Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 December 2002 — Page 21

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2002

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAQEC3

Funk Brothers put back beat into Motown

DETROIT (AP) - Joe Hunter looks away as the camera takes aim at him. Anaccomplished keyboardist, Hunter has played in front of crowds and on recordings for half a century. But on this day, Hunter looks like a deer caught in headlights. Uriel Jones waves his arm at his fellow musician and friend and tells him to move closer for the photographer’s shot. “We ain’t in the background no more,” Jones tells Hunter. It’s a common sentiment these days among the six surviving Funk Brothers, the studio musicians who shaped the Motown sound. Adocumentary, “Standingin the Shadows ofMotown,” which opened recently, hopes to lift the veil of anonymity from the men whose music is known across the world, but whose names are not. The original 13, many of whom were hand-picked by Motown founder Berry Gordy from Detroit’s thriving jazz club scene, created music that provided a soundtrack to the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. “Though largely .unknown outside of professional circles, the Funk Brothers played an indispensable role making the magical Motown sound,” Gordy said in a prepared statement. “I’m thrilled to see them receive long overdue recognition for their incredible work.” The film, which is based on Allan Slutsky’s book and is narrated by actor Andre Braugher, uses interviews, archival footage and re-enactments to tell the story of the Funk Brothers, who now are in their 60s and 70s. Slutsky, then an author of a series of guitar transcription books, was working on tabulations of Funk Brother James Jamerson’s Motown basslines when he saw a story to be told. The result was the 1989 book, Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson. The story drew the attention of veteran music video director and documentary maker Paul Justman, who agreed to direct the film and vowed to get it made. Getting it funded was another story. Time and again, Slutsky and Justman pitched the idea, but no one would bite. “People just didn’t get it, no matter what pitch we gave,” Slutsky said. “We just kept pushing. “These musicians gave America and the rest of the world a great gift. Let them go out proud.” Finally, in 2000, their fortunes changed. One of Slutsky’s friends met Paul Elliott, a lifetime amateur musician, on a plane trip. Conversation turned to the project, and eventually, Elliott and his business partner’agreed to help fund the picture. Now that the project has come to fruition, the Funk Brothers seem pleased. Upon the movie’s release, Jones said he would be “hollering up and down the street.” Said Justman: “I think we took them out of obscurity. They’ll never be invisible again.” Hunter, who hasn’t stopped playing since he left Motown, said he had no hard feelings about being anonymous for so many years. They wouldn’t have got me in this movie if I was bitter,” he said at the Detroit premiere of the film. Bob Babbitt, who played bass on “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and “Mercy Mercy Me,” said people weren’t interested in the musicians during the Motown era, just the vocalists. Babbitt, who remains a studio musician in Nashville, Term., said it’s about time he and his fellow Funk Brothers got recognition, but he isn’t angry about it They say there’s a place and

