Joe Messina

Funk Brother

BORN 1928

Memorably described as a “white brother with soul,” Detroit-born Messina was an accomplished guitarist who played alongside jazz greats Charlie Parker and Miles Davis when they visited the Motor City in the 1950s, but is best remembered for his contribution to Berry Gordy’s Motown sound in the ’60s and early ’70s. As a member of Motown’s Funk Brothers studio band, his crisply accented rhythm guitar work appeared on some of the label’s most iconic records; from Martha & The Vandellas’ Dancing In The Street to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. When Gordy’s company moved to LA in 1972, Messina stayed in Detroit, took up the harmonica and published two music theory books. Wider recognition eluded him until 2002, when the Standing In The Shadows Of Motown documentary about the Funk Brothers won him a Grammy. Summing up his Motown years, he said in 2017: “I considered it just another job, but I did have fun.”

Charles Waring