This article is © 2001 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

RICHARD HITE'S MUSICAL WISDOM WAS `ENCYCLOPEDIC'

Sadly, Memphis has lost musician Richard Hite, who died Monday of cancer. He was 50. Hite, who moved from Los Angeles to the Bluff City in the early '80s, was a valued part of the local blues community as a player, collector and historian. He was brother of Canned Heat singer Bob Hite, who died of a heart attack in 1981. And it was that group that Richard joined for much of the '70s, appearing on a number of albums including "The New Age," "One More River to Cross" and the John Lee Hooker collaboration, "Hooker N' Heat: Recorded Live at the Fox Venice Theatre."

Hite recorded with Clarence `Gatemouth' Brown - "Gate's on the Heat" - and Hammie Nixon - "Tappin' That Thing" - the latter produced by Bluff City blues scholar/musician David Evans, who played with Hite in various duo and jug band settings in the '80s and early '90s.

Hite will also be remembered for his nonplaying credits. He produced the 1983 Fieldstones classic, "Memphis Blues Today!" (co-produced three tracks JS) and oversaw the praised Memphis Archives series for the Inside Sounds label. Some 21 albums were made with Hite's guidance (and personal collection of more than 30,000 78s), including "W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band," "Rock & Roll Sermon," "Memphis Country Blues: Greatest Hits Vol. 1," "State of Tennessee Blues" by the Memphis Jug Band, "Lieut. Jim Europe's 369th U.S. Infantry `Hell Fighters' Band: The Complete Recordings" and the "Red Hot & Blue" radio broadcasts of Dewey Phillips.

"He was a very knowledgeable person in the American popular music field, blues jazz, dance bands - quite encyclopedic," says Evans. "He was a very generous guy with his resources and knowledge and he always liked to spread the word about good music." Evans said Hite also published a number of discographical and biographical items over the years, including some liner note writing for the MCA label. He was a collector of rare, vintage films as well and curated the now-defunct Memphis Music Hall of Fame and Museum at 97 S. Second when it opened in the early '90s as the Memphis Music and Blues Museum. In its last two seasons, the syndicated radio show Beale Street Caravan made Hite a regular contributor as feature host. He had recently done a 10-part series on recording the blues. "He did a great job," says the show's executive producer, Sid Selvidge. "He did it off the top of his head, with a combination of humor and knowledge. And people like that are hard to find."

Hite also played bass with Studebaker John on his latest, "Howl with the Wolf," and was with John as part of the Pretty Things/Yardbird Blues Band, which featured Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty. Hite can be heard on two records by that group, "The Chicago Blues Tapes 1991" and the 1994 album "Wine, Women & Whiskey: More Chicago Blues & Rock Sessions." Yet it was another album with McCarty, "Weekend in Memphis" as the McCarty-Hite Project, that is perhaps a fitting finale for the musician. Recorded in the mid-'90s and released earlier this year on Inside Sounds, the record features a fun variety of blues, rock and jazz tunes from Bukka White's Shake 'Em On Down to the Yardbirds' Over Under Sideways Down to such originals as Zulu Stomp and Memphis Town. "He was very happy with the McCarty project," says Inside Sounds owner Eddie Dattel. "He said he was happier with this than any recording he had ever made. And that was good to know."

A tribute is being planned for early October at the Center for Southern Folklore, though a date hasn't been finalized, according to Dattel. (The date is October 9th, 2001 JS)

- Bill Ellis: 529-2517

All content herein is © 2001 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL and may not be republished without permission.