Ike Stubblefield

Musical career

Stubblefield started his career in 1968 playing keyboards with the Motown Review performers including The Four Tops, Martha Reeves, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Rare Earth. Getting back to his roots on Hammond B3 organ, Stubblefield performed live on stage from 1970-1975 with George Benson, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, The Jerry Garcia Band, Johnny Adams, Bobby Caldwell, Boz Scaggs, Esther Phillips and The Pointer Sisters, to name a few. During that time, he lived in San Francisco, New York City and London.

From 1976-1988 Stubblefield worked as a studio musician, composer, songwriter and producer with such artists as Quincy Jones, Phil Spector, Jim Capaldi, Wendy Waldman, Larry Lee, Allan Blazek, Kevin J. O'Brien, Esq. ('84-'88), Giorgio Moroder, Michael O’Hara, Allan Rich, Tom Whitlock, Bill Szymczyk, Tracie Spencer, all while perfecting his Mini Moog Techniques learned from his mentor George Duke. Stubblefield was scoring music for films and T.V.: Best of the Best (1989) with Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones and Sally Kirkland, as well as Summer Job, in addition to commercials and countless shows for the BBC and CBC.

In 1990, Stubblefield moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and created the venue The Purple Onion, a huge two-story warehouse club with three separate music venue rooms, where he performed with his band, Is Not Was, and booked the rooms with other top Canadian and international artists. The Purple Onion was successful for several years, but closed in 2004. In 1995, he moved to Seattle, re-forming his band, Is Not Was, a Hammond B3 organ quartet, that performed at Jazz Alley and other main event venues throughout Seattle and Portland.

He decided to move back to his roots - Toledo and Detroit – in 1997 to help out the local music scene. After winning Two "People Choice Awards" for Jazz and R&B, he opened a club called Yikes Supper Club in his Toledo hometown, where he brought all of his years of experience together. He called on his pals to help launch it, including Rodney Dangerfield, who came for the grand opening. During its first year, organ greats Jack McDuff, Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy McGriff, as well as such other stellar performers as Jenna Mammina and Dave McMurray performed at the club.

In 2001 he moved to Atlanta, where he found a home at Café 290, a jazz club in Sandy Springs. In Atlanta Stubblefield performed at Variety Playhouse, The Roxy, The Dogwood Festival, and worked with Sonny Emory, Sam Skelton, Count M'Butu, The Derek Trucks Band, Jeff Sipe, Caroline Aiken, Jimmy Herring, Col. Bruce Hampton, Bobby Lee Rodgers, The Codetalkers, Francine Reed and Susan Tedeschi.

In 2004 he returned to Europe for an extended tour of Germany, Spain, France and England, as well as recording with and producing various artists throughout the continent. He returned to Atlanta in 2005 and was inducted into the city’s downtown Hard Rock Café location’s Hall of Fame with the first Hammond B3 on display on a wall in any Hard Rock Café worldwide. He also filled in for Billy Preston on organ during Eric Clapton’s winter European tour.

In 2005 Stubblefield also met David Neel, owner of a new club called The Blue Room, located in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. The two soon collaborated to create the only Hammond B3 venue on the East Coast outside of New York City (with the exception of The Orbit Room in Toronto) to showcase the art of the Hammond B3 organ. The Blue Room featured live music Monday through Saturday, with the grand opening on featuring legendary drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie and the Groove Masters (Reuben Wilson on Hammond B3 organ and Grant Green, Jr. on guitar). The venue also featured a "All Star Hit" (jam session) on Monday nights, where Hammond B3 meets grand piano on a full back line stage, withall styles of music welcome.

In 2010 Stubblefield recorded organ & keyboards on 9 tracks in a Cee Lo Green recording session. Combining his roots with musicians and Artist like Sonny Emory, Jeff Sipe, Marcus Williams, Little John Roberts, J.Fly and Yonrico Scott as his first choice of drummers in Atlanta, he collaborated with Jeff Coffin and Freddy V. on sax; Grant Green Jr., Jimmy Herring, Bob Sabellico and Derek Scott on guitars; plus Oteil Burbridge and Felix Pastorius on bass to help kick start his new CD.

Stubblefield has since moved to Athens, Georgia, where he performs with the likes of Randall Bramblett, John Keane, and others. He co-produced and played on Michael Allman's "Hard Labor Creek" in 2009.