Dick Knight

O what a Knight! Stories & showmanship at Neuse Regional Library

Dick Knight photo by Tom Whelan, Kinston, 2024

O what a Knight!
Dick Knight brings stories & showmanship to Neuse Regional Library

“I’m here to tell you the truth that you don’t know about music.” 

One of the musicians who blazed a trail right through the heart of nearby Kinston opened his performance with the teaser. Dressed in sharp white and navy regalia and adopting the moniker of Captain, Robert “Dick” Knight attracted an audience of faithful followers with his one-man band.

Knight wasn’t originally from Kinston, but he said, “I feel like I’m a Kinstonian because I’ve been in and out, in and out. Once you drink this water, you can’t never leave.” 

Born in Camilla, Georgia–just 25 miles from Ray Charles’ birthplace–Knight graduated high school at age 16 and went straight to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where he played in the marching band, graduating in three years. At just 19 he took a job at Savannah High School in Grifton as the band director. It wasn’t long before another door opened: the back door of the Apollo Theater, where he was told to go for his job as trumpet player for James Brown.

Nat Jones, courtesy of Edwin Jones & NCPedia

Another Kinston musician, Nathaniel Leon Jones, whom Knight described as a “genius” and said didn’t get the accolades that he should have, was the one who offered him the opportunity. Jones had also been a music teacher in Kinston before becoming James Brown’s band leader. When Knight arrived in New York, Kinstonians Maceo and Melvin Parker were already there as a part of Brown’s band.

Knight opened his show with the song “Autumn Leaves,” playing keyboard and singing along with a backing track, and then adding a jazzy alto saxophone solo before transitioning to trumpet.

The stage was flanked with lit white trees and a multicolored light bar flashed from behind the keyboard, creating a portable music-club atmosphere. But the most noticeable illuminations were the Knight lights: the musician’s shoes glowed red, then yellow and blue throughout the evening.

James Brown’s orchestra, courtesy of Dick Knight, the young trumpet player at center.

“We’re going to play some hip music now,” Knight confided to the audience. “You know the song ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’? Nat Jones from Kinston wrote that song. He didn’t get credit for it–but he got paid for it. The song ‘Out of Sight’ was also written by Nat Jones of Kinston.”

Dick Knight photo by Tom Whelan, Kinston, 2024

“I was born in Georgia, and Otis Redding was born in Georgia,” Knight said as he introduced the song “Dock of the Bay.” “He was born in a place called Dawson. They didn’t have but three cars in his hometown, but mine only had one–and that was the sheriff’s. His was the second band I toured with because he paid a little more money than the rest of the guys.”

Knight said that while Otis Redding paid better, if he got to playing cards late at night, he might lose everything he’d earned for the previous three nights and the band wouldn’t get paid. Maybe that was one of the aspects of the touring musician’s life that brought Knight back to teaching music in schools. After finishing a gig with Redding at midnight, he asked to be picked up at 2 a.m. and snuck out, because he heard there was an opening for a band director in Kinston.

Throughout this evening in Kinston, Knight gave shout-outs to some of his fellow musicians, like Donald Thompson, who was sitting on the front row. He also asked how many remembered Levi Raspbury, a Kinston native who played in James Brown’s band and was road manager before working and retiring from Pitt County government in the management information systems department.

“James Brown was born in Georgia or South Carolina,” Knight said. “I always thought it was Georgia, but it must have been South Carolina because that’s where he run to when he got in trouble in Georgia.”

In 2018 Knight received the North Carolina Heritage Award. According to a feature published by the North Carolina Arts Council about Knight upon the award announcement, Knight taught music in schools for 47 years, some of those years in Miami before returning to Kinston in 1998. He worked in Lenoir county schools until 2007 and then played with the Monitors as well as his solo act.

Throughout the evening Knight performed numbers such as Brown’s iconic “I Feel Good” and “Please Please Please” and Lionel Richie’s “Easy.” Occasionally he strolled or danced to the edge of the stage and gave the audience a taste of his showmanship, cutting a few moves. Knight was in his element, though, when he channeled Louis Armstrong in “What a Wonderful World,” with the vocals and facial mannerisms, culminating with the trademark trumpet solo.

Dick Knight’s shoes, photographed by Tom Whelan, Kinston, 2024

Knight ended the evening with a song that demonstrated he hasn’t lost touch with modern music: Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” He encouraged the audience to stand, which just might have been a library-safe encouragement to shake a leg.

“I worked at all the schools around Lenoir County,” he said. “I’m 80 years old now, so this is what I do. When I look over my shoulder, I don’t see my buddies around anymore, so it’s a blessing for me and you to be here.”

Knight’s and other local performers’ schedules are available on the Tommy Mattocks Band & Entertainment Facebook page. 

The Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library at 510 North Queen Street, Kinston, now features free one-on-one studio time in its digital media lab. The brochure made available at the Dick Knight concert touts the opportunity to “create your own content” such as animation, music, podcasts, or green screen video.

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Originally published in the Daily Reflector on February 17, 2024.

More about the Kinston – James Brown connection here, in the Neuse News, an excellent new on-line local newspaper with no pop-up ads & free subscriptions.