Ernie Isley honors Hendrix

Lee Hildebrand, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, March 7, 2010



Ernie Isley was 11 when he first saw the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964 at his mother's house in Englewood, N.J. He sat on one side of a couch, his brother Marvin, 10, on the other. Between them was a houseguest, then-little-known guitarist Jimi Hendrix, 21.

"They've got two guitar players," Ernie recalls his oldest brother, Kelly, saying of the Beatles, "but we've got Jimi."

Hendrix did two stints with the Isley Brothers, a singing trio then made up of Kelly, Rudolph and lead singer Ronald Isley, who at that time were best known for the hits "Shout" and "Twist and Shout." The guitarist toured as a member of the group's backup band during the first half of 1964, then left to join Little Richard's band but returned to the Isleys for a period in 1965. He recorded three singles with the brothers for their T-Neck label during his two tenures. None were hits.

Ernie played his first gig as the Isley Brothers' drummer in 1966, after Hendrix had left the band. He debuted as the trio's bassist three years later on the hit "It's Your Thing," then switched to acoustic guitar and finally to electric guitar. His blistering Hendrix-inspired solos and fills on such songs as "That Lady" and "Fight the Power" took the Isleys' funk style in a new, rock-oriented direction during the 1970s, the group's most consistent hit-making period.

The guitarist - who, along with Kelly, Rudolph, Ronald, bassist Marvin and Rudolph's brother-in-law, keyboardist Chris Jasper, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 - will pay tribute to his onetime houseguest when the 2010 Experience Hendrix Tour stops at the Warfield on Wednesday and Thursday. Also on the show are guitarists Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Doyle Bramhall II, Robert Randolph, Brad Whitford (of Aerosmith), Vernon Reid (with his band Living Colour) and David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas (both of Los Lobos). Chris Layton, formerly with Stevie Ray Vaughn, is the drummer.

Rounding out the rhythm section is bassist Billy Cox, the only musician on the bill to have played with Hendrix. Cox and Hendrix met in 1961 when they were stationed in the Army at Fort Campbell, Ky. They played together for a period, and in April 1969, Cox was hired by his old friend to replace original Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. Cox remained with the group, which became known as Band of Gypsys, until two weeks before the guitar star's death in London on Sept. 18, 1970.

Hendrix was scuffling in Greenwich Village when Kelly Isley, in search of a guitar player for his group's backup band, found him there in early 1964. The guitarist was jobless and his guitar was in a pawn shop. Kelly got the instrument out of hock and bought Hendrix a set of strings for it. As soon as Hendrix began playing, Kelly hired him and invited him to a rehearsal the next day at Sallye Isley's house in Englewood. When the guitarist said he had no way of getting there, Kelly arranged for him to live in his mother's back room.

"He was quiet," Ernie says of Hendrix. "He minded his own business. He just practiced that guitar all the time. I really didn't understand that because he was already so good. It was like his guitar didn't have any wrong notes on it.

"He'd be rehearsing a lot of things in the house without an amp. We'd see him going behind his back or through his legs or playing guitar and drinking a glass of orange juice at the same time."

The other members of the Isley Brothers' band were jealous of the special treatment afforded to Hendrix, according to Ernie. After rehearsals, while the other musicians were getting ready to leave the house to get something to eat, Hendrix would be sitting down at the dinner table for one of Mrs. Isley's home-cooked meals.

"They hated him for it," Ernie recalls. "The house smelled like a restaurant - you know, Cornish hens, dressing, green beans and some sort of pie or cake."

At the time, Ernie was more interested in baseball than music and was often in the backyard playing with Marvin while their older brothers and their band were practicing inside. He took up the drums in 1965 and first joined the Isley Brothers onstage in Philadelphia the next year when their drummer suddenly quit.

"When I got back to the dressing room," he remembers, "Kelly handed me a $50 bill and said, 'Go get a hot dog.' I stepped through the doors to go to the concession stand and all these girls were screaming and hollering. I decided I wanted to go to school in Philadelphia, but I couldn't. I would have had, like, three or four girlfriends."

Ernie, who turns 58 today, lives in St. Louis with his wife, Tracy. Their daughter Alexandria, 23, graduated from UCLA last year.

Kelly Isley died of a heart attack in 1986, and Rudolph left the group three years later to become a preacher. Marvin was diagnosed with diabetes in 1997 and had his legs amputated below the knees. Chris Jasper now plays gospel music.

Ernie also has diabetes but says he has the disease under control. He, Marvin, and Jasper left the Isley Brothers for several years in the mid-'80s to record and tour as Isley Jasper Isley. Ernie and Ronald later appeared as the Isley Brothers, until Ronald's incarceration in 2007 after being convicted of income tax evasion. He was said to be suffering from kidney cancer and other failing organs at the time of his imprisonment. He was released in October from the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind., and sent to live in a halfway house in St. Louis.

Ernie does not answer directly when asked about the state of his 68-year-old brother's health. "As long as a human being has a heartbeat and a pulse," he replies, "that's more than 50 percent of the game." {sbox}

Ernie Isley appears as part of the Experience Hendrix Tour. 8 p.m., Wed. and Thurs., the Warfield, 982 Market St., San Francisco. $61.75-$81.75. (800) 745-3000. www.goldenvoice.com.

E-mail freelance writer Lee Hildebrand at pinkletters@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page Q - 36 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...z0hcrvyzmu

Can't believe it's been 20 years since "High Wire". Man, I hope Ernie can do like Jesse Johnson did with "Bare My Naked Soul" Larry Carlton with "Renegade Gentlemen" and Marc "Drac" Hicks (Slave) did with "Drac Pac" and put togehter another solo album where he lets it rip.

nice article

Ernie Isley is the most talented guitarist. This song shows me that Ernie Isley is amazing on the Guitar. "Better Love" Very nice




Very nice read.