a time for everything,” he said. “It’s a shame for all the guys who passed on before us.” Seven Funk Brothers have died, including drummer Richard “Pistol” Allen in June, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith, who passed away on the day of the Detroit premiere, Nov. 10. The thing that I was racing against all those years was the specter of death,” Slutsky said at the premiere, naming the Funk Brothers who died. The sad fate of Black musicians is that all too often they received posthumous awards after they died in the gutter like Charlie Parker. I wanted to give them something back in this world.” In the film, a story is recounted about how Funk Brothers guitarist Robert White heard “My Girl” while ordering food at a Beverly Hills, Calif., restaurant. White, who died in 1994, thought briefly about informing the waiter that the signature guitar riff belonged to him, but thought better of it. He didn’t think the waiter would believe him. “Now people will know,” said Jones, who played drums on “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” “Now the face is with the music, and the names are with the music. So we can brag now,” he said. The documentary also features live performances from the remaining Funk Brothers, who reunited at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in suburban Detroit. Joining them onstage in performing Motown classics were vocalists Ben Harper, Joan Osborne and Chaka Khan, among others. Slutsky said the filmmakers tried to get Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson to participate in the documentary, but didn’t get much cooperation. In the film, the Funk Brothers make a return trip to 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. There, at the site of Motown’s “Hitsville U.S.A.” building, they descend the four wooden stairs to the cramped recording studio dubbed the “Snakepit.” Jones and Hunter made a recent return trip with a reporter to Studio A, as it officially was known. “We had no idea it would come to this,” Jones said, standing only a few feet from the area where he pounded the drums decades earlier. “It was just like a job to us. The night gig was where we had most of our fun.” Hunter said Funk Brothers drummer Benny Benjamin came up with the group’s name in 1961. After Jamerson joined the group, “there was a different sound altogether from what we had been doing,” Hunter said. “So, he said, ‘Hey we’re the Funk Brothers.”’ Different theories have been put forward over the years as to how the “Motown Sound” came to be. Was it the shape of Studio A? The wood construction of the room? The writers and arrangers? “It was the musicians,” Jones said matter-of-factly. “With that smoothness (jazz background) blending in with the rock n’ roll, that made it a different sound altogether,” he said. “It wasn’t anything we were trying to capture. It just came out automatically.” The Funk Brothers, who often deviated from the songs provided to them by the writers and producers, created a midtempo, head-bobbing music with many shuffles, Slutsky said. The Motown Sound “is two things: the songs and the grooves. The songs had an instantly accessible sound and such strong hooks that as soon as you heard one, you remembered the whole melody,” Slutsky said. “But the music of Motown also makes you want to get up and dance. And what is that? 'Hie grooves. And that’s the Funk Brothers.”

Funk Brothers members (left to right), drummer Uriel Jones, vibraphonist Jack Ashford and bassist Bob Babbit reunite.

TLC

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the album before her tragic death in April of this year. TLC’s two other founding members — Tionne T- Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas — have made a number of highprofile TV appearances in conjunction with the release of “3D,” where they’ve talked candidly about how special Lisa was to their unique chemistry. TBoz and Chilli stopped traffic in New York’s Times Square when they were joined by 1,500 out-of-school fans and appeared on MTVs TRL”, debuting the new video # for “Girl Talk” on the Jumbotron outside the MTV studios. The group was also profiled on “Primetime Live,” The Today Show,” “CBS Early Show,” The View,” “BET Tonight with Ed Gordon” and “Access Hollywood”, among other programs. The “3D” album features all the trademark TLC forthrightness they captured ontheir 1993 debut album “Ooooh...On The

TLC Tip,” 1994’s “CrazySexyCool” and 1999’s “FanMail.” The track “Quickie,” for example, directly addresses men and their sexuality. “Men talk about women in relationships all the time and they don’t get any flack for it,” Chilli told the New York Daily News. “We’re just coming from a women’s point of view... we were always fun, exciting, experimental.” T-Boz told the Atlanta Jour-nal-Constitution that the song “Hands” is based on a real incident in the past, where she saw a boyfriend dancing with another woman. “I was like, ‘Oh no the hell he ain’t.’ See, these TLC songs are for real!” But for T-Boz and Chilli, the success is bittersweet. In an Associated Press interview, Chilli recently said, “Right now, we’re just handling one thing at a time ... It’s a very emotional point in time in our lives.”

TRUTH

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H. Rumphy Jr. / Associated Press; Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, left, and co-owner of Atomic City Comic, Martin King, right, take questions from the media

secrum on three Black recruits. “(The concept) is that basically, these guys were sacrificed to create and shore up the whole ‘Captain America’ myth,” said writer Robert Morales, aformer editor at Vibe magazine who is crafting the series with illustrator Kyle Baker. The story echoes the government’s infamousand well-documented Tuskegee Experiment, when the U.S. Public Health Service tested the effects of syphilis on unsuspecting Black sharecroppers in 1940’s Alabama. About 100,000 copies of Truth” are being printed, Morales said. That’s about 10,000 more than the usual run for “Captain America,” which is the 10th-best selling comic, according to a Marvel spokesman. “We sold out of it the same day, about 200 copies,” said Martin King, who co-owns Atomic City Comics on South Street in Philadelphia, where local illustrators and comic fans gathered for Marvel’s celebration. King’s shop was chosen because it is one of the country’s largest Black-owned comic book stores. This is saying he (Captain America) owes his origins to a group of people who may have died being tested before he even

Answers for the curious, The 12th Month Tour. Its the season to explore the atys celebrations. Go. Do. See how much fun you can have by January 1st.

