DeWITTY, GORDON
Homebase: Seattle / Los Angeles
Stats: 1949 - January 2017
Misc Notes: Born in Seattle on June 24, 1949, to the Rev. Jewel and Ann DeWitty, Gordon Berry DeWitty went blind as a child. Growing up listening to the church's choir, he developed a keen an ear for music, and took up playing piano. Later he joined his junior high school's Radio Club. At age 12 he was touted as "The World's Youngest Disc Jockey" when he took on a job at Seattle's first Soul station, KZAM-FM in 1962.
Playing a Hammond organ, DeWitty formed a band, the Living End, and In 1966 they recorded his song "Skyride" which was released by Bolo Records. DeWitty also gigged around the Northwest with the George Griffin Trio and the Soul Deacons. De Witty graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1967, and then at age 20 he got a gig -- via a recommendation from another Seattle musician who was in Bobby Womack's band -- and moved to Los Angeles. Along the way DeWitty would co-write Womack's "If You Don't Want My Love." After that he took on studio sessions with Earth, Wind & Fire. In 1984 he told The Seattle Times: "When I first got to California I was playing more of a Seattle kind of funk. Now I've become more standard-oriented. I like large chords and my tones are more classically designed ... When you say 'Seattle' everyone related to Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles or Quincy Jones, who've made great marks in the business, so its''s good to be from here ...One of the best things about Seattle is that it's such an integrated area. Everyone's in the melting pot and they're not segregated, so it keeps your information level high, because you're exposed to more things." Over the years he would also gig, record, and/or write songs for the likes of Etta James, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Sly & the Family Stone, Bill Withers, Charles Wright & the 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Bloodstone, Little Feat, and In 1971 he gigged and recorded with Delaney & Bonnie's band (alongside Seattle guitarist, Joe Johansen). Recordings that DeWitty contributed to include Chaka Kahn's "Everybody Has An Aura," Johnny Nash's "You Give Me Good Vibration," and Con-Funk-Shuns' To The Max album. For a few years De Witty hosted a weekly R&B show, Night Train, on San Luis Obispo's public radio station KCBX. Along the way he earned three Gold Record Awards and under the stage-name of "The General" he cut the 1983 album, Life In The Big City.