Post by Jonel on Nov 13, 2002 13:07:33 GMT -5
Movie moves Motown band out of the shadows
Filmmaker's chronicle of the Funk Brothers' musical genius hits theaters Friday
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
For some Detroiters, the documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" will revive the soundtrack of their youth and make them cry for the musical heroes they never knew they had.
For younger music fans, the film is a crash course in how so many elements of Detroit life, such as the jazz scene and the auto industry, played a part in creating the Motown sound.
The film, which opens nationally Friday, has been a 15-year labor of love for Philadelphia writer/producer/guitarist Allan Slutsky. Most people agree that only someone with Slutsky's persistence and particular life skills, being both a working musician and a writer, could have pulled it off.
Slutsky's love of Motown began as a child and developed as he played Motown songs at bar mitzvahs and weddings.
What started Slutsky on his 15-year odyssey of trying to get a Funk Brothers film funded and filmed was the 1983 obituary in Rolling Stone about famed Motown bassist James Jamerson, written by musician Marshall Crenshaw, formerly of Berkley.
Jamerson's story haunted Slutsky, from the way the bass player set the inimitable bottom on all those Motown songs with a style of playing that hasn't been duplicated. Before his death, Jamerson was reduced to scalping a ticket to attend the "Motown 25" TV special in Los Angeles.
Slutsky starting writing the book "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" in 1986, telling Jamerson's story and having famous bassists such as Paul McCartney recreate the bassist's signature riffs on an accompanying cassette.
From there he discovered the story of Jamerson's bandmates, the unsung players who toiled away in Studio A. Soon the project started to exert a mystical pull on Slutsky.
"I was handed this through the ethereal mists of time," he once said, in answer to the question, "Why the Funk Brothers?"
"I'm a huge baseball fan, and this became my 'Field of Dreams,' " says Slutsky, 50. Instead of having a ghostly Joe Jackson and the 1919 Chicago Black Sox walk out of a cornfield, Slutsky set about tracking down the surviving Funk Brothers and assembling them in real life.
What he found, after numerous calls to the musicians' union, broke his heart. The Funk Brothers, a group of musicians who were the heartbeat of the Motown sound, had scattered to the winds, unknown and forgotten.
When Funks keyboard player Earl Van Dyke died in 1992, Slutsky says, "I was in full panic mode. I realized I was in a race against time. I had to get these guys the recognition they deserved, before more of them died."
He was in a race to document, on film, what the Funk Brothers did -- the immortal licks that created what became one of the major musical movements of the '60s.
The film features old footage taken at Hitsville, a lot of storytelling by the Funks, as well as live concerts filmed at the Royal Oak Theatre during the snowy winter of 2000-01.
The concerts capped months of rehearsal in a pine-paneled basement belonging to a friend of Slutsky's, Craig Weiland. Slutsky slept on a couch in Weiland's basement as he wrote sheet music, put the Funks through their paces, and lined up the acts who would perform with the Funks: Joan Osborne, M'shell Ngedeocello, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan and others.
The Funk Brothers hadn't been in the same room for 30 years, and there were tears as they gathered and caught up with each other.
Filmmaker's chronicle of the Funk Brothers' musical genius hits theaters Friday
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
For some Detroiters, the documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" will revive the soundtrack of their youth and make them cry for the musical heroes they never knew they had.
For younger music fans, the film is a crash course in how so many elements of Detroit life, such as the jazz scene and the auto industry, played a part in creating the Motown sound.
The film, which opens nationally Friday, has been a 15-year labor of love for Philadelphia writer/producer/guitarist Allan Slutsky. Most people agree that only someone with Slutsky's persistence and particular life skills, being both a working musician and a writer, could have pulled it off.
Slutsky's love of Motown began as a child and developed as he played Motown songs at bar mitzvahs and weddings.
What started Slutsky on his 15-year odyssey of trying to get a Funk Brothers film funded and filmed was the 1983 obituary in Rolling Stone about famed Motown bassist James Jamerson, written by musician Marshall Crenshaw, formerly of Berkley.
Jamerson's story haunted Slutsky, from the way the bass player set the inimitable bottom on all those Motown songs with a style of playing that hasn't been duplicated. Before his death, Jamerson was reduced to scalping a ticket to attend the "Motown 25" TV special in Los Angeles.
Slutsky starting writing the book "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" in 1986, telling Jamerson's story and having famous bassists such as Paul McCartney recreate the bassist's signature riffs on an accompanying cassette.
From there he discovered the story of Jamerson's bandmates, the unsung players who toiled away in Studio A. Soon the project started to exert a mystical pull on Slutsky.
"I was handed this through the ethereal mists of time," he once said, in answer to the question, "Why the Funk Brothers?"
"I'm a huge baseball fan, and this became my 'Field of Dreams,' " says Slutsky, 50. Instead of having a ghostly Joe Jackson and the 1919 Chicago Black Sox walk out of a cornfield, Slutsky set about tracking down the surviving Funk Brothers and assembling them in real life.
What he found, after numerous calls to the musicians' union, broke his heart. The Funk Brothers, a group of musicians who were the heartbeat of the Motown sound, had scattered to the winds, unknown and forgotten.
When Funks keyboard player Earl Van Dyke died in 1992, Slutsky says, "I was in full panic mode. I realized I was in a race against time. I had to get these guys the recognition they deserved, before more of them died."
He was in a race to document, on film, what the Funk Brothers did -- the immortal licks that created what became one of the major musical movements of the '60s.
The film features old footage taken at Hitsville, a lot of storytelling by the Funks, as well as live concerts filmed at the Royal Oak Theatre during the snowy winter of 2000-01.
The concerts capped months of rehearsal in a pine-paneled basement belonging to a friend of Slutsky's, Craig Weiland. Slutsky slept on a couch in Weiland's basement as he wrote sheet music, put the Funks through their paces, and lined up the acts who would perform with the Funks: Joan Osborne, M'shell Ngedeocello, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan and others.
The Funk Brothers hadn't been in the same room for 30 years, and there were tears as they gathered and caught up with each other.
