Esquerita

Esquerita's father (who was born on March 25, 1907) died in February 1989, a little over two years after his son's death.

Eskew Sr.'s last known residence was Simpsonville, South Carolina.

Eskew Reeder, Jr. (November 20, 1935 or 1938 – October 23, 1986), usually known by the stage name Esquerita, and occasionally as S.Q. Reeder or The Magnificent Malochi, was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist, known for his frenetic performances.

He has been credited with influencing rock and roll pioneer Little Richard.

Although most sources give the year of his birth as 1935, other reliable sources, and his social security records, state 1938.

Reeder was a self-taught piano player whose roots were in gospel music.

His music career started as a teenager, when he dropped out of high school and joined the gospel group Heavenly Echoes based in New York City.

Little is known about Reeder's early career as a secular rock and roll piano player.

As Esquerita, he often wore heavy makeup, sunglasses, and two wigs, piling his pompadour high on his head.

A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was the son of Elizabeth and Eskew Reeder, and attended Sterling High School in Greenville from 1947 to 1950.

Though most reliable sources give his birth name as Eskew Reeder, Jr., some give the name Stephen Quincy Reeder.

Both tunes did well as Richard's first top 40 Soul and Top 50 Pop hit since the 1950s, “Freedom Blues”, the A-side.

They and a few other musicians played a steady gig at Tommy Smalls Night Club on 50th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City.

Several months later the group disbanded.

He gained notoriety but his own hit was still a dream.

Reeder has been cited as a key early influence on Little Richard; his look and style were in a very similar vein, although Esquerita was much more flamboyant in the 1950s and his music played more wildly than the contemporary music of Little Richard.

Reeder did not record until after Little Richard's initial early 1950s recordings for the RCA and Peacock labels and the later hits on Specialty.

However, early Little Richard recordings made at WGST Radio Station in Atlanta do not show the style that was to make him famous.

Reeder's first solo studio recordings came about when Paul Peek got him to record some demos at a Greenville radio station (WESC) around 1958.

At that time, Peek was a member of the rockabilly group The Blue Caps, led by manic performer Gene Vincent.

Peek even co-wrote "The Rock-Around" with Reeder, and Reeder played piano on the 1958 recording that launched the NRC (National Recording Corporation) label.

From these contacts and Paul Peek's influence with Capitol Records came a record contract for Reeder; Cub Koda described the results as "some of the most untamed and unabashed sides ever issued by a major label."

At this point, Eskew Reeder, Jr. adopted the stage name Esquerita.

The ensuing years found Reeder cutting several singles with various backing musicians in studios in Nashville, Dallas, New Orleans and Detroit.

Capitol Records released the LP Esquerita in 1959, his only album in the traditional sense (that is, not a compilation of earlier singles, or re-issues).

In 1962, he cut an iconic cover of the 1956 hit “Green Door”.

Musicians he recorded with during this era included Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and The Jordanaires (Elvis Presley's backup singers).

His best-known songs from this time include "Hey Miss Lucy", "Get Back Baby", "Gettin' Plenty Lovin, "Rockin’ the Joint", and "Oh Baby". In 1963, he recorded a session for Berry Gordy's Motown Records but those recordings were never released. In late 1967, Reeder changed his name to Magnificent Malochi and signed with Brunswick Records. In 1968, for that label, he co-wrote Little Richard's adaptation of Bessie Smith's 1936 “I got what it takes“, as “Stingy Jenny (Got what it takes but it breaks my heart to give it away)”.

These were to include unreleased recordings from a session in New York City in June 1966.

Esquerita started the 1970s in a positive way, contributing “Dew Drop Inn” and a co-write on “Freedom Blues”, to Little Richard's acclaimed comeback album for Reprise Records, The Rill Thing.

He played keyboards on "Takin' Care Of Business" by John Hammond in 1970.

According to an interview with Billy Miller and Miriam Linna in the ReSearch book Incredibly Strange Music, Reeder occasionally performed at African-American gay clubs under the name Fabulash during the 1970s.

Shortly after this, he began to fade from the music scene, but Linda Hopkins released a song written by Reeder called "Seven Days and Seven Nights" in 1973.

Around this time, Esquerita formed a new group, consisting of Charles Neville (the saxophone player of The Neville Brothers), who then resided in Brooklyn, New York, and drummer Jerry Katz of Queens, New York.

He was eventually tracked down by a writer for Kicks Magazine in 1983 or 1984, who found him performing in second-rate New York City clubs.

On October 17, 1984, Esquerita made an appearance with Little Richard, at the Red Parrott disco, in Manhattan, New York, at the Crown Publishing book launch for the biography written by BBC's Charles “Dr. Rock” White and Richard, The Life and Times of Little Richard, covered by NBC TV, who captured an impromptu “Thank You, Jesus”, Richard singing and Esquerita playing.

According to an article ("Who Was Esquerita?") by music historian Johnny Carter in an international oldies magazine, music maven Bill Lowery (who originated National Recording Corporation and was involved in the Peek sessions for NRC) was approached by Esquerita on the street in New York in 1985 after a conference at Broadcast Music, Inc. Lowery confirmed that Esquerita was down on his luck and was working as a parking lot attendant but was still as flamboyant as ever.

A few months before his death he was seen washing car windshields for tips at an intersection in Brooklyn.

In this same article, Esquerita's father, Eskew Reeder Sr., said that his son had died of complications brought on by AIDS in 1986.

On March 13, 2012, it was announced that Norton Records was releasing a new single and new album by Esquerita entitled Sinner Man: The Lost Session.