Funk Brothers keep jam aliveBy Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
DETROIT-If a city could be said to have a heartbeat, since the early '60s, Detroit's has hummed to the rhythm of the unique blend of blues, funk and jazz called Motown.
The Funk Brothers, the musicians who provided that groove-heavy heartbeat, returned to the city of their greatest triumph Friday night to play for a crowd of 2200 at the Opera House. Almost all present shook their respective groove things; even several of the Funks did, like guitarist Joe Messina, who emerged from the guitar section at one point to shake and shimmy.
Playing songs like "What's Going On," "What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted," "I Was Made To Love Her," and "(I) Heard It Through The Grapevine," The Funks were reminding most of the crowd of the soulful music they grew up on; but a good portion of them were hearing authentic Motown music performed live for the first time ever.
The band hit the groove running with Stevie Wonder's "Uptight," and fans were amazed to hear licks played live that they assumed were dead and buried on a dusty tape somewhere, never to be heard again live.
The razor-sharp backbeats of guitarists Messina and Eddie Willis affected listeners like that. Those backbeats winged through the air not through the magic of recording tape, but because the actual humans were up there playing, and after dusting off their chops, these vets had found the groove again.
Live and in person, Jack Ashford's tambourine hisses like a snake at the beginning of "Heard It Through the Grapevine" just as it did on Marvin Gaye's record in 1968, and when you hear drummer Uriel Jones slamming into "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," you're hearing the original, funky drummer who set the beat on psychedelic Temptations songs like "Papa Was a Rolling Stone."
Keyboard player Joe Hunter showed off the tasty jazz piano licks he contributed to Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy," and memory being what it is, the sound prompted several in the crowd to close their eyes and lose themselves in private reveries.
There were jokes and shenanigans throughout the evening; tales of being on the road with Gaye and other stars. Halfway through "Pride and Joy" producer/music director Allan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky signaled everybody but Hunter to stop playing, and suddenly Hunter's loud piano was out there all by itself until he figured out what was going on, laughed and stopped playing.
The Funk Brothers are on the road to cap off an exciting year; 2002 saw the release of the documentary about them, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." Earlier this year the soundtrack for the film won two Grammys -- a rare honor for any musician, much less those for whom the recording studio door had clanged shut for good 30 years ago.
On Friday night the Funks were joined by a number of lead singers including newly-minted soul sister Joan Osborne and showman extraordinaire Bootsy Collins, both of whom appeared in the film; Darlene Love, the sultry studio voice on many of Phil Spector's hits; and the British reggae singer Maxi Priest.
Osborne was particularly effective, slinking across the stage in a pink leather jacket while replicating Wanda Young's sexy vocal on the Marvelettes' "Don't Mess With Bill;" teasing and mysterious on the ominous "Heard It Through the Grapevine."
"You guys have every right to be excited and proud of these guys. They played on some of the greatest songs in the world," Osborne said. Earlier that day, the singer and several Funks had toured the Motown Museum.
Love probably put her individual stamp on the material the most, giving "My Baby Loves Me" a bouncy optimism while Martha Reeves' original was more wistfully romantic.
Maxi Priest stuck the closest to the vocal path forged by the Motown originals. On the Spinners song "It's a Shame," he was particularly effective, although Johnny Ingram had to help him reproduce the lead vocal of G.C. Cameron, which goes from a husky baritone to a swooping falsetto. Priest handled the baritone, while Ingram ably sang the impassioned falsetto of the chorus.
But what made "It's a Shame" and other songs most exciting was the busy three-man guitar section. Messina and Willis showed how seamlessly the Funks worked together despite their diverse backgrounds; one is an Italian-American who came out of Detroit's jazz scene, the other an African-American from Mississippi who played funk and R&B. Their third guitarist, the 20-years-younger Slutsky, plays seamlessly alongside his elders, often chopping out guitar leads as Messina and Willis take the backbeat.
Because several Funks have died, a whole posse of Philadelphians gathered by Slutsky, a native himself, round out the band. Several of the additional musicians are from the fabled Philadelphia International Records stable, including singer Carla Benson, who sang backup on songs by the O'Jays and others. Her brother, drummer Keith Benson and saxophonist Michael Pedicin, were part of Philadelphia's all-star MFSB studio band. Others from the Philadelphia/New Jersey axis are ace keyboard player Demetrios Pappas and singer Ingram.
Backup singer Delbert Nelson, who got the crowd going singing a lively "Shotgun," is a Detroiter who works for the UAW when he isn't with the Funks.
Slutsky mused onstage about the convergence of Philly soul with Motown: "For musicians, it isn't about competition, it's about love of the music, that's why they're here."
Legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson's daughter Penny jumped onstage with about 19 others to help demonstrate how the musicians would stomp on boards to get a good sound on the songs "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love" and "Needle in a Haystack."
Her father died in the early '80s fearing he was forgotten, and it was poignant to think what Jamerson would have made of it when Slutsky said "...the best bassist in the world - -who am I talking about?" and thousands of people in his hometown roared: "James Jamerson!"
It took a man wearing platform shoes and a zebra top hat, Bootsy Collins, to put it all in perspective. "Do y'all realize what you've got, what you produced here in Detroit?" Collins asked. "The history of what was created here is so important, and today it's especially important to remind people of it and to keep the funk alive!"
After three hours of funk it all devolved into a tribal rite as the Funks themselves, handsome in blue blazers, came out from behind their instruments to dance and jive during a lengthy "Keep the Funk Alive" jam, which segued into the familiar "We need the funk/gotta have the funk" chorus from the Parliament-Funkadelic tune "Give Up the Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)."
If anyone doubted the universality of Motown's music, there was the sight of three young boys, pulled up onto the stage by Collins, who chanted "Keep the funk alive," punctuated by their best pre-adolescent Eminem moves.
If anyone doubted its soulfulness, or the heart of the players onstage, there was the sight of Victor Vereecke, 47, a quadruplegic for 20 years, sitting in his wheelchair in the handicapped section. Vereecke can't speak, but he was mouthing the lyrics to each Motown song the Funks played, music that his sister had played for him when he was 13, before his accident.
"He knows more of the words than I do," said his sister Sharon Pellar
It tells it like it is - edafan - My wife agrees with this review and she is not as crazy as we temptationaholics in this area
