Sylvester - Biography
Sylvester was an American disco and soul musician and an early, openly gay drag performer. He was born Sylvester James was born September 6th, 1947 in Watts. With his single mother, Letha, and his six, younger siblings, the James family shared a tiny two-room house. His grandmother Julia Morgan, who’d herself sung in the ‘20s and ‘30s, encouraged Sylvester to sing at Watts’s Palm Lane Church of God in Christ. Soon he was performing, sometimes billed as “Child Wonder of Gospel,” he was singing at various churches throughout the Southland. However, as he entered his teens, he began to clash frequently with his mother and his stepfather, and at sixteen he ran away. Nonetheless, he managed to finish high school and enrolled at Lamert Beauty College before moving to San Francisco in 1967.
In San Francisco,Sylvester also joined The Cockettes, North Beach’s psychedelic drag queen theatrical troupe, appearing in their film, Tricia’s Wedding. After leaving, he took to performing solo revues. He performed in a production called Women of the Blues, in which he sang songs of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Another production, Jungle Sin, was mounted at Bimbo’s and produced by David Ferguson in 1972. Sylvester’s first recordings where made with The Hot Band for Lights Out San Francisco (1972 Blue Thumb), a compilation put together by the KSAN radio’s DJ Abe “Voco” Keshishian. On the track, “Why Was I Born?” he was joined by The Pointer Sisters.
The Hot Band were Bobby Blood on trumpet, Chris Mostert on sax, James Q. Smith on guitar, Travis Fullerton on drums and Kerry Hatch on bass. Sylvester & The Hot Band released two albums, Sylvester & The Hot Band (1973 Blue Thumb) (the cover of which featured a gardenia scratch ‘n’ sniff) and Bazaar (1973 Blue Thumb). The mix of gospel, soul and glam rock failed to find a significant audience and nothing like it would be attempted for decades, until the formation of McAlmont & Butler in 1995.
Sylvester next formed a quartet called The Four A’s with keyboardist Horus Jack Tolsen, drummer Amadeo Barrios and his bassist brother, Adrian Barrios. They performed at Caberet — After Dark, a San Francisco club for a short time before Tolden was replaced by Archie White and the band were joined by guitarist Angel Reeys, and backing singers Bianca Thorton, Gerry Kirby and Debbie. After they failed to get a deal, the Barrios left, ultimately joining Sly Stone.
In 1977, a former Motown producer Harvey Fuqua signed Sylvester and his new backing singers, Izora Whitehead and Martha Wash (branded Two Tons of Fun) to Fantasy and released his solo debut, Sylvester (1977 Fantasy), whose single was a disco cover of Ashford and Simpson's “Over and Over.” During the recording of his follow-up, Patrick Cowley took one of Sylvester’s songs, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and added a futuristic synth sheen. The resulting version was a hit and Step II (1978 Fantasy) peaked at #28 in the US and six in Italy. For the follow-up, Stars (1979 Fantasy), Sylvester for the first time handed over most of the writing chores to someone else, this time Cowley. It was another hit in Italy, reaching fifteen. Not content to be thought of merely as a dance floor filler, Sylvester recorded a doubly live LP at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, Living Proof (1979 Fantasy), which only reached #123 at home. Sylvester also had a bit part that year in the Bit Midler vehicle, The Rose.
As disco’s popularity in the US dwindled, Fuqua pushed Sylvester in a new direction. Sell My Soul (1980 Fantasy) transitioned from disco to synth-tinged R&B. Cowley was banned from even entering the stereo. After Too Hot to Sleep (1981 Fantasy), Sylvester parted ways with Fuqua, alleging that he’d cheated him out of millions.
Sylvester reunited with Cowley, signing to his Megatone label. Cowley had an entire record of pop-soul material written by James Wrrick and Jeff Mehl in the vein of “Freeway of Love” era Aretha Franklin. The only thing missing was vocals, which Sylvester added. The result, All I Need (1982 Megatone Records), reached #23 in Italy. On it, Sylvester and Crowley only penned on track themselves, the Hi-NRG “Do You Wanna Funk,” which was featured in the film, Trading Places. Meanwhile, Two Tons of Fun -- renamed The Weather Girls -- had a hit with “It’s Raining Men.”
After being initially diagnosed with food poisoning, the 32-year-old Cowley died of AIDS on November 12, 1982. Call Me (1983 Megatone Records) and M-1015 (1984 Megatone Records) were produced by Ken Kessie and Morey Goldstein, who lacked Cowley’s magic touch. In 1985, Sylvester was tapped to sing back-up on Aretha Franklin’s Who's Zoomin' Who? It was followed by Sylvester’s Mutual Attraction (1986 Warner Bros), whose mere eight songs was made up mostly of cover songs. Shortly after, Sylvester was diagnosed with AIDS, and retired from performing. He died on December 16th, 1988 in San Francisco. Immortal (1989 Megatone Records) was released posthumously.
