch in the 1970s, and also as a solo artist, he released several successful albums and singles. The group reached the peak of their commercial success in 1972 with the release of their album, Its Just Begun, which featured two hit singles: the title track and Troglodyte (Cave Man), which was a large hit in the U.S., peaking at #6 in the Billboard Hot 100. The track stayed in the chart for 14 weeks and was a million seller by June 30, 1972, and received a gold disc award from the R.I.A.A. The Castor band included keyboardist/trumpeter Gerry Thomas, bassist Doug Gibson, guitarist Harry Jensen, conga player Lenny Fridle, Jr., and drummer Bobby Manigault. Thomas, who simultaneously recorded with the Fatback Band, left in the 1980s to exclusively record with them. Many of the groups tunes have been heavily sampled in films and in hip-hop. In particular, the saxophone hook and groove from Its Just Begun and the spoken word intro and groove from Troglodyte (Cave Man) (namely, What were gonna do right here is go back...) have been sampled extensively. He died in 2012 from heart failure, seven days before his 72nd birthday.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 04:27:04 +0000