Entertainment

Cuba Gooding Sr. Continues to Enjoy a Thriving Entertainment Career

Published

11 years ago

March 10, 2015

Oakland Post

Cuba Gooding, Sr. (Courtesy Photo)

by Timothy Cox

Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper

BALTIMORE — Mention the song “Everybody Plays the Fool,” and an older generation of music lovers will immediately recall that The Main Ingredient, featuring lead singer Cuba Gooding, before he added the “senior” tag to his name, recorded the once-popular tune.

A younger generation will immediately connect Gooding’s surname with his son, the actor, Cuba Gooding Jr. – famous for starring in several top films such as Boyz ‘N The Hood, Jerry Maguire, Fighting Temptations, American Gangster, Radio and now the recently released Selma.

In an interview from his home near St. Augustine, Fla., the elder Gooding reflected on his successful music career and raising two successful actor sons, including his “baby boy,” Omar Gooding.

At 70, Cuba Gooding Sr. has no problem divulging details about the past and the development of his formidable musical career from his Harlem, N.Y. origins. He notes that his father,Dudley MacDonald Gooding, was a Barbados native with an affinity for the Marcus Garvey “Black Nationalist” movement in the early 1900s. “He told my mother that he would name his first born son Cuba – that’s because he once lived in Cuba and had positive feelings about the country,” said Gooding Sr.

He also revealed that his mother (Addie Alston) wanted him to become a solo singer in the mold of Nat King Cole or Brook Benton. “She always wanted me to separate myself from that whole group thing.” In fact, The Main Ingredient had already formed in Gooding’s midst, as some of his boyhood friends started rehearsing in his neighborhood, but Gooding was unaware of their existence.

The original group was called The Poets and later, The Insiders. Before Gooding joined, The Main Ingredient had already recorded a marginal hit, “Spinning Around” in 1970 and scored heavily on the The Impressions’/Curtis Mayfield composition, “I’m So Proud,” in ’71.

The original group included Tony “Panama” Sylvester, Luther Simmons and Donald McPherson (vocal lead of “Spinning Around” and “Black Seeds Keep on Growing”). McPherson died in 1970, Gooding recalls. “We were not the typical black soul group from the early 1970s. We recorded on the prestigious RCA-Victor label (now SONY) with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Charley Pride, said Gooding. But remember, we were young and still wanted to be cool and soulful like our counterparts, The O’Jays and The Delfonics and people like that,” he said.

“I could never compete with the ones who sang in church, like Eddie Levert and the guys from The O’Jays. I don’t even know any spiritual songs, I grew up singing and wanting to be like Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra. I had to teach myself to become a group performer instead of a standup, solo artist,” said Gooding. “I vividly remember standing in Times Square in New York City – never asking for money, but just singing and working on developing my craft.”

He reflects on a career highlights after being recruited to join The Main Ingredient. “Heck, I was working in credit collections at Sax Fifth Avenue, and had no interest in singing on that level. The guys needed me (after McPherson’s illness and eventual death) so they promised me I could make more money than I did on my two-week salary at the department store. So, the rest is history.”

With Gooding’s magical lead vocals, the group scored heavily on the 1972 single “Everybody Plays the Fool” and two hits from 1974, “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely” and “Happiness Is Just Around The Bend.”

Comparing today’s music business with the 1970s, Gooding says he will never forget recording album projects live, on sound stages, accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra. “It doesn’t get any better than that. Today, talent and stardom is all dependent on whether American TV viewers call and vote for you, ala ‘American Idol.’”

The golden years also had its share of bad times, he said. “We found ourselves $250,000 in the hole, after paying for all those recording sessions, for all the musicians, the payola – all that was in RCA’s budget. We never got the lion’s share. That’s why Stevie (Wonder) created Black Bull Music, so he could get his (publishing) share from Berry Gordy and Motown.

“This is a business, but sadly, the ones who make all the money are the ones who have no musical talent at all. The lawyers, the agents, the managers, road managers, accountants – they get the money. And, you pray that the government doesn’t come and hit you before all of them get paid.”

During the interview Gooding discussed the deaths of “two of his good friends from the industry,” namely Edward “Sonny” Bivins and Winfred “Blue” Lovett, both of The Manhattans. “I knew those guys from early in our careers, because we were all from the New Jersey/New York area,” he said. “I’ll really miss them.”

On a more upbeat note, Gooding recounted his input in helping to rear two successful acting sons, Cuba Jr. and Omar. Another son, Thomas, is a bass player and works as musical director of Cuba Sr.’s touring band. There is also a daughter named April.

On helping Cuba Jr. and Omar become actors, the older Gooding says, “I learned from my mom and dad that it was more important to be a parent. That means that I did what was necessary for them to be successful. I took that approach as if they were in a formal schooling environment. I taught them that it was important to be successful, and I taught them by example. I also taught them martial arts.”

Mr. Gooding said he wanted to make it clear that he was not his sons’ sole positive influence. “Their mother played a major role in their development,” he said. “Their mother (Shirley Sullivan) taught them how to pronounce their words – to speak the King’s English properly so the people would respect you regardless of your education. My answer is plain and simple – understand the responsibility of being a parent above and beyond being a biological father. I am truly blessed. It was like my father was telling me what to say to them,” he said.

Gooding notes that after a long period of marriage, he eventually left the family for nearly 17 years, but regrouped and remarried his mate in the 1980s.

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Arts and Culture

IN MEMORIAM: Oakland Dance Legend Reginald Ray-Savage, 67

Savage lived his life as tribute to the teachers who had shared their wisdom on art and life with him. With a palpably genuine enthusiasm and desire to bring out the best in people, and pass the torch to the next generation, he poured into his students, as his teachers and mentors had into him. His infectious energy, love of life, and generosity of spirit inspired countless souls, both inside and outside the dance studio.

