Vel Lewis has been in music biz since the late 60's; he's still going strong too.
Back in the 60's, he was growing up in Philly & learning to play a number of different instruments.
He got asked to participate on some gospel recordings for / with Ira Tucker Snr / Ira Tucker Jnr. Almost straight after that, he was recruited to join the Futures. When the Futures signed with Gamble - Huff, they had no use for the musician side of the group. Those musicians went off & found work backing up the Delfonics on live shows.
But they'd started doing their own thing & writing songs. They got to record a couple & REPRISE released 2 on a 45 ... badged up as by LIFE [["Tell Me Why").
Life moved no [[no pun intended) & Vel took a 9 to 5 job. The rest of the group relocated to LA and kept working. Tim passed & Vel rejoined the guys. By 1984 their time was up and the group disbanded. Vel stayed in the biz and he's still playing today.
A live recording of one of his more recent jazz tracks ...