Latest news with #FunkBrothers
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Motown Museum exhibit honors the life and career of musician-songwriter Hank Cosby
In her decades as part of the Motown family, Pat Cosby has spent countless hours inside Hitsville, U.S.A. This time was strikingly different. It didn't take long for the tears to start flowing last week as she made her way to the Motown Museum's second floor to take in a new exhibit devoted to her late husband, Hank Cosby. 'Henry 'Hank' Cosby: Tribute to an Original Funk Brother' opened May 22 at the West Grand Boulevard museum, documenting one of Motown's most significant and multifaceted behind-the-scenes talents. As a saxophonist, the Detroit native was there from the label's earliest days in the late '50s, helping establish the studio band that would famously become known as the Funk Brothers. As a horn arranger, his fingerprints are all over a slew of Motown hits, including classics such as 'Dancing in the Street' (Martha and the Vandellas) and 'Baby Love' (the Supremes). And as a composer, Cosby was a vital collaborator with a young Stevie Wonder, helping pen such hits as 'Fingertips,' 'Uptight (Everything's Alright),' 'I Was Made to Love Her' and 'My Cherie Amour' — a body of work that earned him induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame four years after his 2002 death. 'Fingertips' happened to pop up in the Motown Museum lobby's song rotation as Pat Cosby and family made their entrance May 22, arriving early for a VIP party that evening to welcome the exhibit. The Cosbys had been closely involved with the project since last fall, working with the museum's associate curator, Kemuel Benyehudah, to gather artifacts and relay their stories. More: Motor City invades the heart of Music City as Kid Rock's Detroit Cowboy opens in Nashville Hart beats: An oral history of the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival But this was their first glimpse at the finished product — an emotional moment as they took in the gleaming memorialization of a man they remembered as a loving husband, devoted father and musical master. As she wiped away tears, Pat Cosby thought back to 2002, following her husband's death, when she approached a previous regime of Motown Museum officials. 'I'm thinking about when he passed away and we came to the museum hoping to get pictures — and nobody knew who he was. They didn't recognize his name,' Cosby said. 'Those days are over.' The spacious, two-wall exhibit documents Hank Cosby's life from his early childhood in Detroit's Black Bottom and teen years at Northern High School, where he began sharpening his tenor sax skills — musicianship he would finesse under the mentorship of jazz great Julian (Cannonball) Adderly while serving in the U.S. Army. It was during his stint playing Paradise Valley nightspots as part of the Joe Hunter Band that Cosby made his way into the fledgling Motown universe. For all the musical achievements, it was family life that mattered most to Cosby, who lived out his life in Detroit following Motown's departure for the West Coast in 1972. 'That's the ring, right there!' Pat Cosby exclaimed when spotting a youthful photo of herself with her husband. She raised her left hand. 'Same ring!' Pat Cosby worked in Motown's tape library in 1962 when she at last gave in to the musician's romantic overtures. 'Hank would come by, lean over the Dutch door, and say sweet stuff,' she recalled. As they plotted an early date, Pat Cosby asked him what he'd like to do. 'I'd like to make you happy the rest of your life,' he said. 'He kept his promise,' Cosby said. For Benyehudah, who joined the museum's curatorial team in 2023, the Hank Cosby exhibit serves a key purpose. 'We wanted to broaden people's perspectives on just who the original Funk Brothers were,' he said. The project unfolded over months of Zoom meetings, phone calls and early morning texts with the Cosby family as they zeroed in on the finished exhibit, which is supported by Sony Music Publishing and the Michigan Arts & Culture Council. 'I just don't have words for the appreciation,' Pat Cosby said as she browsed the Motown Museum display. 'If anyone had told me in 1962 that I would see this day … I mean, this is just awesome.' Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@ 2648 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit Open Wednesday-Sunday This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Motown Museum unveils exhibit honoring musician-songwriter Hank Cosby
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Gene Barge, R&B saxophonist who played on landmark hits, dies at 98