Published

6 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Reginald Ray-Savage brought the old-school teaching techniques he learned in the Katherine Dunham Dance Company to the youth at the Oakland School for the Arts in 2003. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Reginald Ray-Savage – dancer, choreographer, and beloved teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many – passed away on May 17. The Oakland School for the Arts dance instructor was 67.

Born Reginald Ray, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 5, 1958, he formally adopted the name ‘Savage,’ to honor the great Archie Savage, his mentor at Katherine Dunham’s Performing Arts Training Center where his dance training journey began in East St. Louis, Illinois.

He soon started dancing professionally with Katherine Dunham Dance Company, making dance a way of life. His grit, tenacity, and notorious work ethic brought him scholarships to train at multiple prestigious dance institutions, including The Ailey School (NYC) and Ruth Page School of Dance (Chicago), under the direction of acclaimed ballet instructor Larry Long and Dolores Lipinski-Long.

He danced with several companies including Joel Hall Dance Company, Ruth Page Ballet Chicago, Lyric Opera, Chicago City Ballet, American Festival Ballet, and touring productions of “Music Man” and “A Chorus Line”.

In 1989, Savage moved to Oakland where he started teaching seven days a week, amassing a devoted following that was attracted to his no-nonsense, impassioned, and effective old-school teaching style.

In 1992, at the insistence of his committed core of students, he founded Savage Jazz Dance Company (SJDC). Over a span of 30 years, Savage produced more than 100 original works, and tour SJDC nationally and internationally, performing at Casa del Jazz in Rome to a packed house and rave reviews—the first dance company to receive such an invitation.

Savage built SJDC into one of the Bay Area’s most respected dance companies, creating a signature style known for its combination of disciplined training, blended with rich artistic musical expression, and raw energy.

In 2003, Savage joined the Oakland School for the Arts as chair of the School of Dance. Over the next two decades, he created, built, and maintained a strong dance program, recognized, and respected by other dance institutions for forging well-trained and resilient dancers and human beings.

The depth of Savage’s tough love and care, and the skill of his teaching and mentoring are reflected in the careers of his students who have gone on to dance with the San Francisco Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Janet Jackson, Ariana Grande, and companies across the globe.

Mark Kitaoka, a photographer hired by Savage in 2016, posted a living eulogy on the dance instructor.

“When I see the self-pride he builds in his students I am constantly impressed that people like Savage still exist in our ‘meme’ society,” Kitaoka wrote. “The kids he mentors are fiercely loyal to one another and I’m certain his methods teach each of those kids to put aside social status, race and gender and is replaced by solid loyalty for other souls.

“What Savage contributes to our world cannot be completely summed up in a few meager paragraphs but can be seen in the countless lives of those he has touched. Because of him, our world, and the world of the future is both a richer and better place.

Reginald Ray-Savage will forever be missed, remembered, and lovingly quoted. He is survived by his beloved wife, Alison Hurley, his sister, Sonia, and his brothers, Pierre, and Andre. May his inextinguishable spirit and impact live on in all the lives he touched.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

Published

1 week ago

June 20, 2026

Oakland Post

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Books

Book Review: Something We Said: Richard Pryor, A Notorious Word, and Me

Though sticks and stones and words are weapons, as in the new memoir, “Something We Said” by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, they can also hold people together.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 17, 2026

bpusa-syndication

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Simon & Schuster, SRP: $29.00, Page Count: 304 pages

Sticks and stones may break my bones.

You know the rest of that childhood rhyme, and you know it’s not true: words have meaning, and they can cut like a knife. And yet, though sticks and stones and words are weapons, as in the new memoir, “Something We Said” by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, they can also hold people together.

The college lecture was supposed to have been about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

It was supposed to be a lively discussion, but unintentionally it quickly veered off course. When a White student quoted a movie line featuring the “n-word,” the room went quiet, and Professor Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor panicked.

She’d grown up hearing that word, and seeing it, and she’d experienced the painful feelings attached to it. She knew who wrote that movie line. It was her father, Richard Pryor.

In her first few years, Pryor spent most of her time in a White world, hearing her mother’s tales of her larger-than-life father, and trying to grasp meaning in her father’s albums, peppered as they were with a word that was off-limits to her.

When she was six, she met her father for the first time. She began to visit him regularly.

It was fun at her Dad’s house; though he was sometimes moody, he taught her to fish and play dominoes. She became close with her siblings, fearful of her great-grandmother, and confused about a word that her father’s uncles threw around like a beach ball. It was a forbidden word at her mother’s house, but her father used it. Differently. Often.

The word hurt. She knew first-hand that it did.

“The word became a degrading slur that shackled all Black people together into a single, inescapable tribe,” she says.

So why was it okay for certain people to say it?

Knowing that, in the years since Richard Pryor’s accident and his death from multiple sclerosis, he’s become somewhat of a legend. It is a very satisfying thing, isn’t it? So is reading about him, especially from the viewpoint of one of his seven children. But his is not the only story you get inside “Something We Said.”

Wrapped around the life of Richard Pryor is the life of a word that straddles a line between danger and provocation, a word that author Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor refuses to say or even print. As she tells readers about her father and her loving-but-difficult relationship with him, she warily circles that word, as if it might bite. You may cringe, but she weighs it carefully, helping readers see it as a chameleon before always bringing us back to her father, his work, and his life before and after her and that word.

It’s a push-pull balance that holds readers fast, and keeps them there. It’s perfect for fans of this genre, or Richard Pryor, or of language – and it’s going to make you think. If you want a good memoir this week, one that may send you to your old album collection, “Something We Said” is rock-solid.