Guide to the Charles E. Banks Papers
Sean Dickerson
African American Museum & Library at Oakland
659 14th Street
Oakland, California 94612
Phone: (510) 637-0198
Fax: (510) 637-0204
Email: aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org
URL: http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/locations/african-american-museum-library-oakland
© 2017
African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Charles E. Banks Papers
Collection number: MS213
African American Museum & Library at Oakland
Oakland, California
- Processed by:
- Sean Dickerson
- Date Completed:
- 2017-08-02
- Encoded by:
- Sean Dickerson
© 2017 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Charles E. Banks Papers
Dates: 1956-2000
Collection number: MS 213
Creator:
Banks, Charles E.
Collection Size:
.75 linear feet
(1 box + 1 oversized box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Abstract: Bay area blues musician and artist Charles E. Banks (1938-2000) was born Charles Edward Banks in Taylorville, Illinois, December
4, 1938. The Charles E. Banks Papers include assorted biographical material, concert flyers, posters, programs, song lists,
club advertisements, entertainment calendars, reproductions of artwork, photographs, handwritten poems, and three audiocassettes
featuring Blues on Tap's live and studio recordings.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Access Restrictions
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Publication Rights
Permission to publish must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Preferred Citation
Charles E. Banks Papers, MS 213, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
Processing Information
Processed by Sean Dickerson.
Biography / Administrative History
Bay area blues musician and artist Charles E. Banks (1938-2000) was born Charles Edward Banks in Taylorville, Illinois, December
4, 1938 to parents Edward and Grace. His mother, Grace Drasdale, played piano at the local Baptist church, and his father
was a day laborer who sang in the church choir. Banks graduated from Taylorville High School in 1956 and joined the United
States Air Force. While completing his tour in Spokane, Washington, he met J.J. Malone who taught him to play the electric
bass. Banks was given a room to rent at Malone’s home and would take guitar lessons from him on weekends. Together they formed
their first band, The Rockers (later the Tops in Blues), playing radio stations, and hospital wards and frequently for Nez
Perce audiences across the Idaho State line. After leaving the service, Malone and Banks formed the Rhythm Rockers in Fresno,
California, adding C.A. Carr, Calvin Peele, and former rockabilly Troyce Key to the lineup.
By 1967 Malone, Carr, and Key had left the Rhythm Rockers. In 1968 Banks relocated to Oakland, California, to join Malone,
attending college at California State University, Hayward. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geography in 1975, becoming
employed as a health worker for the City of Berkeley and continuing to play with Malone. Banks would feature on Sonny Rhodes’
1977 I Don’t Want My Blues Colored Bright, and the Rhythm Rockers’ albums I’ve Gotta New Car (1980) and Younger than Yesterday
(1982). In 1986 Banks formed two bands, The Bluesmen and Blues on Tap, a 1940s-50s-sounding jump band in the Louis Jordan
style, which were featured weekly at such Oakland blues venues as Eli’s Mile High Club, The Fifth Amendment and Louis KeeSee’s
Your Place Too (previously the Don Barksdale’s Sportsman Club and later The Grove).
Throughout the 1980’s Banks was active with the Oakland Arts program “Blues in the Schools.” His music career ended in 1989
as the result of debilitation due to spinal stenosis. Banks took up and devoted the last decade of his life to painting, watercolors,
and mixed media artwork, exhibiting and winning several awards in international contests for disabled artists with his series
The Fish of Charles E. Banks. He passed away on December 20, 2000.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Charles E. Banks Papers are arranged into six series: Biographical material, blues career, the Fish of Charles E. Banks,
photographs, poetry and audiocassettes. Biographical material includes various diplomas, business cards and Banks' Parks Air
Force yearbook. Banks’ blues career material consists of concert flyers, posters, and programs, song lists, club advertisements,
entertainment calendars, and assorted printed material. The Fish of Charles E. Banks series includes Banks’ artist statement,
exhibition mailers, juried art show programs and reproductions of artwork. The poetry series consists of eight original poems
handwritten by Banks. Included in the photographs are group portraits of Banks in various promotional images and performing
on stage, as well as documentation of his visual art. The papers also include three audiocassettes of Charles Banks and Blues
on Tap’s live and studio recordings.
