Ace Wallace was a St. Louis blues treasure. In the fifties and sixties Wallace played with many groups in St. Louis, doing long stretches in bands with legendary blues trumpet player/disk jockey Gabriel, and with Big George and the Houserockers. He also taught many younger musicians including Bennie Smith, Tommy Bankhead and Cecil Travis.
He was born in St. Louis June 18, 1925. His father was from Alabama and played guitar, and his mother was from Tennessee. When Ace was three his family moved to Indiana Harbor, Indiana, part of East Chicago, where his father worked for steel companies including Inland Steel, Southern Steel, and Harbor Steel. His father would sit on the porch and play a tune called "Aint't Gonna Ship No Steel Today." The family returned to St. Louis when Ace was 11, and moved into an upstairs tenement at 2634 Franklin. At a party at his home, a man smashed a mandolin over another man's head. Ace and his young brother Calvin, with the help of their father, repaired the smashed instrument and began to learn to play. They also obtained worn out harmonicas from a neighbor and learned to play those as well.
His parents' marraige ended, and Ace dropped out of school and joined the army. While in the Phillipines he heard a Fillipino guitarist who inspired him to pursue the instrument upon his return. He attended "jazz school" under the G.I. bill, studying guitar and upright bass. He felt he was as good as his teachers by then and attended mostly for the money.
When he was 25, in 1950 he developed an eye condition resulting in blindness, and the government sent him to a rehab center in Dayton, Ohio to learn to adjust. While there he married briefly and continued his musical studies. In 1951 he was intruduced by friends to Yank Rachel who was then in St. Louis. Rachel used Ace on backup guitar. Yank would take him into alleys in the area of Beaumont and Lucas where he knew there were gamblers, and the two would play on acoustic guitars for tips--often $10 or more. Ace knew Yank was from Brownsville, but not how big his reputation was, and neither knew the other played mandolin. Yank would "stomp it off "and Ace would fall in on rhythm". (When Yank came to St. Louis for a concert in 1990 he stopped in to visit Ace at the nursing home.)
When Yank left town under mysterious circumstances, Ace formed his first group. It was at that time that he took the name Ace, using the initials of his sister Anita, and his brothers Calvin and Edward. The group was called Ace Wallace and the Trumps, though the female vocalist joked that it was Ace and the Tramps. They played at a place at 16th and Franklin called James Jump Palace. He continued to learn music from the latest records and cites Jimmy Reed, Lightnin Hopkins, and Elmore James as influences. The bass and 2nd guitar in the band were brothers George and Doc Perry.
Due to marital troubles Ace left St. Louis and went to Detroit where he had family. On that first visit he met John Lee Hooker who borrowed his amplifier, and in return taught him Boogie Chillun in spanish tuning. He also played with Earl Hooker there.
When he returned to St. Louis he joined Big George and the Houserockers at the Early Bird on Franklin, renamed the Caravan when George took it over. Ace and his wife ran the food concession serving fish, polish, and such. He also played with Ike and Tina and Billy Gayles at a place at Vandeventer and Delmar.
For many years he played in a group led by Gabriel and apeared on 45's Gabriel produced including the first ,"I'm Gabriel," playing lead on the instrumental flip "Ginza." Besides Ace and Gabriel, the group included Vernell Andrews on bass and Robert on drums. They played at Nora's on South Broadway. At the time Ace remembers having a Les Paul Gibson and a Fender Concert. On an ill-fated trip to Columbus, the gig fell through and he had to pawn these prizes to get out of town but was later able to retrieve them.
He had occasion also to play with a guitarist whom Gabriel recorded named Guitar Tommy Moore. Ace remembers Tommy playing everything with tremelo.
Ace's last public gig, in 1975, was with Big George outdoors at Fairgrounds Park.
Since then, he occasionally played at churches for weddings and funerals, and at nursing homes. After living for a time with his brother Calvin (who played many styles of lap steel guitar, including blues and gospel), Ace moved into a home in the Central West End neighborhood.
While he said the music business was cut-throat with the bandleader always making more money, he has no regrets, having raised two children on his music. He appreciated the other musicians providing transportation and protection.
Up to the time of his death, Ace still practiced three or four hours a day with a drum machine or self-made tapes as well as teaching several youngsters.
He will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Joel Slotnikoff