Biography

  Ralph Bass (record executive and producer; May 1, 1911 – Marcy 5, 1997) During a lengthy career as a producer and talent scout for the influential independent record labels Savoy, King/Federal, Chess and Black & White, Ralph Bass played a major role in bringing black music into the American mainstream. He recorded some of the greatest figures in black music, including Etta James, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, the Dominoes and T-Bone Walker. Ralph Bass was born on May 1, 1911, in Bronx, New York. He had an Italian-American-Catholic father and a German-American-Jewish mother. He ...