Maxx Kidd, a music
industry veteran who helped pioneer go-go music and
produced Chuck Brown’s “We
Need Some Money,” died March 13 in Chevy Chase, Maryland,
according to Billboard has learned. He was 75.
Kidd passed away following a years-long
battle with “a variety of health complications,”
according to surviving family members.
Born Carl Lomax Kidd on
Aug. 18, 1941, Kidd was growing up in West Virginia when he
met singer Nat “King” Cole at
a nightclub owned by Kidd’s father. That generated an
interest a music career, which kicked into gear in 1960 when
he moved to Washington, D.C. following a stint in the army.
It was there that Kidd parlayed his pre-army job as a
Calypso singer for a drive-in restaurant into becoming a
member of a local D.C. soul group called The
Enjoyables.
Eventually, Kidd began working as a
producer for Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom
Records, where he collaborated with such artists as Jerry
Butler, Gene Chandler and Chuck
Brown & the Soul Searchers. Two hits by Brown,
“Blow Your Whistle” and pioneering go-go hit “We Need
Some Money,” are among Kidd’s best-known productions.
Four years later, Kidd played a role in
producing and furthering D.C.’s homegrown go-go
sound, working with Brown & the Soul Searchers as well
as fellow go-go bands Trouble Funk and E.U.
(Experience Unlimited).
Kidd also served as an associate producer
of the 1986 film “Good to Go,” a crime thriller starring Art
Garfunkel that used D.C.’s burgeoning go-go
scene as its musical backdrop. Kidd co-produced the film’s
go-go/dancehall soundtrack as well, featuring Chuck Brown,
Trouble Funk, E.U., Sly Dunbar & Robbie
Shakespeare, Ini Kamoze and Redds
& the Boys (whose lineup included Kidd).
In addition to establishing his own record
label, T.T.E.D. Records, Kidd became an independent promoter
and marketer, with a client list that included the O’Jays,
the Temptations, Lou Rawls, Van McCoy, Johnnie Taylor and Shalamar.
Kidd is survived by five daughters (Jacqueline
McCoy, Yvette “Evie” Kidd, Sabrina Kidd, Joy Kidd, Corie
Kidd) and one son (Victor Kidd),
11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren plus four
siblings and a son-in-law.
Funeral arrangements are pending.