Editing Rotary Connection (section)

==Career==
===Foundation and debut album===
The highly experimental band was the idea of [[Marshall Chess]], son of [[Chess Records]] founder [[Leonard Chess]].<ref name="LarkinSM">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Soul Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-733-9|page=222}}</ref> Marshall was the director behind a start-up label, Cadet Concept Records, and wanted to focus on music outside of the [[blues]] and [[rock and roll|rock]] genres, which had made the Chess label popular.<ref name="LarkinSM"/> This led Marshall to turn his attention to the burgeoning psychedelic movement. He recruited [[Charles Stepney]], a [[vibraphonist]] and classically trained [[arranger]] and [[Record producer|producer]]. Marshall then recruited members of a little-known white rock band, the Proper Strangers: Bobby Simms, [[Mitch Aliotta]], and Ken Venegas. Sidney Barnes, a songwriter within the Chess organization, also joined, as did Judy Hauff and a Chess receptionist named [[Minnie Riperton]], who would later be successful in her own solo career.<ref name="LarkinSM"/> Marshall also called up prominent [[session musician]]s associated with the Chess label, including guitarist [[Phil Upchurch]] and drummer [[Morris Jennings]].<ref name="LarkinSM"/> Chess described the band's members as "the hottest, most [[avant-garde music|avant garde]] [[rock music|rock]] guys in [[Chicago]]".<ref name="Shannon">{{cite web |url=http://www.furious.com/Perfect/muddywaterselectricmud.html |title=''Muddy Waters: His most hated, misunderstood album'' |access-date=2009-03-18 |last=Shannon |first=Tim |date=December 2006 |publisher=[[Perfect Sound Forever (magazine)|Perfect Sound Forever]]}}</ref>

The band released their [[Rotary Connection (album)|self-titled debut album]] in late 1967.<ref name="LarkinSM"/> It had various styles, borrowing heavily from pop, rock, and soul, but was not radio friendly. The album also boasted an Eastern influence through its use of the [[sitar]] on the tracks "Turn Me On" and "Memory Band". Stepney's arrangements, brought to life by the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]], imbued the album with a certain dreamlike quality; this would become a trademark of both the arranger and the mouthpiece.

===''Electric Mud'' and ''The Howlin' Wolf Album''===
As a result of the success of ''The Rotary Connection'', Chess felt that he could revive the career of bluesmen Muddy Waters and [[Howlin' Wolf]], by recording two albums of experimental, psychedelic [[blues]] with members of Rotary Connection as the backing band for the singers, producing the albums ''[[Electric Mud]]'' (1968) and ''[[The Howlin' Wolf Album]]'' (1969).<ref name="Murray">{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Charles Shaar |title=Crosstown traffic: Jimi Hendrix and the post-war rock'n'roll revolution |year=1991 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-06324-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/crosstowntraffic00murr/page/134 134] |chapter=Blue are the Life-giving Waters |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/crosstowntraffic00murr/page/134 }}</ref>  Chess hoped the new albums would sell well among fans of [[psychedelic rock]] bands influenced by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.<ref name="Humphrey">{{cite book |last1=Humphrey |first1=Mark |title=Electric Mud |type=liner notes |year=1996 |publisher=[[Chess Records|Chess]]/[[MCA Records|MCA]] |id=UPC: 076732936429|oclc=779181053}}</ref> In place of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf's regular musicians were Gene Barge, [[Pete Cosey]], Roland Faulkner, [[Morris Jennings]], [[Louis Satterfield]], [[Charles Stepney]] and [[Phil Upchurch]].<ref name="Cohodas-289">{{cite book |last1=Cohodas |first1=Nadine |title=Spinning Blues Into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records |url=https://archive.org/details/spinningbluesint00coho |url-access=registration |year=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/spinningbluesint00coho/page/289 289] |chapter=Final Tracks |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-28494-7 }}</ref> Cosey, Upchurch and Jennings joked about calling the group "The Electric Niggers".<ref name="Cohodas-289"/> Marshall Chess liked the suggestion, but [[Leonard Chess]] refused to allow the name.<ref name="Cohodas-289"/> Ultimately, blues purists criticized the psychedelic sound of ''Electric Mud'' and ''The Howlin' Wolf Album''.<ref name="Humphrey"/>

===Further albums,  Texas International Pop Festival and disbandment ===
In 1968, Rotary Connection released their second and third albums, ''Aladdin'' and ''Peace''.<ref name="LarkinSM"/> ''Aladdin'' found Riperton assuming a more prominent vocal role than the "background instrument" status she had on the debut. The latter was a Christmas release, with strong messages of love and understanding for a nation in the grips of [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]. The album's [[cover art]] featured a [[hippie]] [[Santa Claus]]. ''Peace'' was notable for being involved in controversy: an [[anti-war]] [[cartoon]], in a December 1968 edition of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine, featured a graphic image of a bruised and bloodied Santa on a Vietnam battlefield. Mistaking this cartoon for the album's cover art, a drunken executive at [[Montgomery Ward]] cancelled all shipments of the album.

On August 30, 1969, the band played at the [[Texas International Pop Festival]] followed by the [[Rock festival|Palm Beach Pop Festival]] on November 29.  Rotary Connection released three more albums: ''[[Songs (Rotary Connection album)|Songs]]'', in 1969, a collection of drastic reworkings of other artists' songs, including [[Otis Redding]]'s "[[Respect (song)|Respect]]" and [[The Band]]'s "[[The Weight]]"; ''Dinner Music'' in 1970,<ref name="LarkinSM"/> in which they added elements of [[Folk music|folk]] and [[country music|country]] into the mix along with some electronic experimentation; and ''[[Hey, Love]]'' in 1971,<ref name="LarkinSM"/> a more jazz-oriented LP on which the band was billed as the New Rotary Connection. From this album came "I Am the Black Gold of the Sun".

The outfit disbanded in 1974.<ref name="LarkinSM"/>

=== Revival ===
As part of the documentary film series ''[[The Blues (film)|The Blues]]'' (2003), produced by [[Martin Scorsese]], members of the Rotary Connection recorded with rapper [[Chuck D]] and members of [[The Roots]], to reflect the legacy of ''Electric Mud'' (1968).<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Woods |editor1-first=Paul A. |title=Scorsese: A Journey Through the American Psyche |year=2005 |publisher=Plexus  |isbn=0-85965-355-2 |page=272}}</ref>