Originally Published in Ambassador Magazine May/June 2010

Next time you travel beyond Michigan’s mitten, stop a stranger and ask what he thinks about when you say “Detroit.” Most likely, you’ll get one of two answers: “The Motor City” or “Motown.”

The traditions run deep. This is an industry town, and its two most celebrated commodities are cars and music.

While the automotive business has taken a beating over the past few years, Detroit’s music industry is celebrating something of a creative renaissance. Armed with an arsenal of new technology and girded with Detroit’s trademark, “never say die” spirit, area musicians are lighting the path through uncertain economic times and succeeding on their own terms.

Young artists like Invincible, My Dear Disco, One Be Lo, Hot Club of Detroit, and Monica Blaire carry a longstanding tradition into the new millennium. They follow icons like Kid Rock, Amp Fiddler, Carl Craig, J Dilla, and The Dirt Bombs. Before them it was The Romantics, Awesome Dre, Alice Cooper, and Anita Baker.

What is it about this town? How does Detroit produce so many amazing artists with the same clockwork precision that new model cars roll off Big Three assembly lines?

For this month’s edition of Ambassador’s roundtable, we assembled a group of Detroit music industry veterans whose careers were molded in the city’s clubs and studios. The gathering took place at Harmonie Park Studios, where since 1996, partners and brothers Mark and Brian Pastoria have hosted music royalty – Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, Eminem, Grand Funk Railroad – and some of the region’s most powerful brands – DTE, The Tigers, The Red Wings, and Rock Financial. In fact, Mark picked up a couple of Grammys along the way for his work with Queen Aretha.

Ambassador publisher Denise Ilitch kicked off our discussion by invoking the most hallowed of Detroit music legends, Motown. 2009 witnessed the 50th anniversary of the music empire that began on West Grand Boulevard, and went on to change popular culture throughout the world. “How has Motown influenced your music, your aspirations?” Ilitch asked.

“I don’t think you can get away from the tradition of Motown, and I don’t think you want to,” replied noted blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter Stewart Francke, who so reveres the label’s sound that he hired The Funk Brothers, members of Motown’s house band, to record several songs on his 2005 album Motor City Serenade. “I think the tradition is so powerful and so enduring, that you want to remain within the influence of it musically, traditionally, historically.”

Although Jimmie Bones spends much of his time playing rock and roll keyboards for Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker, he says, “not only Motown, but all of the soul labels, Stax, Volt, whatever… It’s religion to me.” Bones confesses that when he isn’t playing music or learning new songs, he listens to old soul music and rock bands like The Faces and The Rolling Stones who were inspired by it.

Harmonie Park partner, Brian Pastoria, notes that The Beatles so loved the label that they recorded three Motown hits for one of their earliest albums. Pastoria is not only impressed with the music created at Hitsville, but also with how Berry Gordy structured his hit making assembly line.

“The focus was on the producers and writers,” Pastoria says. “I think they felt like they could make stars out of anybody if they had the right songs and the right records.”

Jim Edwards, who has done everything on the Detroit music scene from being a roadie, to running his own label, is currently lead singer for Detroit rockers, The Hell Drivers. He stresses that great songwriting was an important part of the Motown system, and he studies the label’s hits to understand the finer points of song structure. “It’s like going to school every time you listen to those records.”

Another Hell Driver, drummer Johnny Bee, witnessed that Motown artistry first hand. Bee provided the backbeat for Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, a band that scored a top five hit of their own in 1966 with “Devil With A Blue Dress On.” The Wheels often shared the bill with their Motown heroes, and Bee took it all in.

“We started off as little kids, 12 or 13, playing on TV shows with Stevie Wonder, and the Temptations,” Bee recalls. “They kind of took us under their wings.“

Bee remembers playing college shows where Ryder and The Wheels would open for a red-suited Marvin Gaye. “Everything was learning, just watching his every move, and how they were schooling everybody at Motown. It was everything – the songwriting, the music, the choreography… You’ll never see anything like that again, EVER!”

