Esquerita

Esquerita was the stage name of singer, songwriter and pianist Eskew Reeder Jr, originally known as Steven Quincy Reeder Jr. and also known as S.Q. Reeder and SQ Jr. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was born on November 20, 1935, and died in Harlem, New York on October 23, 1986, aged 50, of AIDS. He is credited with influencing rock and roll pioneer Little Richard, though the extent and nature of Reeders influence or vice versa is uncertain.

According to an interview with Billy Miller and Miriam Linna in the ReSearch book Incredibly Strange Music, Reeder occasionally performed at AfricanAmerican gay clubs under the name Fabulash during the 1970s. He was eventually tracked down by a writer for Kicks Magazine in 1983 or 1984, who found him performing in secondrate New York City clubs. According to an article by music historian Johnny Carter in an international oldies magazine, music maven Bill Lowery was approached by Esquerita on the street in New York in 1985 after a conference at Broadcast Music, Inc.. Lowery confirmed that Esquerita was down on his luck and was working as a parking lot attendant but was still as flamboyant as ever. A few months before his death he was seen washing car windshields for tips at an intersection in Brooklyn. In this same article, Esqueritas father, Eskew Reeder Sr., said that his son had died of complications brought on by AIDS in 1986. Esqueritas father died in February 1989, a little ove

Source: Wikipedia