DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1958

Al Abrams was a seventeen-year-old Detroit teenager when he answered a question from the Detroit Free Press.

Question: “If you inherited a sum of money, what’s the first thing you’d buy?”

Al’s thoughtful reply did not center on the money, but focused upon providing for his mother.

Al lost his father at the age of eleven and struggled with that loss his entire life. Motown and Stax placed Al into an extended family.

*Thanks to a close friend for discovering this print article in the Detroit Free Press archives. It is insightful as to the teenager who became a man at eleven years of age and could answer this question with a compassionate answer at the age of seventeen. Al was hired by Berry Gordy at the age of eighteen.

Iconic Press Officer-Music Historian-Journalist-Writer-Humanitarian

Nov. 1, 2015

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

The panoramic color of the seasons as they change and meld into each other is a beautiful transition created by God. Color is beautiful. It breathes life into the universe.

The hues found in a color palette provide us with a humanistic backdrop. We are all different and that is what unites and divides us.

Al believed that music and books were the heart and soul of our color.

They help us to look beyond our own personal history to give us the opportunity to become a part of a compassionate world where color is embraced and cherished.

Share your color; Embrace life; Challenge humanity; Make music; Write a book.

Nov. 1, 2015

Detroit Free Press

Al Abrams helped Motown break racial walls, dies at 74

By Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic 7:20 p.m. EDT October 3, 2015

Martha Reeves says Al Abrams' work "got us through doors that were always shut to us."

Al Abrams was Motown before Motown even had its name.

Abrams, the first employee of Berry Gordy Jr. and the man who pushed artists like the Supremes and Stevie Wonder into news headlines around the world, died Saturday morning at home in Findlay, Ohio. He was 74.

The Detroit-born Abrams was the first press officer for Gordy's Motown Records, grabbing media coverage and airplay for the fledgling label and its stable of young stars — and helping blast through entrenched racial walls in the process.

He succumbed Saturday to cancer that was diagnosed three weeks ago after a routine colonoscopy.

Abrams, who once described himself as a "white Jewish kid in an all-black company where people my age were making music and history," remained a familiar figure through the years at Motown reunions and other gatherings.

Hired by Gordy in early 1959 to promote records to Detroit disc jockeys — before Motown Records formally existed — Abrams soon took over the job of press director. His daunting task: to attract coverage from a news media that often cast a cynical eye on both teen music and black culture.

"He worked like a partner to Berry Gordy," said singer Martha Reeves. "In those very first days, when music was always getting categorized — R&B or pop, black or white — Al was the one who broke down a lot of doors. He was very, very important in our progress. It was his efforts that got us through the doors that were always shut to us."

Abrams devised ways to snare the interest of the establishment press. He arranged artist photo shoots with Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and Michigan Gov. George Romney, and touted a "recording contract" offered to presidential daughter Luci Baines Johnson. In 1965, he spread word that Bob Dylan had dubbed Smokey Robinson "America's greatest living poet" — a sound bite Abrams later said he concocted with Dylan right-hand man Al Aronowitz.

"It was his ability through relationships, charm and chutzpah to make things happen, doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing, and bringing Motown into white homes and airwaves. He was transgressing boundaries without asking permission," said Mark Clague, an associate professor of musicology at the University of Michigan. "I really admire those everyday acts of activism, which on Al's part were very sincere. He lived the civil rights movement in a way that few whites did."

Abrams often said his biggest coup was landing the Supremes on a 1965 cover of TV Magazine, a supplement distributed in newspapers nationwide.

"It really opened the doors (with editors) everywhere else — 'Hey, we can put black people on a cover that will sit in people's living rooms for a week, and they won't cancel their subscriptions,'" he told the Free Press in 2011. "So we saw every magazine cover, every front-page article, not just as a breakthrough for the Supremes or the Temptations or whoever, but as a breakthrough in the civil rights struggle."

Abrams left Motown in 1967 to start his own public-relations firm, building a client list that included Stax Records, James Brown and Holland-Dozier-Holland's Invictus and Hot Wax labels, and writing Bob Seger's first-ever promotional bio for press distribution.

