Joe Messina, Funk Brothers guitarist on Motown hits, dies at 93

Joe Messina, a guitarist with the Motown session band known as the Funk Brothers whose largely anonymous work graced hit records such as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life” and the Four Tops’ “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” died April 4 at his son’s home in Northville, Mich. He was 93.

A family friend, Steve Shepard, confirmed his death, from complications from kidney disease.

Messina was a mainstay of Detroit’s vibrant jazz scene for years before joining Motown’s studio band in 1959. Along with about dozen other musicians, including bassist James Jamerson, pianist Earl Van Dyke and drummers Benny Benjamin and Richard “Pistol” Allen, Messina helped form the core of a versatile group that quickly learned and recorded new songs for Motown’s young hitmakers.

Label owner Berry Gordy patterned Motown on automobile production lines, with sessions occurring on a round-the-clock schedule. The company’s early recordings were often completed in one or two takes. Even as Motown songs rose to the top of the charts, Messina and his colleagues went uncredited on the early albums and initially received no royalties for their contributions.

Typically, Motown producers matched Messina with fellow guitarists Robert White and Eddie Willis.

Messina was known for his almost subliminal backbeat rhythms, chord accents that followed the snare drum and tambourine on the second and fourth beats of a bar. At times, all three guitarists played the accents in unison.

On some songs, including 1967’s “Your Precious Love” by Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Messina doubled Jamerson’s bass line. On the Supremes’ 1970 hit “Someday We’ll Be Together,” Messina’s insistent guitar riff can be heard beneath orchestral strings, adding heightened tension to Diana Ross’s vocals.