The Other "Gate" - Gatemouth Moore©2006JCMarion
Arnold Dwight Moore was
born in November of 1913 near Topeka, in Shawnee County Kansas. As a
young child he moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee. His first
experience in music was as a member of his local church youth choir.
Later in his teenage years he latched on with a number of musical units
touring through the Midwest. The first was a brief stint with the band
of Bennie Moten which in a few short years would become the band of
Count Basie. Moore then went on a series of tours with travelling
revues that were offshoots of the minstrel shows of the late 1800s.
During the nineteen thirties he was a part of such revues as Ma Rainey,
Ida Cox and The Darktown Scandals, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, Down In
Dixie Revue, and a number of carnivals and circuses crossing the
country during the days of the depression. Moore even played a few
dates with a young and unknown Nat Cole during the late thirties. He
was part of a singing group called The Four Sharps, and then became a
fixture along Beale Street the heart of Black life in Memphis. It was
there where he came to be called “Gatemouth”, first by a woman
seemingly under the influence of a few adult beverages. In 1940 Moore
was performing with the Walter Barnes band in Natchez, Mississippi,
when a tragic fire killed many people including most of the band
members. Moore survived the fire and continued to perform. He was at
the Chez Paree club in Kansas City and made some recordings for the
small label also called Chez Paree. These recordings led to a session
with National Records in Chicago in 1945.
In the early nineteen
forties, Moore was in Chicago and was part of the growing blues scene
in that city. He played with King Kolax, Red Saunders, and frequented
the Rhumboogie Club in that city. During the mid forties, Moore had a
long running membership with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and toured the
TOBA circuit in the Northeast on stage at the Howard in Washington,
D.C., the Royal in Baltimore, and the Apollo Theater in New York. In
November of 1945 Moore recorded with Dallas Bartley & His Smalltown
Boys (featuring Pete Johnson on piano) with the songs “It Ain’t None Of
Me” and “I Ain’t Mad At You Pretty Baby” on National # 6001. A second
release was recorded with Budd Johnson’s combo featuring Harry Carney
and J.C. Heard on the songs “Did You Ever Love A Woman?” and “I’m Going
Way Back Home” on # 6002. Other National sides were “Walking My Blues
Away” / “Bum Dee Dah Ra Dee” with Budd Johnson on # 4004, “Christmas
Blues” / “Isabel” on # 40010 and “I Put Her Out” / “I’d Give It To You”
on # 9145 both with the Tiny Grimes Swingtet.
In 1947 he recorded for
King Records in Cincinnati. Moore re-recorded a number of tunes that he
had done for National and Chez Paree for King. Such tunes as “Hey
Mister Gatemouth” and “Don’t You Know I Love You” on King # 4015 were
released. In 1948 he left music for a time when he revealed that he
experienced a religious conversion while on stage at Chicago’s famed
Club DeLisa, and decided to retire from the world of R & B and
decided to become an ordained minister, first at Chicago’s Church Of
Deliverance, and then at Faith Temple Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He
soon had a religious radio program on WDIA in Memphis and was a
champion of Black gospel music. In Chicago, Moore recorded for
Aristocrat (the forerunner of the Chess label) with songs such as “The
Bible Is Being Fulfilled” / “Glory Glory Hallelujah” on # 905, and “I’m
Going Through” / “Thank You Jesus” on Chess # 1437. By 1950 Moore was
being featured in advertising for WDIA, and was honored for his
constant charity work on behalf of the poor in the city of Memphis. His
"Light Of The World" radio program was a top rtated attraction at the
station.
In July of 1952 Moore
began a two month gospel tour beginning in Detroit. Coral Records sets
up a recording session with Moore and his choir at the studios of WEDR
in Birmingham. Moore also broadcasted religious radio from Birmingham,
Alabama, before returning to Chicago where he was pastor at Wesley
Chapel and began a television program. In August of 1952 Coral Records
releases "They Buried Sin" parts 1 and 2 on # 65096. For the next
twenty years Gatemouth Moore concentrated on his work with the church.
He returned once to his former field of R & B with an early
nineteen seventies LP for Johnny Otis Blues Spectrum label. He did a
memorable turn when he appeared in the PBS documentary on the Blues
directed by Martin Scorsese, was in the documentary film “Road To
Memphis”, and the 1992 documentary film done by the University of California called
“Saturday Night, Sunday Morning”. Moore retired to Yazoo City,
Mississippi in the early nineties and that is where he passed away on
May 19, 2004 at the age of ninety.
Gatemouth Moore’s R &
B output is best captured on the CD “Crying And Singing The Blues” for
Savoy which contains all songs recorded for National Records in the mid
forties. The CD “Hey Mister Gatemouth” for Westside contains all the
King sides from 1947. Gatemouth Moore created a lot of music and got a
lot out of life in his ninety years with us.