He eased into his own journalism career in the 1980s, working as a reporter and editor at the Windsor Star and freelancing for the Free Press and other publications. He also authored 11 books on wide-ranging topics, saying he was proudest of 1985's "Special Treatment: The Untold Story of Thousands of Jews in Hitler’s Third Reich."

He chronicled his Motown career with 2011's "Hype & Soul," a glossy coffee table book filled with rare photos, press releases and other historical documents. (A second volume is due next year.) A self-described pack rat, he had meticulously accumulated items during his Motown tenure, even salvaging materials from secretaries' wastebaskets.

"I'm not going to claim I knew this would all become as big as it turned out," he told the Free Press in 2011. "But I did always feel that one day this stuff may really matter."

He donated much of his collection to U-M in the late 1980s after turning down offers from the Hard Rock Cafe and others.

"Hype & Soul" spawned a 2013 traveling exhibit, "Motown Black & White." The exhibit will start Monday at Saginaw's Castle Museum and is scheduled for showings next year at the Detroit Historical Museum and the Stax Museum in Memphis.

Abrams also co-wrote the musical "Memories of Motown" with fellow Motown alum Mickey Stevenson, staging a month-long 2009 run in Berlin with Reeves, the Contours and members of the Temptations in conjunction with the label's 50th anniversary.

Ever the diligent publicist, Abrams spent time in his final days arranging his own obituary details with his wife, Nancy Abrams.

"The minute he heard his cancer was inoperable, he was making lists for me: 'You need to say this, do this, here are some contacts, here are some photos. And I want them to mention my cats,' " she said Saturday, referring to the house pets Misty, Sir Lancelot and Chatul. "That's Al. Very proactive. He wanted to shape the best perception, just like he did for Motown and Stax and all the entertainers."

In addition to his wife, Abrams is survived by his daughter, Alannah Hutka, and two granddaughters, Margot Emery Abrams-Reiter and Luca Elianna Cecilia Hutka.

Funeral arrangements have not been set, but will be handled by Dorfman Chapel in Farmington Hills, MI.

*Check out this story on Freep.com: http://on.freep.com/1Rnn3Oz

Nov. 1, 2015

New York Times

Music

Al Abrams, Motown Records’ First Publicist, Dies at 74

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OCT. 4, 2015

{A version of this article appears in print on October 5, 2015, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Al Abrams, 74, Motown Records’ First Publicist.}

Al Abrams, Motown Records’ original press officer and publicist, died on Saturday at his home in Findlay, Ohio. He was 74.

The cause was cancer, his wife, Nancy, said.

Born in Detroit, Mr. Abrams was the first person hired by Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown, before the company officially existed. He promoted records to Detroit disc jockeys and went on to direct media relations at the label, working with artists including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles and the Supremes.

Nancy Abrams said her husband came up with Motown’s slogan, “The Sound of Young America,” because “he wanted to push diversity” and was “colorblind.”

During a Motown tour through the Southern United States, she said, Smokey Robinson of the Miracles came to visit Mr. Abrams at a hotel where blacks were not allowed to stay.

The hotel manager was tipped off, came to Mr. Abrams’s door and asked if a black person was in his room, Nancy Abrams recalled. He replied that it wasn’t “a black person,” it was Smokey Robinson, and both men were kicked out.

“Al went back with Smokey and stayed in the black boardinghouse,” she said. “After that, he never stayed in a hotel again.”

Mr. Abrams left Motown in 1967 to start his own public relations firm. His clients included Stax Records and James Brown. Mr. Abrams, who was also a journalist and author, was a writer for a musical, “Memories of Motown,” which was staged in Berlin in 2009.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter and two grandchildren.