So perhaps what makes Detroit music so great is both learning from the best and the pressure of living up to the legacy. And though Hitsville affected the entire city, the heritage reaches beyond Motown.

Francke explains that there were twin traditions that grew up side by side in Detroit – black soul music, with Motown and the other labels that sprang up in Gordy’s wake, and white rock and roll, epitomized by Mitch Ryder, and the MC5. The musicians would watch and learn, compliment and comment on each other.

Francke cites the MC5 classic, “Kick Out The Jams.” “The end of that [lyric] is, ‘or we’ll find someone who will.’ ”He says there’s a certain way you do things. Do it till you drop. Don’t fake it. Look and dress sharp. “There’s a certain ethos to this place, and it affected the world. It still does.”

Detroit music is high quality. In the past, excellent music programs in the public schools bred world-class musicians. With the current state of area school budgets, this truth is now debatable. But it is certain that Detroit audiences expect a lot from the city’s entertainers.

“Detroit’s a town of hard-working people,” Johnny Bee says. “They work hard and they party hard. When they go out they want to see good music.”

“It’s almost like the DNA that was set by Motown is culturally embedded in the community of Detroit,” says Bill Evo, who isn’t a musician, but an attorney, former pro hockey player, past president of the Detroit Red Wings, and a strategic consultant for Harmonie Park. He believes that non-musicians in Detroit – the fans – don’t understand how sophisticated their musical taste is. There is so much stellar music around the city, it can be easily taken for granted.

Artist manager Steven Sowers used to own a nightclub that represented all that was great about Detroit. The Motor Lounge took its name from Detroit’s other famous industry, but on any given night, patrons at the Hamtramck bar would hear the city’s best sounds in its many varied genres. Sowers says that music is such a part of the spirit and culture of the city, that whenever a young Detroiter demonstrates a spark of talent, someone is there to help. “That’s one thing I’ve seen,” Sowers says. “When somebody shows an interest, there’s always someone there to grab them, help them along, and encourage them. I don’t know if that happens in other cities, but it sure does here.”

Juan Atkins emphasizes another important aspect of Detroit’s musical community. Atkins is the “Godfather of Techno,” a title he earned as the first to develop the Detroit-born sound that bangs from speakers in dance clubs all over the world. Juan Atkins, along with his Belleville High School friends, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, is one of “the Belleville Three,” the holy trinity credited with founding what later came to be known as techno music.

“Detroit is not a really big city like New York or LA, so all the musicians know each other, and it’s a close knit community,” says Atkins whose independent label, Metroplex Records, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

“There’s a friendly competition.” Because all the artists compete with each other in a friendly way, the quality of the music is raised to a higher level. “It’s a respectful competitiveness,” Brian Pastoria explains. He saw it at Harmonie Park while recording Christmas in Detroit, an annual all-star holiday album the studio produces to benefit S.A.Y. Detroit (Super All Year Detroit), a non-profit charity that improves the lives of homeless people.

There were many artists who donated their time and talent for the cause, but the friendly competition pushed each of them to greater heights. “Somebody would come in to do a song, and hear what the guy did the night before,” Brian says. “And it was like, ‘Wow! That was really killer!’ This set the bar higher forcing each artist to step his or her game up.“

In addition to the competition, Detroit musicians are not only willing, but are enthusiastic about collaborating with one another. “Everybody mixes together,” Bones says, “and we all kind of add our own little flavors to everybody else’s thing.”

All of these elements meld with Detroit’s blue-collar work ethic to inspire boundless creativity and originality.“It makes you want to try something new, build something from the ground up, and make it the best it can be,” Bones says.

“There’s a lot of soul here,” Johnny Bee interjects. “Buckets and trucks full of soul.”    – Nadir Omowale

EAPro’s Nadir Omowale is a featured music columnist for BLAC Detroit magazine (formerly African American Family). Since January 2009 he has written about some of the Motor City’s most notable veterans and its most promising up and comers. He’s also penned features about the unsung heroes of Motown and Grammy winner John Legend.