I.Troamg up Meridian nn hoot-drawn omagr BLe KiUai Ctmtf Comfrty, JI7.6JM169, Cmlt Coy Orifn, 317 387.1316 mJ Yellow Hoe Coniqget, 317634.3400

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2. Witching the sugar plum fairies get down at the Murat , 302 North Copitol Awnut, 3176378979

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3. Waiting on Monument Circle , , - for the switch to be thrown i 15. i i Monument CinU, 317.232,7613 L --' 1 4. Waiting at IRT for Scrooge to call Marleys ghost "an undigested bit of beef" 140 Wst Kiifotftott Street, 317633.3277

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5. Meeting the President at the Ramson Home 1230 North Dehewert Stmt, 317.631.1888 6. Tap dancing Santas at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Yuletule Celebration 43 Monument Cmle, 3176394300 7. Watching kids travel through the Indiana Sate Museums winter wonderland, on the erstwhile LS. Ayres Santaland Express 630 met Washington Stmt, 317232.1637 8. Sauntering up Massachusetts Avenue m search of gifts , 318-922 Massachusetts Awnue, 317822.0102

- - J i , - j at ! ii.! j 12. Pretending to be Kristi Yamagudii at EUenberger Park 3301 late St Clair Stmt, 317327.7176 13. Celebrating various holidays 19th century style at Conner Praine's Hometfun Holidays 13400 AOuaenille Mood, 317.776.6006 14. Celebrating Las fbsadas at the Eiteljorg Museum: 300 Hist Hiuhtifou Stmt, 317.6369378

9. Sampling tea and figgy pudding in the Restaurant at the Canterbury 123 South Illinois Stmt, 317.6343000

15. Hearmg the Indonapoln Chamber Orchesoa, conducted by Enc Stark at Clowes l-Ul 4600 Sunset Avenue, 3179409607

10. Enjoying Dance Kaleidoscope's holiday presentation. Til Hi Season 4600 Sunset Awnue, 317 940.6333

16. Admiring Chnsunas at the Zoo't festive light sculptures 1200 Hist Washington Stems, 317.630.2001

11. Studying Kwanzaa traditions at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis 3000 North Meridian Stmt, 317.3343322

17. Celebrating the season at the American Cabaret Theatre s Holiday Coham 401 East Muhqan Semi, 317.631.0334

Further answers for the curious available at Culturallndy.com or 866.509JNDY.

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put the costume on,” said King, 42, who has worked as an illustrator at Marvel and DC Comics. “After 9-11, Captain America represented so much - the American flag, standing up for things - and then to bring the African-American struggle into it makes it very, very exciting and very powerful,” King said. Marvel executives first floated the idea of giving their superhero Black roots, sensing that it offered both shock value and creative potential. “What we deliver, really, is a tribute to Black soldiers. The key is to get past the metaphor and down to historical facts, which is that Black soldiers had a role as real heroes in World War II,” said Marvel President Bill Jemas. The reaction, before the book debuted, was decidedly mixed. While some fans, especially minorities, cheered the concept, others rebelled against the publisher for changing their character - not to mention his race. “My understanding of things is that now that the book is actually out, the reaction is bizarrely positive,” said Morales, who’s at work on the fourth segment in the series, which will run for six or seven monthly issues. “I believe, much to their horror, they think that actually it’s a pretty good book.” Morales, 44, and Baker, 36, have been collaborating for more than a decade. They’re both from New York and both biracial, and they share similar cultural interests, he said. While Black superheroes have been around since at least the 1940s, they more often have been seen in comics printed by independent publishers, or relegated to the role of sidekick. At a recent event at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, Morales watched as a group of young Black men read a section of his stoiy. “One said, Wow, I’ve never seen so many Black people in a comic book before.’ It really shook me,” Morales said.

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