Galvanized by Mr. Barge's moaning tenor saxophone, 'C.C. Rider' reached No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1957 and stalled just outside the Top 10 on the pop chart. In 1963, Mr. Barge was featured on Jimmy Soul's calypso-derived 'If You Wanna Be Happy,' a No. 1 pop and R&B hit. Mr. Barge also played the wailing tenor part on Fontella Bass's 'Rescue Me' (1965) and supplied the rhythmic drive, with members of the Motown house band the Funk Brothers, for Jackie Wilson's 'Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)' (1967). Both records topped the R&B chart and crossed over to become Top 10 pop hits. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up His greatest acclaim, though, came in 1961 with 'Quarter to Three,' a No. 1 pop single recorded with the R&B shouter Gary U.S. Bonds. Hoping to capitalize on the success of 'New Orleans,' his first big hit, Bonds created 'Quarter to Three' by adding lyrics to 'A Night With Daddy G,' a churning instrumental that Mr. Barge had recently written and recorded with his band the Church Street Five. Advertisement 'Oh, don't you know that I danced/ I danced 'til a quarter to 3/ With the help, last night, of Daddy G,' Bonds sings on the opening chorus. ('A Night With Daddy G' would prove to be doubly auspicious when Dion borrowed its melody for 'Runaround Sue,' a finger-snapping wonder that topped the pop chart in late 1961.) Despite having the benefit of Mr. Barge's snaking saxophone runs — and despite the record's affinity with the twist dance craze of the day — 'Quarter to Three' was an unlikely sensation. Muffled and lo-fi, it sounded as if it had been recorded in a bathroom or a stairwell. 'This record is fuzzy, muzzy and distorted,' British television producer Jack Good wrote in a 1961 issue of Disc, the popular weekly music magazine. 'According to present-day technical standards it is appalling. However, for my money, the disc is not just good, it's sensational and revolutionary.' Advertisement An exuberant fusion of doo-wop, Black gospel, and incipient frat rock, 'Quarter to Three' not only inspired the big-beat rock 'n' roll of the Beatles and the garage-rock of bands like the Kingsmen and the Sir Douglas Quintet. It also provided a blueprint for the sax-and-vocal exchanges between Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, a rapturous call and response that came to define the E Street Band, which often performed 'Quarter to Three' in concert. Breaking into pop music when the saxophone was ascendant (and before it was supplanted by the electric guitar), Mr. Barge was as distinctive and versatile a stylist as King Curtis, if less well known. Over six decades, he played on or produced records by Muddy Waters, the Chi-Lites, and the incendiary Detroit funk band Black Merda. He also toured with Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, and the Rolling Stones. James Gene Barge Jr. was born on Aug. 9, 1926, in Norfolk, Va., the oldest of eight children of James and Thelma (Edwards) Barge. His father played banjo and worked as a welder in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. His mother managed the home. Mr. Barge played clarinet in high school and took up the saxophone only after his father brought home a waterlogged tenor that he had found on a torpedo-damaged ship. He was 20 at the time and had just completed two years in the Army Air Forces. After graduating from West Virginia State College in 1950 with a degree in music, he taught high school and pursued music as an avocation. Jazz was a formative influence, especially the effervescent phrasing of the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Advertisement The first recordings Mr. Barge made under his own name were a pair of instrumentals for Checker, a subsidiary of Chess Records, in 1956. 'Country,' his first single, was a hit along the Eastern Seaboard. 'When Chess heard it, they said, 'What the hell is that?' Mr. Barge said of the record in a 2007 interview with Virginia Living magazine. 'They had never heard a saxophone sound like that before. They even gave it a word: funk. That was the reputation I got — that Gene Barge could play funky.' Around 1960 Mr. Barge began his brief but fruitful association with producer Frank Guida, whose Legrand label released 'A Night With Daddy G' and Bonds's early singles. Mr. Barge and Bonds had a second major hit together with 'School Is Out,' which reached the Top 10 in 1961. In 1964, as independent record labels with national distribution increasingly dominated regional markets, Mr. Barge abandoned teaching — and Norfolk's small Legrand imprint — and moved to Chicago to work for Chess Records. He played on R&B hits including Little Milton's 'Grits Ain't Groceries' and Koko Taylor's 'Wang Dang Doodle' and produced albums, including Buddy Guy's acclaimed 1967 effort, 'Left My Blues in San Francisco.' In the late 1960s, he also directed the musical ensemble of the Chicago chapter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Operation Breadbasket, an organization headed locally by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Barge later ran the gospel division of Stax Records and, over the ensuing decades, worked as a freelance musician, producer, and arranger, most notably on Natalie Cole's Grammy-winning single 'Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).' In the late 1970s he took a detour into acting, eventually landing roles in Hollywood action thrillers 'Under Siege' (1992) and 'The Fugitive' (1993). Advertisement Mr. Barge remained active into the 2000s, serving as a consultant for Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS documentary series 'The Blues' and playing on records including Public Enemy's 'Superman's Black in the Building' and with avant-garde jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson. 