By Michael/cleoharvey (160.79.83.208) on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 05:09 pm:

Thought you wonderful people might want to read the superb New York Times review of the Funk Brothers. YOU GO GUYS!!!!


POP REVIEW
FUNK BROTHERS
Out From the Shadows, in the Name of Motown
By JON PARELES

The six men in red jackets onstage at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday night were hit makers who never became showmen. They were the Funk Brothers, the surviving members of the Motown Records studio band from 1965 to 1972, and they were accepting the spotlight three decades after the world first danced to their music.
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Following through on the documentary and soundtrack album "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," the Funk Brothers were seizing their moment at the center of a band recreating their old arrangements. Their guests, Maxi Priest, Joan Osborne and Darlene Love, sang in place of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells and others, and the Funk Brothers' backup singers, Carla Benson, John Ingram and Delbert Nelson, also took leads once sung by Diana Ross or the Temptations.

From "Uptight" to "Stop! In the Name of Love" to "Shotgun" to "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," the songs were surefire. Only Mr. Priest slavishly imitated Gaye and Mr. Wonder; Ms. Love replaced teenage coyness with something more hearty, and Ms. Osborne made "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" into sultry dramas. This time around, the band was not just the conveyor belt for the Motown hit factory's assembly line, but a phenomenon on its own.

The Motown sound was big because the band was big. Onstage, the Funk Brothers' full band included two drummers, three guitarists, four horns, additional keyboards and percussion, and Jack Ashford topping the music with glockenspiel or vibraphone.

Listeners could savor the bedrock Motown beat � part gospel, part march, part swing � and watch the flourishes added by Uriel Jones on drums, or appreciate the backbeat guitar chords played by Joe Messina and Eddie Willis; Joe Hunter on keyboards tinkled some barrelhouse in "Pride and Joy"; and a few extended songs unveiled the stalwart bass lines played by Bob Babbitt.

The concert was for aficionados as well as oldies fans, mixing lesser-known songs, like Shorty Long's "Function at the Junction," with the No. 1's; there was even a non-Motown song, the Capitols' "Cool Jerk," which was originally backed by moonlighting Funk Brothers. Each musician spoke to the audience, telling tales of the old days; Mr. Ashford recalled accidentally knocking over a shoe box full of Gaye's marijuana.

He also said that the producer Norman Whitfield once told the Funk Brothers that they could knock out a hit with just a chicken squawking on the backbeats. That's probably an overstatement; the Funk Brothers still needed Motown songwriting to inspire their trusty musicianship. But with the Brothers now working together again, perhaps someone will get the bright idea of recording new songs with them.

By Vickie (64.236.243.31) on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 05:10 pm:

I'm very proud of those guys!!!!And so very happy for them and their many zillions of fans!!

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 05:12 pm:

Cleo/Michael:
I started a thread regarding the Funks at the Hammerstein since I was there with Harry Weinger on Friday night. Check it out.
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Chancellor of Soul (66.207.40.18) on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 05:40 pm:

I had a wonderful time there on Friday night.
Just to see these guys just playing and telling
their stories was absolutely fasinating !
I also had the pleasure of meeting Bob Bobbitt
after the show. Very very nice gentleman.

Peace,
Mike Boone
(Chancellor of Soul)