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Posted by Larry Jordan
on April 3, 2009, 1:34 am, in reply to "Question About Gordon Stoker"
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Gordon Stoker has gotten a lot of mileage out of these demeaning comments about Jim, so perhaps he finds some measure of reward in attracting attention to himself. I can tell you after having taped interviews with each of the Anita Kerr Singers, various musicians, engineers, etc. who worked with Reeves in the studio, that he was not hard to get along with. In fact, the late Leo Jackson was furious about Stoker's remarks, and hotly disputed them. Leo insisted that Jim was a "pussycat" in the studio, easy to get along with, asking "what do you think?" after a take, welcoming input and ideas, and having a friendly manner.
You can see this in the film clips of him in Studio B which are viewable on Youtube.
Yes, Jim was a perfectionist in all things, and you would never have been hired to play on one of his sessions if he didn't have confidence in your abilities. He knew you would put forth your best effort, and that's all he asked. He was quiet, and did expect everyone to concentrate on the task at hand. After all, the costs of each session came out of his royalties, so he had a right to expect people to buckle down. But as I say, that was never a problem.
Winnifred Breast, a high soprano who sometimes augmented the Anita Kerr singers, and can be heard on a number of Jim's recordings (like his South African material), observed that Reeves could master five songs in only a three hour session, which is unheard of today. She noted that anyone who was a prima donna or hard to get along with, as Gordon Stoker and pseudo-author Michael Streissguth have claimed Jim Reeves was, would never have been able to record so many songs in such a short period of time. Listen to the perfectionism not only of Jim's performances but also the musicians. If there was friction in the studio, that would have come across on the recordings that Jim made.
Gordon Stoker called Jim an "old maid" but people tell me it was Mr. Stoker who was the supercillious one.
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