The Funk Brothers | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
Genres | Soul, funk, R&B |
Years active | 1959–1972 |
Labels | Motown |
Members | NARAS membership Richard "Pistol" Allen Jack Ashford Bob Babbitt Benny Benjamin Eddie "Bongo" Brown Johnny Griffith Joe Hunter James Jamerson Uriel Jones Joe Messina Earl Van Dyke Robert White Eddie Willis |
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Its members are considered among the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history. Among their hits are "My Girl", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Baby Love", " I Was Made to Love Her", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "The Tears of a Clown", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and "Heat Wave". Some combination of the members played on each of Motown's 100-plus U.S. R&B number one singles [1] and 50-plus U.S. Pop number ones released from 1961 to 1972.
There is no undisputed list of the members of the group. Some writers have claimed that virtually every musician who ever played on a Motown track was a "Funk Brother". There are 13 Funk Brothers identified in Paul Justman's 2002 documentary film Standing in the Shadows of Motown , based on Allan Slutsky's book of the same name. These 13 members were identified by NARAS for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and were recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2007, the Funk Brothers were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.
Early members included bandleader Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke (piano and organ); Clarence Isabell (double bass); James Jamerson (bass guitar and double bass); Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin and Richard "Pistol" Allen (drums); Mike Terry (baritone saxophone); Paul Riser (trombone); Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina (guitar); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion, vibraphone, marimba); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, marimba); and Eddie "Bongo" Brown (percussion). Hunter left in 1964, replaced on keyboards by Johnny Griffith and as bandleader by Van Dyke. Uriel Jones joined the band as a third drummer. Late-era bassist Bob Babbitt and guitarist Dennis Coffey both joined the ensemble in 1966.
While most of Motown's backing musicians were African American, and many originally from Detroit, the Funk Brothers included white players as well, such as Messina (who was the featured guitarist on Soupy Sales's nighttime jazz TV show in the 1950s), Brokensha (originally from Australia), Coffey, and Pittsburgh-born Babbitt.
Unlike their Stax Records backing-band contemporaries Booker T. & the M.G.'s in Memphis, until the release of the Standing in the Shadows of Motown documentary, the members of the Funk Brothers were little known. Studio musicians were not credited by Motown until Marvin Gaye's What's Going On in 1971, although Motown released a handful of singles and LPs by Earl Van Dyke. The Funk Brothers shared billing with Van Dyke on some recordings, although they were billed as "Earl Van Dyke & the Soul Brothers", since Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr. disliked the word "funk".
Alternatively, the name "Funk Brothers" could have been given to the band ex post facto; the term "funky" as an adjective came to be associated with uptempo and backbeat, Southern-styled soul music in the second half of the 1960s; the term "funk" as a noun is typically associated with uptempo soul music from the 1970s onwards. In the Standing in the Shadows of Motown documentary, Joe Hunter stated that the name "The Funk Brothers" came from Benny Benjamin. Hunter said that Benjamin was leaving the studio (known as the "Snake Pit", due to all the cable runs out of the ceiling) after session work, paused on the stairs, turned and said to his fellow musicians, "You all are the Funk Brothers." The band was then informally named.
The Funk Brothers often moonlighted for other labels, recording in Detroit and elsewhere, in bids to augment their Motown salaries. It became a worst-kept secret that Jackie Wilson's 1967 hit "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" did not have a Motown influence quite by accident—the Funk Brothers migrated to do the Wilson session, in an interesting reference to Motown's early history: Berry Gordy, Jr got his first music break by getting Wilson to record some of his songs (including "Reet Petite") in the 1950s. Various Funk Brothers also appeared on such non-Motown hits as The San Remo Golden Strings "Hungry For Love", "Cool Jerk" (the Capitols), "Agent Double-O Soul" (Edwin Starr, before that singer joined Motown itself), "(I Just Wanna) Testify" by the Parliaments, "Band Of Gold" (Freda Payne), "Give Me Just a Little More Time" (The Chairmen of the Board), and blues musician John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom". [2] After he found out about the Edwin Starr session, Gordy fined members of the Funk Brothers band for moonlighting for another label; Eddie Wingate, owner of the Ric-Tic and Golden World labels, which released Starr's "Agent Double-O Soul", subsequently attended that year's Motown staff Christmas party and personally gave each of the fined session players double the amount of the fine in cash, on the spot. Gordy eventually bought out Wingate's label and his entire artist roster.