Arrangement
Series I. Biographical material
Series II. Blues career
Series III. The Fish of Charles E. Banks
Series IV. Photographs
Series V. Poetry
Series V. Audiocassettes
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Banks, Charles.
Blues (Music)--California--San Francisco Bay Area.
Blues musicians -- United States -- Biography.
Eli’s Mile High Club (Oakland, Calif.).
Key, Troyce.
Malone, J.J.
Sound recordings.
Related Material
Key (Troyce) Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland
Malone (J.J.) Audiovisual Collection, African American Museum & Library at Oakland
Biographical material
1956-1975
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes various diplomas, business cards and Banks' Parks Air Force yearbook.
Arrangement
Arranged by format and date thereafter.
Box 1:1
Taylorville High School diploma
1956-06-05
Box 1:1
Department of the Air Force certificate of training
1959-08-10
Box 1:1
Bachelor of Arts, California State University, Hayward
1975-08-29
Box 1:2
The Grass Busters business card
undated
Box 1:2
The Grass Busters gardeners flyer
undated
Box 1:3
Parks Air Force Base yearbook
1955
Blues career
circa 1980s-2000
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes concert flyers, posters, and programs, song lists, club advertisements, entertainment calendars, and assorted printed
material documenting Charles Banks' career as a blues musician.
Arrangement
Arranged by format and date thereafter.
Box 1:4
Blues on Tap [two copies]
undated
Box 1:4
Carl “Good Rockin” Robinson
undated
Box 1:4
Chris “Trap” Daniels
undated
Box 1:5
Rhythm Rockers’ outside performance dates
1986
Box 1:5
Charles “Lover Boy” Banks and Blues on Tap performance calendars
circa 1980s
Box 1:5
Eli’s Mile High Club entertainment calendars
1987-1988
Box 1:5
Your Place Too entertainment calendars
circa 1980s
Discographies and song lists
Box 1:6
Handwritten discography
undated
Box 1:7
Three day grand opening Your Place Too featuring Lowell Fulsom and Blues on Tap
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
Blues on Tap promotional flyers
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
Charlie Banks and Blues on Tap at Your Place Too [two copies]
circa 1980s
Box OM 23
First anniversary at Your Place Too with Blues on Tap and guest Al King
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
First year anniversary celebration at Your Place Too featuring Al King, Freddie Hughes and Charlie Banks and Blues on Tap
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
Labor Day celebration at Eli’s Mile High Club with Charles “Lover Boy” Banks and Blues on Tap
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
Your Place Too presents Chick Willis (The Stoopdown Man) with Charlie Banks and Blues on Tap
circa 1980s
Box 1:7
A night of celebration at Your Place Too
1989-02
Box OM 23
Olympic Tavern reunion of Fresno's own Rhythm Rockers
1989-08-04
Box 1:7
Charles Banks benefit
1990-06-11
Box OM 23
Eli’s Mile High Club benefit for blues artist Charles Banks
2000-02-13
Box OM 23
Charlie's Corner posters
2000-02-20
Box 1:8
On Tap Productions promotional image
circa 1980s
Box 1:8
On Tap Productions business card
circa 1980s
Box 1:9
East Bay All-Stars Best Musical Group certificate to J.J. Malone, Troyce Key and the Rhythm Rockers for Best Musical Group
1982-10-15
Box 1:9
Bay Area Blues Society Bass Guitarist of the Year Award
1989-02-06
Assorted printed material
Box 1:10
“Roots,”
Express
1985-08-30
Box 1:10
Monterey Jazz Festival souvenir program
1986
Box 1:10
“Whole lotta blues at Monterey Festival,”
San Francisco Examiner
1986
Box 1:10
“Blues in the schools underway,” newspaper clipping
1987
Box 1:10
Bay Blues Monthly vol. 2
1989-02
Box 1:10
