Harold Victor “Vic” Taylor

Black Music & Comedy Record Producer

There’s a decent chance you might never have heard of Vic Taylor or his Kalamazoo-based indie record label, LaVal. But during the 1960s and 1970s, LaVal was a big name in popular entertainment, especially among lovers of blues, R&B, and comedy.

H. Victor Taylor

Born and raised in Henderson, Kentucky, Harold Victor “Vic” Taylor (a.k.a. “Vic LaVal”) (1919-1998) arrived in West Michigan while serving in the army during WWII. In March 1943, he married Madge Whaling in a ceremony at Fort Custer near Battle Creek. After the war, the Taylors moved to Kalamazoo, where Vic began promoting blues and R&B shows that appealed to the underserved black community. Black music was rarely heard on local radio back then, and Taylor did much to promote blues and R&B in this area.

In July 1963, Taylor brought American blues legend Little Junior Parker to town for a dance at the community center on Lake Street. The show featured soul singer Joe Hinton, the famous Johnny Brown Band, and others. Later in the year, Taylor promoted a follow-up show at the armory fronted by Texas bluesman Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland and songwriter Al ‘TNT’ Braggs, both superstar showmen at the time. Vic Taylor was also behind the scenes when Ike & Tina Turner came to town in 1971 for a pair of shows at Miller Auditorium.

LaVal Records

Taylor founded LaVal Record Distributors in December 1963, and began distributing records for jukebox play. Jukeboxes were the first to receive the newest recordings, and they became important devices for exposing new music. “Jukeboxes were in restaurants, clubs, any place people would gather,” Vic’s son, Tyco Taylor, later told the Kalamazoo Gazette. “It was his job to get them on the jukebox.”

At the same time, Taylor formed LaVal Records, which grew to be a leading blues, R&B, and comedy label. Based in a small studio on North Burdick Street, Taylor began recording both black and white artists. Among his early LaVal releases were gospel flavored R&B singles by The Harps of the Coast, The Southern Echoes, and The Mighty Stars of Joy.

Taylor was also a big fan of comedy. During the late 1960s, LaVal became a major distributor of black comedy albums, including early releases by future superstars Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor. Many recordings by black comedians were considered too racy for general distribution with their strong language and adult subject matter, but the records sold extremely well through independent channels.

“Tramp Time”

LaVal found great success with a local comedian named Jimmy Lynch (1937-2021), who he discovered performing at a club in Battle Creek. LaVal released several party albums by Lynch, who stylized himself as “That Nasty Funky Tramp.” The language and subject matter made his records “Adult Only” hits, and as you might guess, they sold like hotcakes. By 1968, “Tramp Time” had become a top-selling black comedy album, “at times, even outselling an album by singer James Brown, who was then a hot property” (Gazette). LaVal produced a half-dozen albums for Lynch and sold more than a million copies throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Bay-Tone Records

Vic’s older brother, Brad Taylor, had a company on the West Coast during the late 1950s called Bay-Tone Records. Bay-Tone released several important rhythm and blues singles between 1958 and 1965 by the likes of Robert “Chick” Willis (who later recorded for LaVal), The Fabulous Flames (part of James Brown’s vocal group), Big Mama Thornton (famous for “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain”), and several others. In 1964, Victor Taylor filed papers to conduct a distribution arm of Bay-Tone Records based in Kalamazoo.

By the mid-1970s, Brad Taylor had formed Soul Set Productions and again called on his brother Vic to help with distribution in the Midwest. Releases on the San Francisco-based Soul Set label (distributed nationally by LaVal Records in Kalamazoo) included “underground” hits by the likes of Little Joe Blue, Cold Fire, Apollis, and Frisco.

Chick Willis

Around 1972, LaVal began promoting a blues singer and guitarist known as Chick Willis (1934-2013), who scored a significant jukebox hit with a dirty blues number called “Stoop Down Baby…” The song was considered too “hot” for radio play, but it sold well through independent dealers. According to Willis, “(we) put the records in the van, and we left Kalamazoo and headed south. Went to Chicago, Ohio and down to Memphis. When we got to Memphis, we had to turn around and get back home quick because orders was coming in so fast” (Gazette).  When jukebox companies began ordering his record by the thousands, Willis admitted he “stopped eatin’ hot dogs and started eating pork chops.” LaVal went on to produce several singles and an album for Willis.

“A Man of Stature”

Vic Taylor was known as “a man of stature” (Gazette), a key behind-the-scenes figure in black entertainment, and his achievements were great. He brought major blues and R&B acts to Kalamazoo and Battle Creek at a time when black music was rarely heard on the local airwaves. Taylor tried to fill a void that was created by the overall resistance of radio stations to play black music. As recounted by someone who witnessed those early shows, “if it wasn’t for Vic doing (his music and comedy shows), you wouldn’t see any of this stuff – this kind of music or black entertainment, basically.”

LaVal Records closed in 1980. Vic Taylor passed away in December 1998 at the age of 79. Taylor never became a wealthy record mogul, thanks to the record bootleggers and the high cost of promotion. Still, the impact he made on the music industry, especially in West Michigan, cannot be discounted.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, March 2024