The Funk Brothers

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For the professional wrestlers, see Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk.

The Funk Brothers
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.

History

Early members included bandleader

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.

Fame and Funk Brothers name

Unlike their

Berry Gordy, Jr. disliked the word "funk
".

Alternatively, the name "Funk Brothers" could have been given to the band

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

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.

Dissolution

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.

Later years

The Funk Brothers as reincarnated in 2006. The lineup includes three of the original members: Bob Babbitt (2nd from left), Joe Hunter (4th from left), Uriel Jones (8th from left).

In February 2004, surviving members of the Funk Brothers were presented 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]

Awards and recognition

The Funk Brothers have received three

Grammy
awards:

Bassist James Jamerson was inducted into the

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in an event tied to Black History Month.[5]

In 2007, the Funk Brothers were inducted into the

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.

Members

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]

Detroit musicians

Los Angeles musicians

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.

Arrangers and conductors

Selected list of hit songs on which the Funk Brothers played

(Tamla) Motown
Other labels

See also

References

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  4. ^ "Michigan Rock and Roll Legends - FUNK BROTHERS". Michiganrockandrolllegends.com. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
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  6. ^ Calvin Gilbert, "Unsung Heroes Honored at Musicians Hall of Fame Induction", CMY News, November 27, 2007.
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  8. ^ Slutsky, Allan. "The Musicians". Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection [CD Box Set]. New York: Motown Record Co., L.P.
  9. ^ "Funk Brothers Pianist Joe Hunter Dies". Billboard.
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  16. ^ "Motown's Eddie Willis, one of last Funk Brothers, dead". EU.Freep. August 20, 2018.
  17. ^ Joe Messina, Motown guitarist and a member of the Funk Brothers, has died at age 93. Detroit News. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  18. ^ a b David Lewis Hamilton, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2 January 2022
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External links

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