*http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/arts/music/al-abrams-motown-records-first-publicist-dies-at-74.html?_r=0

Nov. 1, 2015

Rolling Stone

Music News »

Al Abrams

Al Abrams, the founding press officer at Motown Records who created the legendary label's slogan "The Sound on Young America," passed away at 74

Al Abrams, the founding press officer and publicist at Motown Records and the man who created the legendary label's slogan "The Sound on Young America," passed away Saturday at his home in Findlay, Ohio following a cancer battle. Abrams was 74. Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. hired Abrams in 1959 to work at his nascent record label before the label was even established. The publicist would eventually help guide the careers of Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, the Miracles and Marvin Gaye, The Associated Press reports.

"His greatest accomplishment at Motown was actually starting at the age of 18. It kind of snowballed. He knew what he wanted to do with his life at that point," his wife Nancy Abrams told AP. Singer Martha Reeves, whose Vandellas was signed to the Motown imprint Gordy, told the Detroit Free Press that she and her label mates credited Abrams with helping to get their music played on the radio.

"He worked like a partner to Berry Gordy. In those very first days, when music was always getting categorized — R&B or pop, black or white — Al was the one who broke down a lot of doors," Reeves said. "He was very, very important in our progress. It was his efforts that got us through the doors that were always shut to us."

In 1965, Abrams spread word that Bob Dylan had championed Motown's Smokey Robinson as "America's greatest living poet." Abrams later admitted he and Dylan friend Al Aronowitz concocted that quote. Abrams himself said one of his greatest accomplishments was landing the Supremes on the cover of an issue of TV Magazine in 1965 in the middle of the civil rights movement.

"It really opened the doors (with editors) everywhere else — 'Hey, we can put black people on a cover that will sit in people's living rooms for a week, and they won't cancel their subscriptions,'" Abrams told the Free Press in 2011. "So we saw every magazine cover, every front-page article, not just as a breakthrough for the Supremes or the Temptations or whoever, but as a breakthrough in the civil rights struggle."

Abrams left Motown in 1967 and formed his own public relations firm, where some of his clients included James Brown, Stax Records, Holland-Dozier-Holland's Invictus Records and more. Abrams also worked as a journalist and author, and co-wrote the musical Memories of Motown. Always a PR man, though, Abrams also laid out the details for his own obituary.

"The minute he heard his cancer was inoperable, he was making lists for me: 'You need to say this, do this, here are some contacts, here are some photos. And I want them to mention my cats,' " Nancy Abrams told the Detroit Free Press Saturday. "That's Al. Very proactive. He wanted to shape the best perception, just like he did for Motown and Stax and all the entertainers."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/al-abrams-motown-records-pioneer-dead-at-74-20151005#ixzz3qF5xPqK8
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Nov. 1, 2015

Windsor Star

Former Windsor Star reporter and Motown publicist Alan Abrams dies at 74

Sharon Hill, Windsor Star
Published on: October 4, 2015

Former Windsor Star reporter Alan Abrams died Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015.

When Motown was born, Alan Abrams was part of the delivery.

It seemed an unlikely match — a Jewish teenager trying to get black artists on the radio. But Abrams, who died Saturday, Oct. 3 at age 74, used his determination to get hired by Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. and to help grow the legendary label and sound. The Supremes. The Temptations. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

“Without him I don’t think (Motown) would have gotten as fast and as far as they did,” Abrams’ wife Nancy said Sunday. “Even though he was Jewish, they needed a white face to front all their publicity.”

Abrams, who was a Windsor Star reporter in the 1980s, was a Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Honorary Inductee in 2011 and the author of 11 books including one on the Holocaust and one on his Motown days called Hype and Soul. He finished a followup book that could be published next year.

His wife said radio stations in the racially divided States wouldn’t play music by black artists but Abrams badgered them until they did. He was the first publicist in the United States to get African-Americans — in this case, The Supremes — on the cover of a TV magazine, she said.

It was that determination that landed him the PR job in 1959 with what would become Motown Records.

A friend of Abrams’ heard Gordy was hiring but the friend was too scared to go by himself in the black neighbourhood. The friend was also afraid to take the job even though the record producer seemed to like him. Abrams wanted the job, so as a test, a reluctant Gordy gave the 18-year-old a record the producer didn’t think radio stations would play.

