Biography OF Joe Messina Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Country Music Hall of Fame, and Grammy Award Winner.
Culture maker and legend Joe Messina was there first.
He played more sessions for Motown than the other Funk Brothers.
© 2005 CP All rights reserved worldwide Mr. Messina seated with his 2 Grammys and Life Time Achievement Award.
 © 2001 ECP All rights reserved worldwide |
Library of Congress 12/01 |
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played on MORE #1 HITS than |
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In Japan, they made a copy of my guitar.. They call it "FunkMachineTL" FunkMachineTL It was the member of FunkBrothers of MOTOWN which produced many hit songs, and respect was expressed to the noted guitarist Joe Messina who has also done the contest with JazzGiants(es), such as Coltrane, and apollonmusic carried out the limited order. |
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Joe Messina playing various TV shows for 14 years as the staff guitarist for ABC TV Chan. 7 in Detroit , also worked on the Soupy Sales Show, Motown, and Commercials.
"If you practice these exercises and can master these classic jazz changes you will find your reward when you go to improvise and can play the basics cold.
With all the different combinations in my book you will be ready to play your best. That is the goal of every true artist."
9/04 Harry Walker came to visit me and gave me the CD with these songs on it. Harry's wife taped portions of the show from the radio.1/2 hour show airing from Canada called "The Harry Walker Trio Featuring Joe Messina."
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A FOGGY DAY
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CANDY
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JEEPERS CREEPER
President George Bush with Funk Brother Joe Messina White House Black Music Month
© 2003 ECP All rights reserved worldwide
Song writers Holland Dozier and Holland On the Motown formula:
Song writers Holland Dozier and Holland are Joe's favorite producers. They were very creative, and wrote many hit songs for the Supremes, and other Motown singers.
On the Motown formula:
Lamont Dozier: I think that it was so apropos for the Funk Brothers to get their due with that documentary. It made me feel good that they were finally getting some recognition. They had to be in the studio around the clock, sometimes 14, 15 hours a day cutting for various producers. They had to shine. They were on staff and they had to give the producers what
they wanted. We certainly put them through the ropes because we were very pushy about what we wanted. We didn't want to sound like nobody else, Smokey or Norman Whitfield. There was a variation of musicians we used. We call it the "A" team because they were the "A" team to us. They were James Jamerson, Benny Benjamin, Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis and Joe Hunter or Earl Van Dyke. That was our nucleus. If we couldn't have these guys, especially James and Benny, we wouldn't cut. The music was so intricate and it took a lot of understanding of what we were going for. These guys just knew us instinctively. James Jamerson was totally awesome. I could give him a bass figure and he would elaborate. Brian would be with Benny telling him what to do with his foot to enhance what Jamerson was playing. That's how Brian and I would work the room to make sure those tracks were tight.
Eddie Holland: We used to have two or three songs to cut per three-hour session. That doesn't happen nowadays. You look at how many tracks we cut at such a fast rate. There was no way we could have done the work that we did without working with such superb musicians.
One of Motown's famous "Funk Brothers", Joe played guitar for Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. Studio for fourteen years, helping to create an unbelievable string of hit records for the Motown Label.
He played in the studio band for ABC Television in Detroit for twenty-three years, accompanying guests that included Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Jack Teagarden, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Giuffre, Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Eddie "LockJaw" Davis, Frank Rossolino and Dizzy Gillespie, among others.***
Joe started playing guitar at the age of thirteen, taking two lessons from an accordion player who told him, "Learn all your scales!" Joe did just that and went on to become the outrageous player he is today.
In 1980 he began playing chromatic harmonica, and this particular form of Messina Madness is the result!
You can read more about Joe and the other legendary "Funk Brothers" of Motown in the December '88 issue of "Guitar Player" magazine and in the May '93 issue of "Keyboard Player", "The Historic Motown Sessions." He is also profiled in the book "Standing In The Shadows of Motown", the story of legendary bassist James Jamerson by Dr Licks, from Hal Leonard Publishing.
Joe is also the author of "The Interval Study Method", a unique and challenging method of creating music through permutations of the chromatic and diatonic scales.
This recording is another step in the evolution of a truly groundbreaking musician who, when asked to sum up his incredible career says: "I've been fortunate enough to learn something from every musician I've worked with." Joe Messina currently plays jazz in Detroit, and is one of the happiest guys you'll ever meet.
READ - We sold our soul.. for 10 dollars - July 20, 2003
Elite musicians took seats on assembly line 10/27/02 <snip>
Guitar: Certain groups had their own guitarists -- Marv Tarplin with the Miracles and Cornelius Grant with the Temptations -- but most sessions were cut with the Oreo guitar section, so called because white Joe Messina sat between his black colleagues Robert White and Eddie Willis.
