Alex Henderson

Wynd Chymes
Pretty Girls, Everywhere

The 1970s are remembered for many different styles of R&B, from Philadelphia soul and vocal harmony groups to disco-soul. And certainly, no discussion of 1970s R&B would be complete without mentioning all the horn-powered funk bands that were popular during that decade—bands like the Ohio Players, Parliament/Funkadelic, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire, among many others. It was that era that gave birth to Wynd Chymes, who were formed in Jackson, Mississippi in 1973 and had been together nine years when they signed with RCA Records in 1982 and recorded their first album, Arrival. Wynd Chymes’ love of hardcore funk was evident in the fact that guitarist Anthony Lockett, a member of Cameo in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was hired to produce Arrival—and in 1983, Wynd Chymes’ second album, Pretty Girls Everywhere, was produced by another funk heavyweight: the influential singer, bassist, songwriter and producer Larry Graham, who made history as a member of Sly & the Family Stone in the late 1960s and early 1970s before forming his own band, Graham Central Station, in 1973 and launching a solo career in 1980.

Wynd Chymes had some lineup changes along the way, and when they recorded Pretty Girls Everywhere, the lineup consisted of lead singer Michael Bethea, guitarist Emanuel Godfrey, bassist Kenneth Morris, keyboardist John Alford, trombonist Morris Henderson, trumpeter Henry Clay Rogers, saxophonist Michael Bartley, drummer Jimmy Graham and percussionist Forrest Gordon. Under Larry Graham’s direction, Wynd Chymes plenty  of gutsy, hard-driving funk: “Stank” (which Graham wrote), “Unemployment Line” and “We Are Wynd Chymes” all underscore their passion for the gritty, horn-powered funk bands of the 1970s. But Pretty Girls Everywhere isn’t strictly a party album by any means, and Wynd Chymes’ romantic side comes through on quiet storm ballads that include “Unconditional Love,” “I Can’t Say Good Night,” “Lonely Lady,” “You Are Everything to Me” (which finds Bethea performing a male/female vocal duet with guest Alfie Silas) and “I’m Gonna Love You Forever.” Meanwhile, the influence of Earth, Wind & Fire asserts itself on the vibrant, mid-tempo “Festival,” and the title track has a strong 1960s influence.

The fact that Pretty Girls Everywhere succeeds from both a funk standpoint and a romantic soul/quiet storm standpoint is not surprising in light of Larry Graham’s history. Although Graham is closely identified with funk, his biggest hits as a solo artist in the early 1980s were romantic soul ballads, including “One in a Million You” (a #1 R&B smash in Billboard in the United States), “Just Be My Lady” and a remake of the Dreamlovers’ 1961 hit “When We Get Married.” This expanded edition of Pretty Girls Everywhere contains the original 1983 LP in its entirety as well as two bonus tracks: “Stylin’, Smilin’ and Profilin’” and the single “Checkin’ Out Your Stuff,” both of which are funk smokers that were produced by Lockett and originally appeared on Arrival.

Interviewed in November 2014, Morris Henderson remembered that when the time came for Wynd Chymes to record a second album, he assumed that they would be working with Lockett again. Lockett, however, wanted them to give a different producer a shot.

“We were very happy working with Anthony Lockett on our first album, Arrival,” explains Henderson, now 59. “I thought we would get him back a second time. But Anthony was a humble spirit—he said we should experiment, try different sounds and see what else we could do.”

Henderson recalls that when it became evident that Lockett wouldn’t be producing Pretty Girls Everywhere, Wynd Chymes’ members considered different people—including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who became one of R&B’s biggest songwriting/production teams of the 1980s. But ultimately, they decided on Graham.

“The choices we had at that time were Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis or Larry Graham,” Henderson notes. “Jimmy & Terry were up and coming in 1983. They were where R&B was going. Their sound was the Prince school, the way I look at it. But we had come out of a time that was more akin to Larry Graham than what Jimmy & Terry were doing. And Larry had been one of my childhood idols, ever since he was in Sly & the Family Stone. Working with Larry was the chance of a lifetime. It was the experience of a lifetime.”

Although Wynd Chymes were a southern band, they had an indirect connection to Minneapolis—not only because they considered working with Jam & Lewis, but also, because in the 1970s, one of the singers they were on friendly terms with was Mississippi native Alexander O’Neal (who went on to enjoy considerable success after moving to Minneapolis and working with Jam & Lewis in the 1980s). And here’s another interesting tidbit: before they changed their named to Wynd Chymes in the 1970s, they were named The Family—which later became the name of a Minneapolis-based band that recorded for Prince’s Paisley Park label in the mid-1980s and included three ex-members of The Time.

Interviewed separately in November 2014, Lockett pointed out that when he worked with Wynd Chymes in 1982, R&B had yet to go totally electronic. “We didn’t go electronic at all on the first Wynd Chymes album,” Lockett notes. “We cut the tracks live. We actually went in the studio and played our music versus sequencing and that kind of thing. Those were wonderful times.”

Lockett continues: “My background was with Cameo, and Wynd Chymes were into bands like Earth, Wind & Fire, the Ohio Players and Tower of Power. Those were the bands that a lot of groups followed back in the day. Most bands in that era followed the Earth, Wind & Fire blueprint of brass, vocals, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion, and the whole thing. And I kind of went in that direction with the first Wynd Chymes album.”

Wynd Chymes never recorded a third album and broke up in the mid-1980s. But Henderson, who is now senior pastor at the 31^st Street Baptist Church (31sbc.org) in Richmond, Virginia, has kept in touch with Graham (who is now 68) all this time. And after 31 years, Pretty Girls Everywhere remains an exciting document of Wynd Chymes’ encounter with the funk/soul icon.

—Alex Henderson, December 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.