Click below for a sampling of Nadir’s writings (in PDF format).

FEBRUARY 2010 Cover Story:
John Legend – “Star Light”

JANUARY 2010 SOUND:
David Blair  – “Blairing Urban Folk”

SEPTEMBER 2009 SOUND:
Lola Morales – “The Melange of Lola Morales”

OCTOBER 2009 SOUND:
Pathe Jassi – “Son of Senegal”

MOTOR DETROIT MAGAZINE will work as an extension to the world to spotlight the careers of both, the up-and-coming, as well as the established artist and talent, in all mediums and forms. The MOTOR DETROIT MAGAZINE reader is as diverse and cerebral as what the magazine represents.

The publishers of MOTOR DETROIT MAGAZINE chose EAPro’s J. Nadir Omowale to create its first feature story and video profile of Detroit rockers Ingray.

Click HERE to visit Motor Detroit Magazine

Great questions, and Nadir helps clear up the confusion in a series of articles for GrokMusic.com.

Anthony Hamilton – “Charlene”

GrokMusic.com guides you to new music by bringing together the best of technology and human driven content filtering, with the help of:

1. The GrokMusic GPS. With either the GrokMusicMap or SuggestArtists both built on the preferences of hundreds of thousands of users like you – users are able to chart their own course to find music they love.
2. Reviews and articles from experienced music fans and industry insiders.
3. Hand-selected, recommended samples by genre, immediately available for purchase via Amazon.com or iTunes.

“Evolution Is Revolution”, a dramatic track created by EAPro’s Nadir and Iayaalis, is featured in the new trailer for TheBlackPaper.com and The Black Mastery Success Program both by success coach Veronica Conway.

Veronica is a successful entrepreneur and founder of three coaching companies, including the Black Professional Coaches Alliance, the only coaching organization dedicated to the transformation of people of African descent.  She is also the co-founder of Phenom Consulting International, a company that provides life and media strategy for the entertainment and athletic industries.  She has coached everyone from truck drivers to CEO’s, athletes, artists and celebrities.

Black Mastery Is The Master Blend Of Success Strategies and It Is Your GIANT First Step Toward A Better Tomorrow.

• Do you want to live in joy and abundance?

• Do you want to face challenges with more confidence and poise?

• How wonderful would it be for you to experience life – without limits?

• Can you imagine beginning to heal, – and creating a new legacy?

The evolution will NOT be televised.  The (r)evolution is internal.

Begin your (r)evolution at TheBlackPaper.com today.

The 1440’s Unofficial Detroit Music Award After Party is becoming a favorite post-awards show hang for musicians and music lovers because of the great people and amazing open jam session.

Live music started around 11pm and ended at 5am with a hearty breakfast at 6.

Jam session guests included Bobby Murray (guitarist for Etta James), Thornetta Davis, Karen Bosco, Aaron Brown of Lucky Brown, Djallo Djakate, Electric Otto, Khary WAE Frazier, Joey Spina, Anthony Womack, Phil Hale, and many others.  Lightshow Bob rocked the Lightar!

It was off the charts!

[View with PicLens]

Photos by Richard Blondy

Nadir & Distorted Soul earned two trophies at the 2009 Detroit Music Awards on Friday, April 17.

Workin’ For The Man was named Outstanding Urban/Funk/Hip Hop Recording, and Nadir was honored as Outstanding Urban/Funk Vocalist.

Thanks to Akanke Rashad-Omowale, Nancy Schoenheide-Phares, all the members of the Distorted Soul band, all the musicians and producers who contributed their talents to the Workin’ For The Man project, all the djs and press who have given us so much love, and all the family and friends who helped make this project possible.

Oh… and a special shout out to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the entire Dubya administration for screwing up the world and inspiring much of the political material that appears on this record.  Thanks A LOT!