1970s Soul Band Formed in Prison

This essay is part of Redemption Songs, a limited-run newsletter that spotlights one song each week by incarcerated artists. Sign up now to get a new song each Sunday afternoon until September: The Incredible Story Behind The Escorts, a 1970s Soul Band Formed in Prison Listen if you like: The Temptations, The O’Jays, Smokey Robinson You’ve probably heard some of the best music ever made in a prison without knowing it. The two albums of soul and R&B recorded by The Escorts in a New Jersey prison in the 1970s have cut a path across popular culture — sampled by J Dilla and Jill Scott, interpolated by Public Enemy and Ice Cube, and, more recently, included in the soundtracks of shows like “Bel-Air” and “Cruel Intentions.” The story behind this music is largely forgotten, but it remains one of the most audacious efforts in music history to make stars out of people in prison. One hero of the story who is still alive is producer George Kerr. By the late 1960s, he had worked for Motown and produced artists like The O’Jays and Linda Jones. He told me in a recent interview that he attended a talent show, open to members of the public, at Rahway State Prison in 1969. When he heard The Escorts sing, he got goosebumps. He wrote hundreds of letters, trying to convince the prison to let him return to record the group. “You can put the proceeds back into the prison and let these men pay for themselves,” he recalled telling officials. “I’m not just helping them. I’m helping taxpayers!” Once these officials agreed to his plan, he recorded all the instruments in studios outside the prison, and spent long days inside leading vocal rehearsals. To record the group, he set up microphones in a psychiatric ward at the prison, where the padded walls mimicked the soundproofing of a professional studio. “My wife thought I was crazy to spend the money this way,” Kerr told me. “I said, ‘I have an angle, a feeling this will be a hit.’” At every turn, he drove attention to the prison venue as a bold stunt. The Escorts’ 1973 debut album, “All We Need Is Another Chance,” features popular covers such as “Ooh Baby, Baby,” a version of Smokey Robinson’s romantic classic, and original songs that play up the prison angle. We’re featuring the title track, which opens with Kerr breaking the fourth wall by asking the listener to let these men redeem themselves through song. He maximizes the drama with an extended intro — cinematic strings over a motoring vamp — giving you ample time to get curious about what they’ll sound like. It only works because they deliver on the buildup, each man taking a turn to show off his vocal chops and unique charisma. The album sold a respectable 310,000 copies, according to a New York Times report, and afterward, Kerr received letters from people who wanted to see The Escorts live. Some of the men were released shortly after the album came out, but Kerr went through another round of cajoling prison officials to let those still inside do a concert at Symphony Hall in Newark. (Yet again, he told these officials that the proceeds could help pay for the men’s incarceration.) He hired a choreographer to teach the men dance moves for the show. “Our success shows that inmates can do well on the outside if they get a chance to bring out their creative talents,” one member, Lawrence Franklin, told The New York Times during a backstage interview. A second album followed in 1974, called “3 Down 4 to Go,” a reference to the three men who had been released. They returned to the prison to record with the four singers still inside. As more members were released, there were personnel changes, and the group transitioned to recording and touring as free men. Their music found a second life in the 1990s, as a series of hip-hop producers sampled their prison albums. Their songs still get picked up for licensing in advertisements, television and films. Director Corbett Jones made an excellent documentary that premiered at the Montclair Film Festival in 2017 and is still pursuing distribution. There have been rumors of a Hollywood movie version of this story for years. Singer Reginald Haynes told MusicFilmWeb in 2012 that they had turned down producers who wanted to make a movie where all the singers were White, rather than Black. By then, Haynes was performing with “The Legendary Escorts,” a group featuring singers Billy Martin and La’Grant Harris, who weren’t in the original group. Haynes died in 2020. But given all the ways this music keeps percolating through popular culture, it will surely keep finding listeners, with or without a Hollywood movie. Song: “All We Need (Is Another Chance)” | Album: “All We Need Is Another Chance” | Artist: The Escorts | Produced by George Kerr for George Kerr Productions | Arranged and conducted by Bert Keyes | Vocals: Robert Arrington, Stephen Carter, William Dugger, Lawrence Franklin, Reginald Haynes, Frank Heard, Marion Murphy | Guitar: Bernard McDonald and Michael Watson | Bass: Herman White Jr. | Drums: Harold L. Sargent | Piano: Bert Keyes | Strings and Horns: Louis Delgatto, Robert Millikan, Randel Brecker, Dominick Monardo, Tony Posk, Richard Luby, Edmond Jacobsen, Julien Barber, Jesse Levy | Harp: Margaret Ross