BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY

 

Though his recording career never amounted to much, Clarence “Candy” Green managed to carve out a living playing music for his entire adult life.

Born in Galveston, Texas in 1929, Green learned piano from his mother at a young age and earned money around town while in his young teens, mostly in juke joints, brothels and house parties. After spending three years traveling in the Merchant Navy, Green returned to the Gulf Coast region in time to see small record companies start to spring up around Houston and at 19 he made his recording debut for Eddie’s Records with a band that included future Mighty Mighty Man saxophonist, Johnny Fontenette.

His next stop, two years later after playing clubs by himself in the interim, was at another recent Houston start-up label, the far more successful Peacock Records where Green was backed by Bill Harvey’s band on his most well-known sides. But perhaps being the first artist to be wary of owner Don Robey’s “business practices” he never recorded for the label again and was soon drafted into the Army where he acquired the nickname “Candy” for his sweet disposition.

Another Clarence Green, a guitarist, from nearby Houston, came up during this era but while the two were – and are – frequently confused for one another, they were not the same person.

Upon Green’s discharge he sidestepped the still valid Peacock contract by cutting songs for smaller labels under different names, including Galveston Green before he headed to Mexico for some gigs and wound up staying a couple of years, operating a club south of the border. From there Green headed overseas to Europe and spent three decades as a fairly popular live act across the continent, recording only sporadically as Candy Green, but a working musician until his death in 1988.
 
 
CLARENCE GREEN DISCOGRAPHY (Records Reviewed To Date On Spontaneous Lunacy):

GREEN’S BOUNCE
(Eddie’s Records 1207; November, 1948)
A well conceived, tightly arranged but sparse instrumental featuring equal parts Green’s piano and Johnny Fontenette’s saxophone, creating a nice laid back vibe that belies their age and inexperience. (4)

HARD HEADED WOMAN
(Peacock 1557; December, 1950)
A sloppy unfocused mess as we are forced to hear Green sing through his nostrils about a subject that is shallow and vague while the band, including some good musicians, try and cover this up with noisy clashing parts. (2)