During the mid- to late-1960s, one-fifth of Motown records began using session musicians based in Los Angeles, usually covers and tributes of mainstream pop songs and showtunes.[ citation needed ] By 1970, Motown sessions were increasingly scheduled in Los Angeles instead of Detroit, including all of those for the Jackson 5's hit recordings. Nevertheless, Motown producers such as Norman Whitfield, Frank Wilson, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson steadfastly continued to record in Detroit.
The Funk Brothers were dismissed in 1972, when Berry Gordy moved the entire Motown label to Los Angeles; a development some of the musicians discovered only from a notice on the studio door. A few members, including Jamerson, followed to the West Coast, but found the environment uncomfortable. For many of the L.A. recordings, members of the Wrecking Crew worked for Motown, including drummer Earl Palmer, percussionist Gary Coleman, bassist Carol Kaye, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and keyboardist Larry Knechtel.
In February 2004, surviving members of the Funk Brothers were presented the Grammy Legend Award at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in March 2006, some remaining Funk Brothers were invited to perform on Philadelphia writer-producer-singer Phil Hurtt's recording session at Studio A, Dearborn Heights, Detroit, where they contributed their performances to "The Soulful Tale of Two Cities" project. The double-album sleeve notes read: "Motown's legendary Funk Brothers and members of Philadelphia's world renowned MFSB take you 'back in the day' with an album filled with classic Philly and Motown hits." Bob Babbitt, Joe Hunter, Uriel Jones, and Eddie Willis performed alongside other notable Detroit session musicians, like Ray Monette, Robert Jones, Spider Webb, and Treaty Womack. The musicians played on the Philly hits, giving their unique Detroit interpretations of the songs under the leadership of Phil Hurtt, Bobby Eli, Clay McMurray and Lamont Dozier. Many other ex-Motown and Detroit artists performed vocals on the session, including the Velvelettes, Carolyn Crawford, Lamont Dozier, Bobby Taylor, Kim Weston, Freda Payne, and George Clinton.
In 2008, Ashford and Riser played on Raphael Saadiq's album The Way I See It , recorded in the style of the Motown Sound. [3] That same year, the Funk Brothers' surviving members recorded Live in Orlando, an album and video.
In 2010, surviving members of the Funk Brothers accompanied Phil Collins on his Motown covers album, Going Back , and appear in the live Going Back concert DVD.
In 2010, the Funk Brothers were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. [4]
The Funk Brothers have received three Grammy awards:
Bassist James Jamerson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and drummer Benny Benjamin in 2003. In 2003, surviving members were invited to the White House to meet President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in an event tied to Black History Month. [5]
In 2007, the Funk Brothers were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. [6] On March 21, 2013, the Funk Brothers were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In August 2014, the Funk Brothers were inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall Of Fame at the induction ceremony, which was held in Canton, Ohio that year.
As discussed above, the name "The Funk Brothers" was a loosely applied designation. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences recognizes 13 musicians as official "Funk Brothers", but the name is often casually used as a catch-all designation to cover any musician who played on a Motown record.
The following list covers the musicians most frequently used on Motown recordings from 1959 through 1972; it is not an exhaustive list of every musician ever used. The 13 Funk Brothers recognized as official band members by NARAS are marked with an asterisk. Some also count backing vocalist trio the Andantes (Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps) as notable contributors to the Funk Brothers and Motown's sound. [7]
Membership lists based upon research by Allan Slutsky, with some minor corrections. [8]
Los Angeles was an alternate recording center for Motown artists beginning in the mid-1960s, utilizing a different set of musicians. Hit tracks recorded in L.A. include the Miracles' "More Love", many of Brenda Holloway's songs, and all the early hits of the Jackson 5.
Many of the Los Angeles players were members of the Wrecking Crew, a loose-knit group of studio musicians.
