Sonobeat’s first soul single

Sonobeat’s James Polk sessions yielded two solid original songs that were released as Sonobeat stereo 45 RPM single R-s115. The session also yielded an additional track, a cover of Shorty Long’s 1968 R&B hit Here Comes the Judge, which was not considered for the single. With a positive message, the gospel-influenced “A” side, Stick-To-It-Tive-Ness, is San Antonio native Yvonne Joseph’s original composition on which she sang lead. Teresa Maxwell and James’ wife Imogene provided backing vocals. The single’s “B” side, The Robot, is a slow, jazz-influenced and slightly contorted instrumental written by Polk that might have started a dance craze had it been the “A” side. The James Polk and The Brothers single really deserved a picture sleeve, like Sonobeat’s earlier singles releases, but by 1969, Sonobeat had given up on the extra effort and expense to make them.

Based on the relationship Sonobeat had established with Liberty Records, that in 1968 purchased Sonobeat’s Johnny Winter album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, Sonobeat co-founder and producer Bill Josey Sr. offered the Polk single to Liberty for its Minit label; although Liberty considered a deal, ultimately it never happened. And for that reason, Sonobeat finally released the single on its own label the second week of November 1969. The single became one of Sonobeat’s classics, although at the time of its release it got little radio airplay and its sales were sluggish. Earlier in ’69, Polk formed his own Austin-based label, Twink Records, named for a close friend, that in September of the same year released a James Polk and The Brothers single, Just Plain Funk backed with Black Door Jeannie, so it’s unclear why Polk recorded the Sonobeat single so close in proximity to the Twink single or even recorded with Sonobeat at all.

An early mix of the James Polk songs for the Sonobeat single

Master tape for the James Polk Sonobeat single

A dub of the James Polk single used to solicit a deal from Minit Records

An additional song recorded in the same session as the Sonobeat single

James Polk and the Brothers’ Sonobeat single

The album that never quite made it

As March 1971 began, Polk returned to cut an album for Bill Sr., but the Sonobeat archives are unclear where the sessions were recorded or who the session players were. However it’s likely these sessions also were recorded at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio and featured only James, a drummer (likely John Taylor), a guitarist (probably Tim Pickard), and a sax player (almost certainly Reginald Caldwell). James played the bass lines using the foot pedals on his Hammond B3 organ. The resulting 45 minute untitled album featured seven tracks, one weighing in at a hefty 13 minutes. The half-inch 4-track master tape box indicates that Bill Sr., who both produced and engineered the sessions, covered the drum kit with three mikes, “tapped” the guitar amp speaker – which bypassed the need for a microphone, injecting the speaker output directly into the mixing console – and placed one mike on each of the organ and sax. The album contains a mix of cover versions of pop tunes, such as the Burton Lane-Alan Jay Lerner Broadway classic On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever), and Polk originals, including the fun and funky Polk Chops. Poor Butterfly is a cover of a pop classic dating from 1916 and popularized in the 1940s by Benny Goodman’s big band. A spunky piece entitled Aregin doesn’t seem to be a misspelling of Mile Davis’ Airegin, as they sound musically unrelated, but we don’t know who composed the Polk Aregin. Bill Sr. was looking to create an album that he could sell to a national label, but there were no takers.

The sequenced 4-track master tape for the unreleased James Polk album

Our fantasy cover for the unreleased 1971 James Polk album

Born on September 10, 1940, in Yoakum, Texas, Polk was a formally trained music theorist, classical and jazz pianist, and prolific composer who, beginning in 1970, spent two years touring as Lionel Hampton’s bassist and, in the late ’70s, eight years touring with the Ray Charles orchestra. For a moment in 1973, he quit music and took a job at IBM in Austin. But Polk couldn’t stay away from music, returning two years later and never looking back. Polk earned his undergraduate degree from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin and a Master of Music Degree from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. In 1995, James was awarded an honorary doctorate from Huston-Tillotson. He was inducted into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a special honor at the Austin Music Awards during the 2014 SXSWSouth By Southwest, also known as “SXSW” or “South By” and whose name was inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North By Northwest, began in 1987 as an Austin-based music festival and since has expanded to cover feature films and interactive media. SXSW pretty much takes over Austin during The University of Texas spring break every March. conference. After retiring from his post as Associate Professor and Associate Director of Jazz Studies at Texas State University, James remained an influential member of the Central Texas music community, active with the Dr. James Polk Academy of Arts and Technology and the Austin Jazz Workshop. James performed regularly with his jazz sextet Centerpiece, most often at Elephant Room on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, until his untimely death on June 21, 2024, at age 83, creating a true vacuum in the Austin jazz scene of which he was a founding father and guiding hand.

Kahron Spearman’s excellent piece on Dr. Polk appeared in the January 17, 2019, edition of The Austin Chronicle.