Abrams spent hours badgering a DJ doing a show from a park to play Teenage Sweetheart. The DJ finally obliged just to get rid of him, she said, and Gordy realized he had to hire the young Abrams. “Alan said that was probably the first and only time that record was ever played.”

Abrams worked for Motown Records until 1967 and left to establish his own firm. He got into journalism by writing for the Detroit Free Press and worked as a reporter for The Windsor Star in the late 1980s. More recently he had created a Motown exhibit.

He died Saturday morning at his home in Findlay, Ohio. His wife was still in shock Sunday since Abrams was only diagnosed with cancer after a routine colonoscopy a few weeks ago. The cancer that had started in his colon had spread.

At Motown Records, Abrams broke through the colour barrier but he didn’t want to be remembered only for his Motown days, she said. He was a guy who loved life, loved reading and loved writing, whether it was his daily lists or a book. He changed people’s lives, she said.

“Diversity is really humanity. He said that’s one word to describe it,” she said. “He never saw colour.”

A memorial service will be held Thursday, Oct. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at the Dorfman Chapel in Farmington Hills, Mich.

shill@windsorstar.com

Nov. 1, 2015

Daily Mail, UK

*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/...r-dies-74.html

Nov. 1, 2015

Counter Punch

October 7, 2015
The Man Who Sold Motown to the World

by Dave Randle

Al Abrams wasn’t just Motown’s first publicity man. He was the first signed-up employee. In fact, he was signed up before the ink was dry on the incorporation of the company.

He had no experience of the music biz; not much experience of anything, in fact. And he wasn’t even black.

He was an eighteen-year-old Jewish kid with a drivers’ licence and he answered an ad from Motown Founder, Berry Gordy Jr. for someone to drive his acts to public appearances and local record hops.

The fledgling company was growing organically as it went along. When Berry realised he needed an A&R man, Mickey Stevenson was sitting in his office pitching for a singing career. Mickey turned out to be the A&R man’s A&R man, hiring the Funk Brothers, the Detroit Symphony and the cream of arrangers and producers. Berry could pick ’em, even when there was only one unlikely culprit to choose from.

Fluke? Nah.

Al was there when Berry needed a publicity man. Berry asked, Al said yes, and the rest is history; or, if not exactly history, Al made it up.

Like the time when Tommy Good’s first disc was due to be released and Al spread the idea that Motown didn’t want to put out a white kid’s record. Just fired up enough, Tommy’s fans were incited to ‘March on Hitsville’ seeking justice for their hero. The two wicked uncles, Berry and Al, laughed as the mock indignation filled the papers and emptied the record shops.

And when Berry asked Al to raise Smokey Robinson’s song writing profile, and he did it by having Bob Dylan describe Smokey as ‘America’s greatest living poet’. Dylan must have heard about it, but, fortunately for Al, ‘nothing was revealed’.

Then there was the time that Al, dressed like a swami and carrying a small reptile, did the ‘snake walk’ from radio station to radio station to tempt influential DJs into playlisting Motown product.

But there’s a serious side to Al’s legacy too. If Berry and Al hadn’t come together, it’s possible that Motown would not have had the earth-shattering crossover success it had with all the races creeds and colours of the world. Al’s ‘mission statement’ slogan: ‘It’s what’s in the grooves that counts’ put the attention squarely on the music and the songs. These weren’t ‘race records’, R&B or gospel, though they were imbued with the pulse and emotion of blues and jazz.

Motown was a crucible for a new music, a new culture, a new rhythm that danced to the beat of the industrial world, the world of progress, and the world of the young, but a world with all the heart and longing and angst that keeps it human.

Al was a funny man, a mischief maker, a creative when that didn’t mean a person with a computer. The music, the Motown legacy is as much Al’s as his lifetime friend Berry’s.

What he was, above all, was a great human.

Those of us who had the privilege to know him will miss him deeply.