Unsung heroes of Motown hits machine New Zealand Herald By DAVID USBORNE in DETROIT 9.08.2003
Guitarist Joe Messina was one of the Funk Brothers as Motown's studio band of the '60s and '70s. Anchored by innovative bassist James Jamerson, keyboardist Earl Van Dyke, and drummer Benny Benjamin, the group also included guitarists Robert White and Eddie Willis, and later "replacement" drummers Uriel Jones and Richard "Pistol" Allen. The band, along with Motown's talented crew of songwriters, singers, arrangers, producers, and engineers, all under the tutelage of Berry Gordy, helped to shape "The Sound of Young America" (the label's '60s/early-'70s slogan). One of the most prolific soul/pop rhythm sections ever, the Funk Brothers recorded pop music history in the small basement of a Detroit house that was converted into a recording studio named "the Snakepit." Like Jamerson, Van Dyke, and Benjamin, Messina started playing jazz at Detroit nightclubs in addition to local TV and radio work. Coming to what would become Motown in 1960, Messina had the highly sought after skill of being a good sight reader and played fluent guitar lines. He was often used when an arranger wanted someone to double Jamerson's bass lines, as on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Your Precious Love" (number two R&B for five weeks, number five pop in fall 1967). The guitarist was also proficient on keeping the backbeat, a key ingredient of the Motown sound that was later used in reggae music ("chunk... chunk"). For example, listen to the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (number one R&B for eight weeks in spring 1966). Messina created his guitar parts while bouncing ideas off of White and Willis when producers would ask the band to add the right groove to a song. Often recording with all the singers, and on some sessions members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the band and everyone has to be tight because everything was recorded live in one take; one mistake and the recording tape would have to be rewound and everyone would have to start all over again. Motown didn't began overdubbing (having the ability to replace an individually recorded musical part) until the mid-'60s. This led to Messina et al. becoming a tight rhythm section. A few years after Motown moved its base from Detroit to Los Angeles, Joe Messina retired from the music business and opened up a couple of businesses. He's featured on the CD portion of the classic book/CD set of Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson" by Allan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky from Milwaukee, WI. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide
Excerpt from an article by Bruce Miller 10/20, 2002
Bruce Miller a respected musician in California composes and arranges for TV shows like Becker, Frasier, Wings, campaign films for President Bill Clinton , and many others. . . comments on the Funk Brothers: [. . . as a very involved "observer" of the "Funks", a bit of my own observations.
Each of these terrific players put their own strong stamp on the "Motown Sound", but each had very different abilities. Dennis was a terrific studio guy and artist and has the distinction of being Messina's "other" student, other than yours truly! (or maybe I was the "other" one) . . . well . . .
During my days of conducting for a very talented artist of the day, Paul Anka, I was able to actually include some "Funks" in the road group . . .]
[ . . .Eddie Willis, Earl Van Dyke and Robert White
Earl, of course, was in a class by himself, but since he wasn't a guitarist, we'll save him for another time. Robert was a "time-locking" dream. Not a huge amount of chops, but it just doesn't matter. He had talent and a fabulous time feel. That alone would make him a star in my eyes. Eddie Willis was a true funk-master. His most important strength to me was, among other things, those incredible ("dee-bone" as Joe used to call it) real life licks and earthy feel. What a joy to have seen him and heard him last month in LA. Very classy guy, and born with that "only Eddie Willis sound like that" feel.
Lastly, Joe Messina, who had more raw chops than anyone I've ever known, and I've known many. Joe was in a class by himself, and it wasn't just the fast fingers. He knew his music inside and out. Completely self - schooled to a level that I've known many conservatory - trained colleagues fall short of. Every so often one of these freaks shows up, and for me that was Joe Messina. Always modest and kind, I feel that I know his playing as well as anyone (including Josie), but again I digress. I've played, arranged and conducted with what many feel are the most skillful musicians in the world, here in LA.. Joe would have been a leader out here. The only reason I'm going on about this is that, to set the record straight, each of the "Funks" guitar players deserved their place in that elite group, but I have to say, and I think the other guys would agree, between his extrordinary sight-reading, amazing ears, chops and most important, musicality, if we're talking about world-class ability, Joe was in a class by himself. Also, for whatever it's worth, I can for - sure say that at my own peak as a guitarist, he kicked my XXX, and for that there is NO ARGUMENT!!!!!!!
I love all of you "Funk Guitar Players".
bruce