2nd Annual Blues Awards Show of the Bay Area Blues Society held at the Oakland Museum program
1989-02-18
Box 1:10
“’62 Rhythm Rockers reunited for blues concert at the Oly,”
Fresno Bee
1989-02-18
Box 1:10
“’62 Rhythm Rockers reunited for blues concert at the Oly,”
Fresno Bee
1989-08-04
Box 1:10
“Charles Banks: Musician, artist, dreamer,”
San Francisco Examiner
1995-06-05
Box 1:10
West Coast Blues No. 14
1995-12
Box 1:10
West Coast Blues No. 15
1996-02
Box 1:10
“Blues vet sings song of survival,” newspaper clipping
circa 1990s
The Fish of Charles E. Banks
1988-1999
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes Banks’ artist statement, newspaper clippings, exhibition mailers, juried art show programs and reproductions of his
artwork.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Box 1:11
“Veterans show off their artistic talent,”
The Post
1988-04-10
Box 1:11
Cuniff Studio-Gallery exhibition announcement
Charles Banks 'Creator of the Fish'
1994
Box 1:11
Gallery Concord exhibition
All-American Folk Art Gallery
1994
Box 1:11
Jack Wold Fine Art Gallery mailer
circa 1995
Box 1:11
32nd Annual Sister Kenny Institute International Art Show by Artists with Disabilities
1995
Box 1:11
Sister Kenny Institute certificate of recognition
1996
Box 1:11
33rd Annual Sister Kenny Institute International Art Show by Artists with Disabilities
1996
Box 1:11
34th Annual International Art Show by Artists with Disabilities
1997
Box 1:11
Charles Banks Artist folder
circa 1997
Box 1:11
Charles E. Banks artist statement [two copies]
circa 1997
Box 1:11
Two signed Fish prints
1997
Box 1:11
Charles Banks Fish of Charles notecards [three]
1997
Box 1:11
No. 3 painting documentation
1997
Box 1:11
Charles E. Banks paintings 1993-1996
circa 1997
Box 1:11
Charles E. Banks paintings 1997
circa 1997
Box 1:11
Department of Veterans Affairs National Veterans Creative Arts Festival booklet, Grand Junction, Colorado
1999-10-11
Box 1:11
“Veterans awarded for excellence in the arts,”
Martinez Record
1999
Box 1:11
"The fish of Charles opens Saturday," newspaper clipping
circa 1990s
Photographs
1957-1995
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes various group portraits, promotional images, as well as documentation of Banks' visual art.
Arrangement
Arranged by identification number.
Box 1:12
Parker Air Force Base class photograph, caption: “Hydraulics course” [001]
1957-01-22
Box 1:12
Group photograph (left to right): Sonny Rhoades, Al King, J.J. Malone, Charles Banks [002]
undated
Box 1:12
Group photograph of Troyce Key, J.J. Malone and the Rhythm Rockers [003]
circa 1980s
Box 1:12
Charles Banks with Oakland Unified School District student, caption: “Blues in the schools” [004]
1987
Box 1:12
Photo collage of the Rhythm Rockers 1958 and 1988 [005]
1988
Box 1:12
The Rhythm Rockers promotional photograph, (left to right): Chris Daniels, Troyce Key, C.A. Carr, J.J. Malone, Charles Banks
[006]
circa 1980s
Box 1:12
Charles Banks performing on outdoor stage [007]
undated
Box 1:12
Blues on Tap (left to right): Chris Daniels, Carl Good Rockin Robinson, Charles Banks, and Bernard Anderson [008]
circa 1980s
Box 1:12
Photograph of Lowell Fulsom with Charles Banks [009]
undated
Box 1:12
Twenty-nine Fish paintings [010-038]
1994-1995
Poetry
undated
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes eight pages of original poems handwritten by Charles Banks.
Audiocassettes
circa 1980s
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes three audiocassettes of Blues on Tap’s live and studio recordings
Box 1:13
Charles Banks and Blues on Tap live with Chick Willis at Your Place Too
circa 1980s
Box 1:13
Blues on Tap studio recordings
circa 1980s
Box 1:13
Blues on Tap live at the Cotati Cabaret
circa 1980s
