11/14/2023 0 Comments Vibe dc nationallyTheir early regional hits included EU Freeze, Lock Your Butt, and Knock ‘Em Out Sugar Ray. The band chose the name Experience due to their respect for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Unlimited because they did not want to limit the range of their music. Fronted by founding member Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, the original members all attended Ballou High School. He made a promise to himself long ago that no matter how far he went as a musician, he would always have a place for go-go.ĮU (Experience Unlimited) is one of the original Washington DC Go-Go bands. His motto was “Don’t call the hall, I do it all!” Today he has his own group, 76 Degrees West, which fuses all musical styles with a go-go flavor. CJ, former saxophonist with EU, Redds & the Boys, and Little Benny & the Masters, fostered and encouraged his development as a complete musician (songwriting, background and lead vocals, and keyboards/guitar synthesizer). His next go-go endeavor was with CJ’s Uptown Crew. As his technical facility grew, he began to perform with R&B, Funk, and Smooth Jazz bands, bringing influences from those genres back to go-go. Deeply immersed in all things go-go during his tenure with Prophecy, his guitar influences included Andre “Whiteboy” Johnson (Rare Essence) and Chuck Brown. He joined his first go-go band, Prophecy Band & Show in the early 1980s. Stanley Cooper started playing guitar at age 13, inspired by the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Ernie Isley and George Benson. Blidge, Mother’s Finest, and culminating one trip with the “Soul Train” Show and Don Cornelius. He wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on their first three albums: “We the People” in 1972, Salt of the Earth” in 1974 and Bustin’ Loose” in 1978.īuchanan and the Soul Searchers toured the country twice and performed with many major acts including “War”, “Confunction”, “The Commodores”, Mary J. Buchanan gradually added the keyboard to his repertoire and played electric piano and synthesizer. He was invited to join the band playing trombone upon graduating in May 1971. Buchanan studied composition in college and lead his own soul band, “The Magnificent Seven”, crossover group, “Melting Pot” and jazz combo, “Coatis Mundi” at the University of Notre Dame.īuchanan first heard the Soul Searchers at Byrne Manor on his Thanksgiving break in 1970 and sat in with the band after rehearsal in Horace Brock’s basement. At the same time he performed with the DC Youth Orchestra Program, first on French horn and then on trombone. He started learning the trombone in the 4th grade and learned to play jazz in the 7th grade. He learned to read music in the first grade and played melody flute. John Buchanan is a product of the DC Public Schools Instrumental Music Program. Continue reading.Īlso see interview with Chuck Brown on the National Visionary Leadership Project website and read Chuck Brown to Be Inducted In The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Starting out playing top forty, Brown would break-it-down between songs with percussion and audience call and response, and keep the music going, and the dance floor packed. Combining this with his roots, his love of blues, jazz, gospel, soul, and African rhythms, Chuck began to develop his own unique sound. He latched onto the Latin percussion groove from the band he played with at the time, Los Latinos. While searching for a sound to call his own in the 1960s, Chuck was deeply inspired by artists like James Brown. This esteem was maintained by the reputation of his legendary live shows, heavy on audience participation and built around “the beat” to create an unparalleled non-stop party atmosphere. Foreshadowing rap and many of the major popular R&B styles of the past three decades, Chuck's signature style earned him a place in American musical royalty. “The Godfather of Go Go,” Chuck Brown is the undisputed sole founder and creator Go-Go music, a hypnotically danceable genre deeply rooted in funk and soul that he developed in the early 70’s, andthe only form of expressive cultureto originate in the District of Columbia.
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