Dave Randle is a British author and journalist with 30 years experience in print and online media. His latest book, Blinded with Science, is published by Bank House Books and is available from all major retailers. He can be contacted at daverandlemcij@aol.com

*http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/...-to-the-world/

Nov. 1, 2015

Soul Music

SHARON DAVIS' MOTOWN SPOTLIGHT - OCTOBER 2015

Published: 26 October 2015
Created By: Sharon Davis

Well, it’s both good news and, I’m afraid, sad news this month. So before talking about the man who sold Motown to the world, let’s hit the happier bit. And I hope you agree, tis rather a unique idea, personal to myself and the winner. So read on….

When I visited Hitsville in Detroit last July I purchased, among other things, two metal badges, or pins, showing the front of the building. One I wear on my jacket, and the other I thought might be nice for a competition prize. The badge is square and the building is white with ‘Hitsville USA’ written across it against a blue background. Check out the visual. So, that is what’s on offer now. Like all competitions though, we need a question. So here’s a lovely easy one. What are the full names of the composing/producing trio lovingly known as H-D-H? As I’ve only one badge available, it’ll be the first email I open on motowntracking@sky.com. See – easy, peasy. So hit that keyboard now and good luck! Let’s move on….

It won’t have escaped your notice that recently we heard the news that Al Abrams, Motown’s first publicist had died.

His overwhelming presence in promoting the company’s artists is now well publicised via his book “Hype & Soul!”, but thanks to the internet I built up a uniquely fabulous relationship with him, exchanging opinions, advice and, quite often gossip, via regular emails.

Throughout, he played down his achievements, preferring to shower praise on the artists.

When he published his book in 2011 he told me he was inspired by my “Motown: The History” – an extremely generous comment to make by any stretch of the imagination – and told me –“I think any decent collection of Motown literature has to be bookended by our two books. Now we are linked forever!”

Yeah, that’s the kind of guy he was. Also, when asked if he had any regrets about his time with Motown, he was quick to say ‘no’.

Except, one thing – he decided not to accompany the artists on the first UK Review in 1965. A move he greatly regretted because, he said afterwards, he felt it had been an opportunity of a lifetime. Plus, he never got to meet Dusty Springfield in person, but when he heard that she had named her pet dog “Motown,” he sent her a diamond encrusted dog collar as a thank you gift for all she was doing for the music.

Dusty wrote a note back, expressing her gratitude, and he subsequently lost it. Al was heartbroken.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this creative man, but won’t because, I figured, that wouldn’t be fair on you and, besides, my thoughts would be one-sided.

If you have anything you’d like us to share here about Al, do please email me at the address given for the competition, or message me via my FB page.

Meantime, I contacted a couple of highly respected music industry guys who either worked and/or befriended him, for their memories .

Firstly, Dave Randle, author/musician/publisher and personal friend: “Al wasn’t just Motown’s first publicity man. He was the first signed-up employee. In fact, he was signed up before the ink was dry on the incorporation of the company. He had no experience of the music biz; not much experience of anything, in fact. And he wasn’t even black. He was an eighteen-year-old Jewish kid with a driver’s licence, and he answered an ad from Motown founder, Berry Gordy Jr. for someone to drive his acts to public appearances and local record hops.

The fledgling company was growing organically as it went along. When Berry realised he needed an A&R man, Mickey Stevenson was sitting in his office pitching for a singing career. Mickey turned out to be the A&R man’s A&R man, hiring the Funk Brothers, the Detroit Symphony, and the cream of arrangers and producers. Berry could pick ’em, even when there was only one unlikely culprit to choose from. Fluke? Nah.

Al was there when Berry needed a publicity man. Berry asked: Al said ‘yes,’ and the rest is history; or, if not exactly history, Al made it up! Like the time when Tommy Good’s first disc was due to be released and Al spread the idea that Motown didn’t want to put out a white kid’s record. Just fired up enough, Tommy’s fans were incited to ‘March on Hitsville’ seeking justice for their hero. The two wicked uncles, Berry and Al, laughed as the mock indignation filled the papers and emptied the record shops. And when Berry asked Al to raise Smokey Robinson’s song writing profile, and he did it by having Bob Dylan describe Smokey as ‘America’s greatest living poet’. Dylan must have heard about it, but, fortunately for Al, ‘nothing was revealed’. Then there was the time that Al, dressed like a swami and carrying a small reptile, did the ‘snake walk’ from radio station to radio station to tempt influential DJs into play listing Motown product.

