the members to keep busy in the studios
during the day. “We played onstage just
like we played behind the artists,” says
Edwards. “If we laid down a groove in bar
one, by bar 955 we were still playing that
same groove.”
The band was signed by Warner
Brothers and released six records for the
label. Though it occasionally sounded like
they were vamping until the singer entered,
musicians appreciated the records as a mas-
ter class in soulful band interaction. “We
never stepped on each other’s toes,” recalls
Edwards. “It was like a polite conversation.”
In 2008, a DVD of a 1976 Montreux gig
was released, offering a close-up look at
this monster groove machine to those who
missed them in their heyday.
Stuff ‘s breakup in 1982 coincided with
a dip in New York session work, which
prompted a move to Beverly Hills. The
Los Angeles scene proved hard to crack,
but Dupree eventually landed a gig back-
ing Bonnie Raitt, as well as a chance to
cut the theme to The Cosby Show. With
more work coming from New York than
Los Angeles, Dupree moved back in 1985,
where he did dates with jazz musicians
including Hank Crawford and Michael
Franks, and vocalist Lou Rawls.
Musical Immortality
Cornell Dupree’s name may never spread
much farther than a select cadre of musicians and liner-note aficionados, but there
is no doubt his combination of Lone Star
grit and Big Apple sophistication will continue to be widely enjoyed as the hit records
he helped make are played—in whatever
form—in perpetuity.
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Cornell Dupree photos.
Dupree picks an early-’60s Guild Starfire III with two DeArmond single-coils and a Bigsby B6 tremolo as he shares the mic with King Curtis at a 1966
record-release party for Percy Sledge. Photo by William “PoPsie” Randolph
