Standing In The Shadows of Motown

The Funk Brothers

Messina is Standing in the Shadows of Motown Italian Tribune November, 2002 In the 1960's and early 1970's, the musicians known as the "Funk Brothers" pumped life into hundreds of Motown hit records. Though largely unknown outside professional circles, the Funk Brothers played an indispensable roll in making the magical Motown sound. Their music is famous around the world, though their names are not. They put the backbeat -- the soul -- into countless Motown hits for such performers as Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Overlooked for all these years is perhaps the most obvious element of all, the musicians who created the sound of Motown -- this amazing assembledge under one roof could never be equalled -- Joe Hunter, Johnny Griffith and Earl Van Dyke on keyboards, Robert White, Joe Messina, and Eddie Willis on guitar, James Jamerson and Bob Babbit on bass, Jack Ashford on percussion and vibraphone, Eddie "Bongo" Brown on congas and Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen and Uriel Jones on drums. One of the Funk Brothers was Italian-American Joe Messina. Born in Detroit in 1928, Joe Messina's razor sharp guitar backbeats sliced through the airwaves of radios worldwide, and was an integral part of Motown’s unique sound. A jazz musican in his teens, by his mid-twenties, he was playing on the nationally televised The Soupy Sales Show alongside such guest artists as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. From there Berry Gordy, who founded Motown in 1958, recruited Joe, where he played on such notable hits as I Can't Help Myself, Your Precious Love, and Dancing In The Street until the label moved its operations to Los Angeles in 1972. He then put down his guitar for nearly 30 years but retrieved his beloved Fender Telecaster from under the bed for the first time to film the documentary concert sequences of Standing In the Shadows of Motown. Filmed on location in Detroit, and debuting in theaters on November 15, Standing in the Shadows of Motown follows the Funk Brothers as they return to the sites of their heyday -- including Studio A at Motown's legendary "Hitsville U.S.A." recording facility. From within those walls came Heat Wave, Aint Too Proud to Beg, My Guy, Dancing In The Streets, Tears of a Clown, Stop In The Name Of Love, and literally hundreds of other legendary recordings. The Funk Brothers also returned to Detroit’s after-hours nightclubs, including Bakers Keyboard Lounge, where they would jam until dawn following a full days work in the studio. Their story is one of triumph and tragedy, hits and heartbreak; for their unparalled contributions to American popular music, the Funk Brothers are long overdue.

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