But there’s a serious side to Al’s legacy too. If Berry and Al hadn’t come together, it’s possible that Motown would not have had the earth-shattering crossover success it had with all the races, creeds and colours of the world.

Al’s ‘mission statement’ slogan: ‘It’s what’s in the grooves that counts’ put the attention squarely on the music and the songs.

These weren’t ‘race records’, R&B or gospel, although they were imbued with the pulse and emotion of blues and jazz. Motown was a crucible for a new music, a new culture, a new rhythm that danced to the beat of the industrial world; the world of progress, and the world of the young, but a world with all the heart and longing and angst that keeps it human.

Al was a funny man, a mischief maker, a creative when that didn’t mean a person with a computer. The music, the Motown legacy is as much Al’s as his lifetime friend Berry’s.

What he was, above all, was a great human. Those of us who had the privilege to know him will miss him deeply. “

And from Clive Richardson - author, music compiler and Solar Radio DJ: “I have just spent an absorbing half hour browsing through my treasured copies of ‘Hitsville USA’. Younger readers may not be aware that this was the jacket-pocket-sized magazine which was written and published by Dave Godin between December 1963 and the end of 1965, and sent by post to the few hundred members of the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, run by Dave from his room in his parent’s house in Bexleyheath in North West Kent. ‘Hitsville’ was also the means by which we were kept abreast of all that was happening at Motown, via mail and telephone from Detroit, originating from the desk of Berry Gordy Jr, but expertly tailored for wider distribution by the communication skills of Al Abrams.

He was the company’s first press officer and publicist, and later Director of Media Relations for Berry Gordy Jr’s music empire, and who lost his life to cancer at his home in Findlay, Ohio, on October 3, aged 74 years.

As Dave’s enthusiasm for Motown music grew, along with his exhaustive efforts to promote the ‘Motown Sound’ to so many of us in the UK, so did the efforts of Al Abrams to foster and grow the new market with its relative affluence (white UK teens had more disposable income, even in the early 1960s, than did the domestic audience in the Motor City). This would stretch to extraordinary marketing efforts for the time – flying not only Dave Godin but also Dave’s ‘lieutenant’ Clive Stone to Detroit to meet and mingle with Hitsville musicians, singers and staff, and to hook up with Margaret Phelps, who was the ‘consumer link’ at West Grand Boulevard. Another landmark venture was to organise the ‘Hitsville Greetings’ disc, a two-sided promotional 45 rpm single record containing spoken greetings from Motown artists and clips of their then-current hit, this in December 1964!

Thus the impact of Al’s skills as a publicist bore fruit in ‘hooking’ the UK market, and as we bought the Detroit hits (and non-hits) in increasing volumes, so UK licensee EMI was prompted to give Tamla Motown autonomy with a label identity distinct from mere source credit on Stateside releases, and select artists were also despatched to London for ‘fan-receptions’ and press calls at EMI House. All of these factors helped to ‘grow’ our affinity for the ‘Motown Sound’- and the rest, as they say, is history – thanks in no small part to the work of Al Abrams.”

Well, there’s not much more for me to say here. For sure, it’s a sad time for us all, and, it goes without saying, on behalf of myself, David Nathan and Michael Lewis of SoulMusic.com, we send our warmest wishes and condolences to Al’s wife, Nancy, and family at this time.

Until next time, when we will catch up with Jan Gaye’s book “After The Dance”, among other things, keep keeping the Motown faith, and thank you for your wonderful loyalty.

^http://www.soulmusic.com/index.asp?S=1&T=38&ART=18400

Nov. 1, 2015

The Independent, UK

*http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/al-abrams-motowns-first-press-officer-who-helped-make-stars-of-musicians-like-wonder-gaye-and-the-a6680811.html