Bernice obtained a sunburst Stella
acoustic from a pawnshop, and the
14-year-old Dupree started learning licks
from local pickers. By 1956, he had a
Harmony hollowbody with a DeArmond
pickup and he’d formed a band with a
couple of guitar-playing friends named
Frank Lott and Calvin Love. The three
young musicians played a mostly instrumental
repertoire at talent shows and at
local clubs on Sunday afternoons.
Two players whose influence is evident
in Dupree’s style were Bobby Bland’s
guitarist Wayne Bennett, as well as Billy
Butler—the man who played the classic
solo on Bill Doggett’s 1956 instrumental hit
“Honky Tonk.” Cornell bought the Doggett
single and learned the solo note-for-note
on his Gibson Les Paul Custom, which he
replaced with a TV-yellow Les Paul Junior
when the Custom was lost in a fire.
Dupree’s musical education continued
when he was hired to play with U.P.
Wilson’s band, where he played rhythm on
Wilson’s Stratocaster while the leader soloed
on Dupree’s Les Paul Junior. The late ’50s
found Dupree playing with Leon Childs’
Hi Tones, as well as Louis Howard & the
Red Hearts.
While venturing out from Fort Worth
with these bands, Dupree was exposed to
music of many styles and crossed paths
with cream-of-the-crop Texas musicians.
These included blues artists such as T-Bone
Walker, Lowell Fulson, Albert Collins,
Lightnin’ Hopkins, Fenton Robinson, and
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, as well as
country stars like Ray Price, Bob Wills, and
Roger Miller. Dupree may have even run
across avant-garde jazz saxophonist Ornette
Coleman, who was also from Fort Worth.
King Curtis and Jimi Hendrix
Cornell Dupree in the late ’70s or early ’80s
with
his modified Fender Telecaster.
Photo courtesy
of Gordon Edwards |
In 1959, 17-year-old Dupree married
Erma Kindles. And country star Delbert
McClinton asserts that, by 18—barely out
of high school—Dupree had a reputation as
one of the best blues guitarists in the area.
1961 would be a pivotal year in his career:
While visiting Texas, R&B sax player King
Curtis sat in with Louis Howard & the Red
Hearts at the Paradise Club. Before returning
to his home base of New York City,
Curtis told Dupree to keep on practicing
and “one of these days I will send for you.”
True to his word, he called the guitarist
the very next year and had him audition
over the phone by playing Curtis’ then-new
hit “Soul Twist,” as well as the standard
“Moonlight in Vermont.”
Apparently, Dupree
had been practicing,
because Curtis promptly sent him a ticket to
New York. On October 1, 1962, Dupree and
Erma arrived in Manhattan, leaving their two
children in the care of Dupree’s mother and
grandfather. The day after his first plane ride,
the Texas guitar man was onstage with King
Curtis and the Kingpins and learning the rest
of the repertoire onstage. The Duprees lived
with Curtis, and the Kingpins played weekends
at Small’s Paradise in Harlem.
At his first recording session, Dupree
shared guitar duties with the same Billy
Butler whose solo he had diligently learned—and who he would replace in Curtis’
performing band. Switching to a Gibson
ES-335, Dupree would sit with Curtis, who
played a Guild Starfire, and the two would
work out licks and arrangements for the
band. Eventually, the sideman exchanged his
Gibson for a Guild like his boss’.
From 1962 to 1966, Dupree worked with
Curtis backing soul stars of the day. On a
1963 tour supporting Sam Cooke, Dupree
ended up on the singer’s
Live at the Harlem
Square Club, 1963 album. These tours often
featured Cooke and other artists like Fats
Domino and the Isley Brothers. Dupree
would trade licks and songs with Cooke’s
guitarist Clifton White and Roy Montreal
from Fats Domino’s group. He also worked
on string bending with the Isley Brothers’
guitarist—James Marshall Hendrix.
Hendrix left the Isleys in 1964 and
bounced around the Chitlin’ Circuit with
other R&B acts for a bit before Curtis saw him
playing with Little Richard and added him
to the Kingpins. Playing alongside Cornell,
Hendrix helped fill out the sound of the then-keyboard-less band. The showy Hendrix fell
naturally into the soloing slot, leaving Dupree
to cover rhythm. As with many of his early
gigs, however, Hendrix’s deafening volume,
flashy dress, and punctuality issues led to
his dismissal from Curtis’ group. By 1965,
when the Kingpins opened for the Beatles
in Canada, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the
famous Shea Stadium gig, Hendrix was gone.
This ATCO promo shot shows Dupree with saxophonist King Curtis and James Marshall Hendrix
(playing a right-handed Fender Jazzmaster upside down at far right) at a May 5, 1966, record-release
party for Percy Sledge.
Photo by William “PoPsie” Randolph
Meanwhile, Dupree kept building his
resume. That same year, he joined another
legendary session guitarist, Steve Cropper
of Booker T. & the MGs, in the studio to
back Wilson Pickett on his first hit, “In the
Midnight Hour.” At that point, Dupree was
playing a Standel thinline equipped with
humbuckers through a blackface Fender Twin
Reverb. Neither he nor Curtis were happy
with how Cornell’s guitar fit in the mix, but
he had yet to discover the instrument with
which he would come to be identified.
Having earned enough to buy a house
and a car in Texas, Dupree left King Curtis’
band and moved back in 1966. Bassist
Chuck Rainey, whom he had met while in
the Kingpins, had also left the band but
had stayed in New York and was getting
a lot of session work. Rainey convinced
Dupree to return to The Big Apple in 1968,
where he rejoined Curtis—and started playing
sessions for other artists.