August Wilson Center gets funky with a weekend of legends
The fourth annual We Want the Funk Festival, happening this weekend at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, “celebrates the rhythm-driven musical genre that evolved from the R&B, soul and jazz music of the 1960s that continues to influence today’s artists,” according to Janis BurleyWilson, the center’s president and CEO.
As a Pittsburgh native and Pitt graduate, Burley-Wilson said her inspiration for booking specific types of acts harkens back to a time when funk and R&B groups were featured atop many Top 40 and soul record charts nationwide.
Her goal, she said, is to attract mature Pittsburgh-area music lovers who fondly recall when real musicians and vocalists dominated the social scene for folks who still enjoy and appreciate real music.
For the Friday night concert, she purposely slated Morris Day & The Time with Alexander O’Neal, two co-headliners who initially performed with one another during their formative years as support musicians for fellow Minneapolis native Prince.
With a reorganization of their original band, Day comes to Pittsburgh with a 21stcentury update of The Time that will bring the dance-funk they’ve delivered for decades. Known for their throwback, vintage 1940s-style attire, cool, hipster choreography and funky tracks, The Time has entertained generations of fans with their infectious dance hits “Give It Up,” “777-9311,” “Jungle Love,” “Cool” and “The Bird.”
The group opened for Prince and, along with Morris Day, appeared in Prince’s 1984 epic film “Purple Rain.” Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis left the group in 1983 and became one of the most successful, awardwinning music-production teams of the modern era.
Alexander O’Neal is known for such hits as “If You Were Here Tonight,” “All True Man” and “Fake.”
SATURDAY NIGHT FUNK
The Saturday night lineup pairs the BarKays with Confunkshun.
In a phone call from his native Memphis, Bar-Kays co-founder and bass player James Alexander said his eight-member troupe is highly excited about returning to the ’Burgh. “It’s been a while,” he said. “I remember playing at a Downtown theater,” he added, while referring to the Stanley Theater, since re-named the Benedum.
For James Alexander, his fate was determined 55 years ago this month, when his bandleader, Otis Redding, and four other Bar-Kays bandmates were killed on Dec. 10, 1967, when Redding’s private plane malfunctioned in sub-freezing weather and crash-landed in a lake near Madison, Wis. James Alexander and trumpeter Ben Cauley
were the only surviving members.
The twosome re-formed the band and created a funky-fresh soulful group that headlined at the legendary Wattstax Music Festival in Los Angeles in 1972 and by the mid-1970s had become forerunners of a new wave of funk ’n soul bands as later demonstrated by groups like Cameo, LTD, BT Express, The Commodores and Confunkshun. The Bar-Kays also served as studio musicians for Isaac Hayes’ 1972 Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning music for the movie “Shaft.”
From his new homestead in suburban Atlanta, Confunkshun’s Felton Pilate explained how his fellow bandmates made the trek from Northern California (Vallejo) to Western Tennessee (Memphis).
Pilate, along with group co-founder and lead vocalist/guitarist Michael Cooper, has managed to keep the band afloat since the early 1970s. Pilate explained how soul
music pioneer Rufus Thomas, got the word about a talented young band that was quick to learn new music, with a genuine soulful sound. “Rufus heard us one time, had us play ‘Do the Breakdown’ and fired his existing band,” recalled Pilate.
That led to Confunkshun (then called Project Soul) becoming Rufus Thomas’ backup band for the Wattstax movie. They also did backup work for The Soul Children in the film, but that group’s performance was cut, Pilate said.
By the mid-’70s, Stax also featured the group from Vallejo, and they worked many of the nightclubs in the Memphis area, including those on Beale Street. By 1976, the newly named Confunkshun signed with Mercury Records and has since released several albums featuring such hits as “Ffun,” “Sho Feels Good to Me,” “Chase Me” and their quiet storm classic, “Love’s Train,” revived and reinterpreted in fall 2022 by the Anderson.Paak/Bruno Mars duo Silk Sonic.
“That was a total surprise for us,” said Pilate, regarding their song being covered. “They respected the integrity of the song and basically left it alone,” said Pilate, the group’s trombonist.
Confunkshun has released a new Christmas album for 2022, while the Bar-Kays have released a brand new single titled “Choosey Lover,” not to be confused with the Isley Brothers 1983 classic. Bar-Kay’s new music is produced by Jazzy Pha, the son of James Alexander, who is named after Phalon Jones, also killed in the Otis Redding plane tragedy. “Phalon was my best friend,” said James Alexander during his recent phone call.
If you go, you’ll feel like you’re at the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis, where it all began, or on Beale Street at the Hippodrome — a legendary Memphis hotspot.
Times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $55 to $65; awaacc.org.