Multi-talented Nashvillian Jesse Boyce died on Thursday surrounded by friends and family. He was 69 years old and had been battling cancer.
During his 40-plus-year career, he worked as a session musician, producer, songwriter, label owner and businessman. “Jesse was one of the greatest bass players that has come through Nashville, and just an all-around talent,” said Lorenzo Washington, one of Boyce’s closest friends since 1975.
Boyce spent more than 30 years playing bass for rock ‘n’ roll icon Little Richard. His songs were recorded by acts including the Temptations, who cut his song “Firefly” in 1975 for their album “A Song for You.”
Boyce was born Jan. 26, 1948. He studied classical piano, guitar, drums and electric bass when he was growing up.
As a young man, he was part of the FAME Gang, the house band that backed artists like Candi Staton and Wilson Pickett at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The FAME Gang also released an album of its own, called “Grits and Gravy.”
Boyce moved to Nashville in the early 1970s. In Music City, he founded the group Bottom and Company; they caught the attention of Motown and became the first black Nashville band to sign with a major label.
After that band broke up, Boyce and Moses Dillard teamed up to create Dillard and Boyce Productions. “In less than two years, Dillard and (Boyce) have done more to establish Nashville as a diversified music center than all the crossover country records, independent pop labels and visiting rock stars combined,” The Tennessean’s Walter Carter reported in a 1979 article. “And they’ve done it with disco records.”
In that article, Dillard said that the company “typifies the producer of today … those who are in charge of production from inception to completion.”
Many of the disco songs Dillard and Boyce worked on in Nashville were released on New York label Prelude Records, including the first Dillard and Boyce production: Saturday Night Band’s “Come On Dance Dance,” which hit No. 2 on the disco charts.
Boyce is survived by his wife of 39 years, Asieren R. Boyce; children Jesse L. (Jennifer) Boyce, Rosalind M. (Albert) Walden and Adrienne P. (Timothy) Hendrix; sister Dorothy (Larry) Harris; brother Tommy L. James; grandchildren Antonio B. Cantrell, Efrem L. McGee Jr., Kristen R. (Marques) Santiago, Albert R. Walden Jr. and Brandon E. McGee; great-grandchildren Marques Santiago Jr., Albert R. Walden III, Izaiah Santiago and Ephraim L. McGee; and a host of other family and friends.
Visitation will be held 1-9 p.m. Saturday and 12-1 p.m. Sunday at the New Generation Funeral Home (2930 Murfreesboro Pike).
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Midtown Music Academy (P.O. Box 233, Madison, TN 37116) or the Jesse Boyce Music Chair at the Reclamation Center Inc. (2334 Herman St., Nashville, TN 37208).
