Dave Bartholomew

Induction Year: 1991

Induction Category: Non-Performer

"Working in his hometown of New Orleans, Dave Bartholomew helped develop and define the sound of rhythm & blues in the Fifties. He was a man of many talents: bandleader, trumpet player, songwriter, producer, arranger, talent scout, businessman, and more. Although he never made the pop charts under his own name, Bartholomew was a key figure in the transition from jump blues and big-band swing to rhythm & blues and rock and roll. As a result of his work with on such important early singles as “"Ain’t That a Shame,"” the big beat of New Orleans rock and roll was carried to the world. Bartholomew is most famous for having discovered and produced Domino, with whom he collaborated through the Fifties and beyond. But the list of acts he’s worked with over the decades is veritable a who’s-who of New Orleans R&B: Smiley Lewis, , Shirley & Lee, Earl King, Roy Brown, Huey “"Piano"” Smith, Chris Kenner, Robert Parker, Frankie Ford, James Booker, Jewel King, James “"Sugar Boy"” Crawford, Tommy Ridgley and more.

Bartholomew was born in Edgard, Louisiana, on December 24, 1920. He learned to play tuba and trumpet as a youngster and became a Bourbon Street bandleader while still in his teens. Disciplined and talented, Bartholomew learned how to score and arrange music during a stint in the army. After the war, he returned to New Orleans and formed his own band, which became one of the most popular performing outfits in the city. Its members included such local legends as drummer (a prolific sessionman who may be the most recorded drummer in history) and sax players Lee Allen and Red Tyler. In 1949, Bartholomew came to the attention of Lew Chudd, owner of Imperial Records, who brought him to the label and gave him free rein to find and record talent. Over the next decade, Bartholomew cooked up a lengthy string of buoyant, big-beat rock and roll classics with Domino (including “"Blueberry Hill"” and “"I’m Walkin’""). Other records in which he played a major role were Smiley Lewis’s “"I Hear You Knockin’"” (cowritten by Bartholomew and Domino) and ’s “"Lawdy Miss Clawdy,"” the biggest R&B hit of 1949. One of the most significant musical figures to emerge from the fertile New Orleans scene, Dave Bartholomew was largely responsible for shaping the rhythmic orientation of that city into a sound everyone would come to know as rock and roll.”

TIMELINE

December 24, 1920: Dave Bartholomew was born.