He was a trombonist and bassist born in Shaw, Mississippi, who was a member of The Jazzmen while at Crane Junior College in Chicago in the 1960s with Charles Handy, Don Myrick and Maurice White, who he also performed with at the turn of the 1970s with The Pharaohs.
He also worked as a session musician at the Chess studio in Chicago where he was heard delivering the bassline on “I’ll Take You There” and “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass and as a trombonist he performed on a demo of a new band put together by Maurice White. He took on this group under the name of The Phenix Horns who would be the horn section of Earth, Wind & Fire and with them he saw major success with hits such as “Boogie Wonderland”, “September”, “After the Love has Gone” and many more.
As a member of The Phenix Horns he worked with the rock band Genesis in the recording studio and this saw a further chart hit with their EP Paperlate. This would lead to The Phenix Horns also performing with Phil Collins on tour and on several of his albums but in the late 1990s Louis Satterfield and Rahmlee Davis filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Collins for loss of royalties.
The Phenix Horns dissolved in the mid-1990s and this would lead him to doing much less work due to continuing health problems.
Albums he appeared on during the course of his career include Chinese Wall by Philip Bailey, Face Value, Hello, I Must Be Going, But Seriously… and No Jacket Required by Phil Collins, Gratitude, All ‘n’ All, Eternal Dance, Faces, Raise, Powerlight and I Am by Earth, Wind & Fire, Something’s Going On by Frida, Flowers and Rejoice by The Emotions, The Gap Band, Luxury Gap by Heaven 17, Shake It All About by Little Richard, In the Basement and Awakening by The Pharoahs, Song Bird by Deniece Williams, Changing of the Gard by Stargard and Whisper in Your Ear by The Whispers.
He did continue performing however and at the time of his death in Chicago in 2004, when he was 67 years old, he had not long finished touring with Cash McCall.
The Gap Band recordings
Baby Baba Boogie (Lonnie Simmons/Charlie Wilson)
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Satterfield
- http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Respect2004.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenix_Horns
- http://members.fortunecity.com/ewfbrazil/ewfsatterfield.html
- http://www.jayepurplewolf.com/EARTHWINDFIRE/thephenixhorns.html
- http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1427249/20000419/collins_phil.jhtml
- http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/pharaohs.html