Originally Posted by
StuBass1
As the individual who officially nominated the Funk Brothers for both their Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and sponsor for the Hollywood Walk of Fame honor, as well as being authorized by the surviving Funk Brothers [[and families of the deceased members) to serve as their official spokesperson, I had to deal with several issues revolving around people calling me insisting that this person or that person should have been recognized for these honors...some fairly prominent Motown musicians, and some family members of relatively innocuous musicians who may have played a few Motown sessions or toured with this or that Motown artists, and believed their family member should be recognized as Funk Brothers. First of all...The Funk Brothers is a legal entity representing the 13 actual members and/or the families of those deceased. As some people started coming out of the woodwork claiming Funk Brothers status and even calling the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, especially during the Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony that I was in charge of...I was warned by the Walk of Fame powers to be that if it continued or there was a problem limiting the honor to the 13 members submitted to the Chamber...they threatened that they would pull the plug on the entire event, one of the things giving me major headaches during the entire process. Ultimately, I had to inform several individuals that despite their monumental contributions to the Motown legacy...they were not a part of the legal Funk Brothers entity, nor were they featured as a Funk Brother in the documentary that told their story. As for recordings done at Motown featuring some of the Motown musicians, generally Earl VanDyke playing organ overdubs to existing Motown tracks, the name Soul Brothers [[rather than Funk Brothers which some of the guys used for their club gigs), due to the fact that Berry Grody didn't like the term "Funk" at the time, since "Funk" was just coming into it's own as a separate sub-genre of pop music...Actually as relates to the list in your last post...neither Clarence Isabel nor Jack Brokensha, both significant contributors to Motown, were Funk Brothers, however, keyboardist Johnny Griffith, drummer Uriel Jones, and late era bassist Bob Babbitt were designated as Funk Brothers...Paul Riser, a legendary arranger who also spoke at our Funk Brothers Walk Of Fame ceremony was not an official Funk Brother either, although he worked quite closely with all the Motown musicians during his illustrious career...As for your observation that no saxophonist was recognized as a Funk Brother...that's because The Funk Brothers were a rhythm ensemble, although there were several great horn players who contributed immensely to the Motown Sound...
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