1970s soul-revue bands / influence of Black collegiate marching bands

[Rooster_Ties]

Found this post in another thread...

I interviewed Osby several years ago when he came to Bloomington. As a teenager he played with some 1970s soul-revue bands... now that's another topic in and of itself...

As is the influence of African-American collegiate marching bands on the styles/approaches of the horn sections of THOSE bands.

Well???

Edited March 27, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[ghost of miles]

Interesting to me because Osby emphasized the on-the-job musical training that he got, as well as the importance of connecting with the audience (although, when he came back to B-town a year or two later with his quartet, he seemed to be in more of a Miles bag vis-a-vis said audience, and it didn't really go over too well... but everybody dug Jason Moran!). I really got the sense that playing with the 1970s soul revues was, for Osby, perhaps roughly equivalent to the kind of experience that Coltrane, Bird, Dexter et al got playing in the big bands in the 1940s.

Edited March 27, 2007 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

As for the marching banc influence, all you gotta do is listen to, say, early Kool & The Gang, or any band of that type, and then listen to the Grambling marching band (or any band of that type). The sound and approach is identical - fill the horns up with sound and blast it out. Get the power, feel the power, and then play the power. It's a thing, ya' know?

A lot of the soul-revue bands of the 60s & 70s were formed by college students who played in those marching bands (and there were a lot that never went beyond local/regional status. A lot.). The horn players in those bands had already had marching band experience, and not just in college. The Grambling/etc. model was the norm for African-American high school marching bands in segragation-era Amercia. So it's not like these horn players had been playing one way at school and then changed their whole approach when they started playing clubs and stuff.

If you research the lineage of all those soul-revue bands (and my research is mostly anecdotal, although if you read enough, you can find ample backup), you'll find that even the ones that didn't begin as college-buddy affairs more often than not contained horn players who came up through the African-American college/high school marching band experience. I definitely believe it's a factor that's long gone unnoticed, by and large.

Now, as for the soul-revue bands themself, I'va had more than a little experience playing in them. I gotta get ready for work now, so there's no time for extended commentary, but let me just tell you that it was invaluable training in a lot of ways.

[Rooster_Ties]

OK, then, speaking of early Kool & The Gang -- what about, and how about -- Michael Ray??

Man, can that guy blow, or what!! Any of that come out of the soul-review thang and/or the marching band thang??

Now, I have to admit I'm pretty unfamiliar with the soul-review thang, and the marching band thang -- other than what little I think I know about them, which is pretty much based on practically nothin'.

Edited March 27, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

Michael Ray, yes.

Hannibal is another example. From TSU to The Discpiles Of Soul to...Hannibal.

Fred Wesley is an example. Big, fat, nothing-held-back sound. Marching band experience.

Examples abound.