'Gene Barge is the flyest octogenarian I know,' Chuck D of Public Enemy told Virginia Living in 2007. 'To go from Muddy Waters to Public Enemy is a good trick.' In addition to his daughter Gina, Mr. Barge leaves another daughter, Gail Florence; three siblings, Celestine Bailey, Kim Williamson, and Milton Barge; two grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. His wife, Sarah Barge, died in 2008. His first marriage ended in divorce. Mr. Barge's career might not have gotten off to the start it did with Chuck Willis's 'C.C. Rider' were it not for his patience and good humor. After playing the grinding riff on the demo that persuaded Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to record it as a single, he was flown to New York for the session, only to find that another saxophonist had been hired instead. 'Ertegun and Wexler told me they were going to pay me, but they didn't want me to play,' Mr. Barge told Virginia Living. 'I went down to the liquor store, man, got me a pint and sat down on the floor to listen to them. They did 27 takes and weren't satisfied. So Chuck said, 'Look, why don't you let Gene run down one to get the feel?' So I ran down one and they said, 'Hold it, that's it, you got it. Let's cut it.'' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
New York Times
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Gene Barge, R&B Saxophonist Who Played on Landmark Hits, Dies at 98
Gene Barge, one of the last surviving saxophonists of the golden age of R&B, whose career ran the gamut of 20th-century Black popular music, died on Sunday at his home in Chicago. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter Gina Barge. Known by the nickname Daddy G, Mr. Barge played on landmark hits of the rock and soul era, beginning with Chuck Willis's swinging remake of the blues standard 'C.C. Rider.' Galvanized by Mr. Barge's moaning tenor saxophone, 'C.C. Rider' reached No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1957 and stalled just outside the Top 10 on the pop chart. In 1963, Mr. Barge was featured on Jimmy Soul's calypso-derived 'If You Wanna Be Happy,' a No. 1 pop and R&B hit. Mr. Barge also played the wailing tenor part on Fontella Bass's 'Rescue Me' (1965) and supplied the rhythmic drive, with members of the Motown house band the Funk Brothers, for Jackie Wilson's 'Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)' (1967). Both records topped the R&B chart and crossed over to become Top 10 pop hits. His greatest acclaim, though, came in 1961 with 'Quarter to Three,' a No. 1 pop single recorded with the R&B shouter Gary U.S. Bonds. Hoping to capitalize on the success of 'New Orleans,' his first big hit, Mr. Bonds created 'Quarter to Three' by adding lyrics to 'A Night With Daddy G,' a churning instrumental that Mr. Barge had recently written and recorded with his band the Church Street Five. 'Oh, don't you know that I danced/I danced 'til a quarter to 3/With the help, last night, of Daddy G,' Mr. Bonds sings on the opening chorus. ('A Night With Daddy G' would prove doubly auspicious when Dion borrowed its melody for 'Runaround Sue,' a finger-snapping wonder that topped the pop chart in late 1961.) Despite having the benefit of Mr. Barge's snaking saxophone runs — and despite the record's affinity with the twist dance craze of the day — 'Quarter to Three' was an unlikely sensation. Muffled and lo-fi, it sounded as if it had been recorded in a bathroom or a stairwell. 'This record is fuzzy, muzzy and distorted,' the British television producer Jack Good wrote in a 1961 issue of Disc, the popular weekly music magazine later absorbed into Record Mirror. 'According to present-day technical standards it is appalling. However, for my money, the disc is not just good, it's sensational and revolutionary.' Mr. Good's assessment of the record proved prescient. An exuberant fusion of doo-wop, Black gospel and incipient frat rock, 'Quarter to Three' not only inspired the big-beat rock 'n' roll of the Beatles and the garage-rock of bands like the Kingsmen and the Sir Douglas Quintet. It also provided a blueprint for the sax-and-vocal exchanges between Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, a rapturous call and response that came to define the E Street Band, which often performed 'Quarter to Three' in concert. Breaking into pop music when the saxophone was ascendant (and before it was supplanted by the electric guitar), Mr. Barge was as distinctive and versatile a stylist as King Curtis, if less well known. Over