News & Updates — Funk Brothers

Happy birthday to the Earl of Funk! Detroit native Earl Van Dyke spent a lot of time around the city's jazz cats, folks like Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris, Hank Jones and others. He met James Jamerson while touring with Lloyd Price, who convinced him to take a job with Motown, then an upstart label. He started at Motown in '62. He served as the keyboardist on many classic Motown hits for many of its biggest stars, like Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Four Tops, etc. He would open up Motown concerts with his own instrumental trio, usually playing alternate, instrumental versions...

A Northern Soul legend, Popcorn Wylie was one of the earliest contributors to the Motown hit-making machine as an instrumentalist, composer, producer, A&R man and artist. A pianist from Detroit, he grew up with bassist James Jamerson and the two were in a band together as teenagers. That band, Popcorn & the Mohawks, would cut a few singles for Motown in the early '60s before both the future stars got absorbed into the house band, The Funk Brothers. Wylie played on several big hits such as "Shop Around" (the Miracles), "Please Mr Postman" (Marvellettes), as well as tunes by Marvin...

James Jamerson was a key player in the Motown sound and their Funk Brothers backing band, playing bass on nearly every record from 1959 into the 70s. Like the other Funk Brothers, he was never credited on the sessions (until 1971) and was severely underpaid for a lot of his time at the company. His playing contributed melodic advancements, as a jazz player would. Perhaps you could say he was more of a jazz bassist than a pop one. A Gullah from the Georgia Sea Islands, he appeared on more #1 records than anyone (and most of them are great...