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Elliot Simpson (known as "Doc" in many music circles) is a professional trumpet player, vocalist, and composer whose recent gigs have included backing up Bonnie Bramlett at her outstanding performance at The Sheldon in St. Louis with Billy Peek and former Ikette, Robbie Montgomery (see slide show), and as part of the horn section in frequent gigs with Billy Peek (http://www.billypeek.com) at various St. Louis venues, including, at The Pageant, a 2005 fundraiser with Michael McDonald.

As a member of "Butch Wax & the Hollywoods" (http://www.butchwax.net), Elliot played numerous times with rock legend Johnnie Johnson, including a great gig with the legendary Johnny Rivers at St. Louis' Casa Loma. A member of "Butch Wax" since the 90s, he has been playing trumpet professionally since winning a battle of the bands in 1964 in St. Louis, when he was part of a band called "The Malibus". Winning that competition earned them the coveted spot of an airing on Russ Carter's "St. Louis Hop" TV Show, and in fact the band was on the first color transmission of the show. Additionally, they were pegged to play at Tan-Tar-A Resort's Grand Opening at the Lake of the Ozarks that year. He also played with "The Disciples of Soul" from 1966 to 1970, which featured horns and Motown-sound vocals from, on any given night, Marcel Strong or Bobby McClure, or members of "The New Blend", which was a four-piece singing group consisting of Carl Bibbs, Clint Gallagher, Dave and Renee Davis. They were later the vocal group for The Incredible Music Force (IMF) and with them Elliot played Gaslight Square, in its waning days at Whisky A Gogo.

Elliot played with "Stash" from 1970-79 (playing regularly on the old Admiral excursion boat, as well as serenading "Miss Budweiser" and the Busch Stadium crowd at "Teen Night"). From 1983-96 he was in several poplular St. Louis bands: "El Rondo & The Jades", "Cruzen", and "Full Blown Cover". With "Cruzen" Elliot opened and was the backing band for "Martha Reeves & the Vandellas" and "Gary U.S. Bonds", at the old Rupert's on Oakland, and also played at one of Baseball-Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial's birthday parties. He looks forward every January to playing with Steve Davis' "Tribute to Elvis" show at the Pageant, a full-blown event featuring a variety of dynamic performers commemorating Elvis' birthday.

Another musical highlight for Elliot, was being part of Gene Ackmann's "Gotta Go to Work" Rams-rally-song project that eventually lead to playing the 2000 Super Bowl Victory Parade for the Rams in St. Louis, celebrated by more than a half-million Rams fans on a freezing Market Street for more than five hours on a Monday evening.

In the studio, Elliot played and wrote horn arrangements on the "Mama's Pride" Guard Your Heart CD and has recorded and co-written horn arrangements on three of the "Butch Wax" CDs. With the release of Struck, after three years of collaboration, Elliot pulls out all the stops to produce his own solo CD, available January 2008.

Having played trumpet for the likes of Hall -of -Famers Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and our own Johnnie Johnson, native St. Louisan, Elliot “Doc” Simpson strikes out on his own with the newly released Struck CD . Collaborating with him are his brother Carl M. Simpson winner of the prestigious Mahan Creative Writing award, who wrote the lyrics for the title song “I am Struck” over thirty years ago, on New Year’s Eve of 1974. They were only recently discovered in his parents’ home tucked away in the basement. So impressed with the power of the lyric, Elliot set the entire poem to music. It is featured on this release and lasts over eight minutes. When asked about genre, Elliot said, “I would probably call it a song-poem and vocally it was challenging because the poet’s ear says, ‘designed blood-brothered’ but…try to sing that line. As far as my vocals on this one, I was less than happy with some of my vocal parts, but the lyrics are so powerful I decided to go with it. As a famous poet explained once, ‘It is, what it is.’ The attempt wasn’t to have perfect harmonies so much as to reveal the lines honestly, and with humility. For me, some of the lines impart more meaning, and celebrate the raw awareness of our human existence than can be gleaned from entire poems or even books.”

Carl also wrote the original poem on which “Smokestacks & Memories” is based. Originally written on a napkin as Carl hitch-hiked around the country in the early ‘70s, it was discovered years later and adapted by Elliot, who also added the bridge lyric and composed the music for the song. This version is the culmination of many different evolutions. Elliot’s sons Jason E. Simpson and Owen C. Simpson play drums and bass, respectively on this one and Jason also engineered or remixed this and, in fact, all of the songs on this offering from his JES studio located near Osceola and Compton in south Saint Louis.

“I Can’t Wait for Never”, the fourth selection on the CD, is about actual events involving a murder of a local celebrity singer who was done-in by his wife and her lover. “I was at a band job when the writer of a famous song said he wanted to possibly collaborate on the music score for a screen-play involving the life of this person and this is the result. It culminates with echoing gun shots and sound effects. It explores rationalization and psychological justification as two parts of the mind war with each other over what to do. Originally I sang all the parts but was excited when Judith Chabot finally agreed to sing the version on this CD. Thanks, Judith.”

“St . Louis Rally” celebrates the great sports events that are a part of St. Louis. As a member of Butch Wax and the Hollywoods, Elliot played at the celebrations for the Rams winning the 2000 Super Bowl in Downtown St. Louis, and “St. Louis Rally” was played at the Cardinal’s opening day at the new Busch Stadium the year that they went on to be the dark horse winner of the World Series in 2006. “We were set up across the street from the stadium, and Billy Peek had just sat in with us. I had to work late the previous night at the studio finishing it so that it could be played over our system. I included the mention of ‘father time,’ Steve ‘Elvis’ Davis and other colorful local characters who are staples when we play opening day or Rams rallies.” Tom O’Brien overlaid sax parts for the ’07 version of this song.

“Pulse of the City” was written during a summer rain storm. Elliot reveals, “I was just pondering its fury and realized that the noise that was around (jackhammers and buses etc.) grew silent and decided that if there were one more sign I would write about the ambient effects of nature on the bustling city life where the rain comes as ‘silver’ dollars, when one of the most brilliant rainbows appeared. How could I not write a song about it. I believe the creator of the universe inspires us by such events.” Well-known St. Louis area sax player Ray Vollmar played the blistering sax solo, and Larry Smith barks out the bottom on baritone sax.

“Monkey Sips” gets its title from a serendipitous event in mixing. According to Elliot, “My son Jason was remixing it for me at his studio when he heard something neither of us was aware of. So he kept increasing the signal until we could tell that it was me taking a deep breath next to the microphone. The previous night, I was engineering by myself and had to start the recorder while backing up in order to get the bell of the trumpet to the microphone in a close recording event. The resulting sip in the song is the result of that sound. I guess that makes me a monkey’s doubler. Both Tom O’Brien and Larry Smith helped out by playing saxes in this one, and my son, Owen Simpson, is featured on bass.