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Surviving legendary Motown trio still getting funky!

In the ‘50s, Barry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records in the automobile capitol of the world. He developed the Motown sound which some of the largest collection of #1 hits and artists with Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson 5, “Little” Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and many more greats.

But he couldn’t have done it without stellar musicians. He had a house band called the Funk Brothers, a group of session musicians based out of Detroit until Motown moved off to Los Angeles in ‘72 and lost a lot of its magic. One of the original guitarists, Eddie Willis, is still around and kicking it live with two other members who joined the band in the mid ’60s, bassist, Bob Babbitt and drummer, Uriel Jones. Together, this trio of survivors still performs with additional drummer, Spider Webb and guitarist, Ray Monette, keyboardist, Robert Jones, percussionist, Trenita Womack, male &  female vocalists, Delbert Nelson, Donna Curtin & Marcia Ware. The entire group performs vocally as they conjoin to make a ten-piece band.

This CD, Live In Orlando, has the band performing live on New Year’s Eve 2007 at Universal Theme Park. The track list includes “Signed, Sealed & Delivered,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “(Love Is Like A) Heatwave,” “Shotgun,” “Higher And Higher” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” This is only a selection of thirteen songs that fill almost an hour on this R&B/Funk collection that draws the listener back to the classic Motown era.

The Funk Brothers dedicate the disc to their old Detroit bandmates – a collection of musicians who have been reported to play on more #1 recordings than even Elvis, The Beatles, The Beach Boys & The Rolling Stones combined.  Not bad for a bunch of anonymous guys who worked in what they affectionately called The Snakepit, a dark little smoky studio in Detroit.

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