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Melvin M. Ragin, known professionally as Wah Wah Watson, was an American guitarist who was a member of the Funk Brothers, the studio band for Motown Records. He also worked extensively as a session musician in a variety of genres from jazz and pop to R&B.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by the American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers.
Berry Gordy III, also known as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 American documentary film directed by Paul Justman that recounts the story of the Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who were the house band that Berry Gordy hand-picked in 1959.
James Lee Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s, and is now regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on twenty-three Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits.
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special, produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown, to commemorate its 25th anniversary. The program was taped before a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983, and broadcast on NBC on May 16. Among its highlights were Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean", Smokey Robinson's reunion with the Miracles, a Temptations / Four Tops "battle of the bands", Marvin Gaye's inspired speech about black music history and his memorable performance of "What's Going On", a Jackson 5 reunion, and an abbreviated reunion of Diana Ross & the Supremes, who performed their final #1 hit, "Someday We'll Be Together" from 1969. The show was written by Buz Kohan, Ruth Robinson, and de Passe. The broadcast was watched by over 47 million viewers.
William "Mickey" Stevenson is an American former songwriter and record producer for the Motown group of labels from the early days of Berry Gordy's company until 1967.
Earl Van Dyke was an American soul musician, most notable as the main keyboardist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
That Stubborn Kinda Fellow is the second studio album by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label in 1963. The second LP Gaye released on the label, it also produced his first batch of successful singles for the label and established Gaye as one of the label's first hit-making acts in its early years.
Joseph Lucian Messina was an American guitarist. Dubbed the "white brother with soul", he was one of the most prolific guitarists in Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers.
How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You is the fifth studio album released by American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, released in 1965. The album features the successful title track, which at the time was his best-selling single and was famously covered by James Taylor in 1975. Other hits include "Try It Baby" and "Baby Don't You Do It" . Inspired by Jackie Gleason’s trademark expression.
In Loving Memory is a gospel compilation released by Motown Records in September 1968. It is dedicated to the memory of Motown founder Berry Gordy's sister, Mrs. Loucye S. Gordy Wakefield, and features several popular Motown acts, including Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Temptations, The Miracles and Marvin Gaye, performing versions of popular gospel songs and spirituals.
"For Once in My Life" is a song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and first recorded in 1965.
Joseph Edward Hunter was an American musician and keyboardist, known for his recording session work with Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers. One of the original Funk Brothers, Hunter served as band director from 1959 until 1964, when he left Motown and was replaced by Earl Van Dyke.
Edward James "Bongo" Brown was an American percussionist known for his work with The Funk Brothers, Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 to 1972.
Greatest Hits is a 1964 greatest hits album, the first for American R&B-soul singer Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label. Released during Gaye's first period of success, it was also his first charted album as a solo artist after making his album chart debut with the Mary Wells duet album, Together, the same year.
Tamla Motown Gold: The Sound of Young America is a three-disc compilation album released by the Tamla Motown label in 2001. It features all the hits from the label in the 1960s, by various artists.
Motown Chartbusters is a series of compilation albums first released by EMI under licence on the Tamla Motown label in Britain. In total, 12 editions were released in the UK between 1967 and 1982. Volumes 1 and 2 were originally called British Motown Chartbusters; after this the title Motown Chartbusters was used.
Paul Riser is an American trombonist and Motown musical arranger who was responsible for co-writing and arranging dozens of top ten hit records. His legacy as one of the "Funk Brothers" is similar to that of most of the other "Brothers", as his career has been overlooked and overshadowed by the stars of Motown that became household names. Some of the Funk Brothers he worked with include: Earl Van Dyke, Johnny Griffith, Robert White, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina, Dennis Coffey, Wah Wah Watson, James Jamerson, Bob Babbitt, Eddie Watkins, Richard "Pistol" Allen, Uriel Jones, Andrew Smith, Jack Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Eddie "Bongo" Brown, Benny Benjamin, Cornelius Grant, Joe Hunter, Richard "Popcorn" Wylie, Marcus Belgrave, Teddy Buckner and Stevie Wonder.
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ignored (help)This article appeared in print on October 5, 2011, on page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Marv Tarplin, 70, Motown Guitarist And Songwriter.
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