six decades, he played on or produced records by Muddy Waters, the Chi-Lites and the incendiary Detroit funk band Black Merda. He also toured with Ray Charles, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Sources differ as to how Mr. Barge came to be known as Daddy G. The sobriquet, though, was already gaining traction before the release of 'Quarter to Three,' when the Philadelphia disc jockey Hy Lit adopted 'A Night With Daddy G' as the theme song for his radio show. Shortly afterward, the doo-wop group the Dovells paid homage to Mr. Barge on their 1961 hit 'Bristol Stomp,' singing, 'We ponied and twisted and we rocked with Daddy G.' James Gene Barge Jr. was born on Aug. 9, 1926, in Norfolk, Va., the oldest of eight children of James and Thelma (Edwards) Barge. His father played banjo and worked as a welder in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. His mother managed the home. Mr. Barge played clarinet in high school and took up the saxophone only after his father brought home a waterlogged tenor that he had found on a torpedo-damaged ship. He was 20 at the time and had just completed two years in the Army Air Forces. After graduating from West Virginia State College in 1950 with a degree in music, he taught high school and pursued music as an avocation. Jazz was a formative influence, especially the effervescent phrasing of the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young. The first recordings Mr. Barge made under his own name were a pair of instrumentals for Checker, a subsidiary of Chess Records, in 1956. 'Country,' his first single, was a hit along the Eastern Seaboard. 'When Chess heard it, they said, 'What the hell is that?' Mr. Barge said of the record in a 2007 interview with Virginia Living magazine. 'They had never heard a saxophone sound like that before. They even gave it a word: funk. That was the reputation I got — that Gene Barge could play funky.' Around 1960 Mr. Barge began his brief but fruitful association with the producer Frank Guida, whose Legrand label released 'A Night With Daddy G' and Mr. Bonds's early singles. Mr. Barge and Mr. Bonds had a second major hit together with 'School Is Out,' which reached the Top 10 in 1961, but enjoyed only modest success after that. In 1964, as independent record labels with national distribution increasingly dominated regional markets, Mr. Barge abandoned teaching — and Norfolk's small Legrand imprint — and moved to Chicago to work for Chess Records. While there he played on R&B hits like Little Milton's 'Grits Ain't Groceries' and Koko Taylor's 'Wang Dang Doodle' and produced albums, including Buddy Guy's acclaimed 1967 effort, 'Left My Blues in San Francisco.' In the late 1960s, he also directed the musical ensemble of the Chicago chapter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Operation Breadbasket, an organization headed locally by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Barge later ran the gospel division of Stax Records and, over the ensuing decades, worked as a freelance musician, producer and arranger, most notably on Natalie Cole's Grammy-winning single 'Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).' In the late 1970s he took a detour into acting, working locally in Chicago (he made his screen debut in the independent 1978 film 'Stony Island') before eventually landing roles in Hollywood action thrillers like 'Under Siege' (1992) and 'The Fugitive' (1993). Mr. Barge remained active into the 2000s, serving as a consultant for Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS documentary series 'The Blues' and playing on records like Public Enemy's 'Superman's Black in the Building' and with the avant-garde jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson. 'Gene Barge is the flyest octogenarian I know,' Chuck D of Public Enemy told Virginia Living in 2007. 'To go from Muddy Waters to Public Enemy is a good trick.' In addition to his daughter Gina, Mr. Barge is survived by another daughter, Gail Florence; three siblings, Celestine Bailey, Kim Williamson and Milton Barge; two grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. His wife, Sarah Barge, died in 2008. His first marriage ended in divorce. Mr. Barge's career might not have gotten off to the start it did with Chuck Willis's 'C.C. Rider' were it not for his patience and good humor. After playing the grinding riff on the demo that persuaded Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to record it as a single, he was flown to New York for the session, only to find that another saxophonist had been hired instead. 'Ertegun and Wexler told me they were going to pay me, but they didn't want me to play,' Mr. Barge told Virginia Living. 'I went down to the liquor store, man, got me a pint and sat down on the floor to listen to them. They did 27 takes and weren't satisfied. So Chuck said, 'Look, why don't you let Gene run down one to get the feel?' So I ran down one and they said, 'Hold it, that's it, you got it. Let's cut it.''
