The oohs of the angelic voices behind Sam Cooke on his hit “You Send Me.” The catchy instrumental arrangement of Sonny & Cher’s first hit “I Got You Babe.” The persona of singer Dr. John.
Had it not been for Harold R. Battiste Jr. and his creativity, the records and these singers might not have been as successful.
Battiste, also known as “Dr. Bat,” was a composer, producer, arranger, educator and jazz ambassador. He launched the careers of Sonny & Cher and Cooke, and transformed Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. into Dr. John. He also worked with Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.
“He would take a song and add an element that you wouldn’t hear in any other song, like a cowbell or angelic voices,” said Karen Celestan, who helped Battiste write his autobiography, “Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man.” “They made the songs lush.”
Born in New Orleans in 1931, Battiste grew up in the Magnolia Housing Development. According to Celestan, he went to the best schools for Black people at the time. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Dillard University in 1953. He moved to Los Angeles to work with Sonny & Cher and lived there for 30 years.
In 1961, he started All for One (AFO) Records, the first black-owned and black-operated record label in America. He also taught Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans, starting in 1989.
“He was a font of wisdom, low-key, unassuming, humble, but at the same time, not afraid to tell you who he was,” Celestan said. “He didn’t need to be famous. He said fame was stupid.”
Battiste, who died in 2015, was behind the scenes, but his genius was front and center.
“Dr. Bat was incredible,” Celestan said. “He knew music in and out. He would take people’s music and elevate it.”
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