Dig Deeper is sad to report that Winfield Parker will be unable to travel in for the show for health reasons – we are all sending Winfield good thoughts for a speedy recovery!
Instead, we will be flying in our good friend Renaldo Domino from Chicago for a reprise performance at Dig Deeper, backed once again by the Brooklyn Rhythm Band! Anyone who caught Renaldo’s shows with us in 2009, 2010, and 2013 knows we are all in for a treat…
But just who is Renaldo Domino, the man who earned his stage name because his high school friends thought his voice was as sweet as a five pound bag of sugar? Renaldo signed to Mercury while he was in high school and released three singles – including the drum-heavy uptempo funky soul tune “Don’t go away”. Sadly, although Renaldo’s records sold well regionally around his hometown of Chicago, it wasn’t enough for a major label, so they parted ways.
Renaldo moved to small local label Twinight, and started off with a bang in 1971, releasing the self-penned, incomparable “Not too cool to cry” which proved to be his biggest-selling record. Complete with elaborate vocal accompaniment, swooping strings giving way to a rare (for a soul record) violin solo and Renaldo’s soaring falsetto – it is an electric recording. Once you hear it, you never forget it.
On the success of that release, Renaldo toured around the Midwest and as far away as Las Vegas, getting to play with such luminaries as Sam & Dave, the Jackson 5, and James Brown. Twinight released two more of his records (one of which he didn’t realize ever came out), and sadly, eventually promotion waned. Renaldo left Twinight, and after a couple failed attempts to get signed elsewhere – including at Curtom (apparently, they felt they didn’t need another Curtis Mayfield) – he retired from music.
The story could have ended there. Thankfully for all of us, the Numero Group in Chicago compiled a beautiful 2CD collection of some of Twinight’s best releases, including a number of Renaldo’s singles. They discovered, as have audiences at Dig Deeper in 2009 and at the Brooklyn Soul Festival in 2010 that he still sounds – impossibly – exactly like the records he recorded some 40 years ago.
As always, before and after the live sets, Dig Deeper’s DJ Honky and Mr. Robinson will spin funk and soul 45s for the dancefloor. Wear your dancing shoes – you will need them!