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FEATURE:PERSON TO PERSON WITH…by
Tom Lounges
Scotland’s Average
White Band’s derivative funk sound helped break down color barriers in pop
music. Their hybrid blend of
R&B, funk, jazz and rock heralded the arrival of the disco scene.
In the early-to-mid ‘70s, one could hardly turn on a radio and not hear
Average White Band, or “AWB” as they came to be known.
The group was as at home on pop/rock stations as on urban air
waves. When they first took
their sound on the road, AWB shocked a lot of people. Funk was at it’s peak of
popularity just before the dawn of the disco era, but it was being done by black
artists like Parliament, Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Kool & The Gang and
others.
“People heard our music on the radio and would buy tickets to see us in
concert. They would be shocked to see a bunch of white guys walk up there and
start laying it down,” laughed guitarist Onnie McIntyre.
“You have to remember this was way before MTV and videos. Back then,
you only heard music on the radio, you rarely saw what a band looked like until
you went to a concert.”
When it’s all said and done, McIntyre would like the AWB legacy to be
that they were a band who were able to cross cultural boundaries.
“We helped to prove that music speaks to everyone. For a bunch of white
Scotsmen to be so openly accepted and embraced by the black culture says
something,” he said. “I’ve
very proud of that aspect of our career the most.”
AWB is not only still alive and kicking, but sounding every bit as good
as they did back in their chart-topping hey day.
“We may not get
played on the radio like we used to, but that’s not because of the music,”
said McIntyre. “It’s because of the sad state of radio today. I think we are
writing and recording some of the best material ever to carry the AWB name. We
have some remarkably talented lads in our band today.”
McIntyre is one of
only two original members keeping the band’s proud banner flying high.
The other is bassist/lead vocalist Alan Gorrie, who has always been the
primary songwriter, voice and leader of the group.
Gorrie, while doodling on a Howard Johnson’s hotel napkin during a
stop-over in California, was the one who created the band’s highly
recognizable AWB logo, whereas the “W” is transformed into the curvy shape
of a woman’s bottom. That
provocative line-art logo became as well known to teens of the mid-‘70s as the
band’s groove-laden number one hit, “Pick
Up The Pieces.”
Helping the duo keep the music thumping along in true AWB tradition are
– saxophonist Freddy Vigdor, drummer Adam Deitch and multi-instrumentalist,
Eliot Lewis.
To their credit, McIntyre and Gorrie have never shortchanged the band’s
sound after the original group fell apart in 1981.
Heeding their own lyrical advice, they decided to “pick up the
pieces” in 1995 and the band has been going strong ever since.
The “new guys” are very aware of their positions in the band and the
big shoes they have filled. Each came to AWB with a solid resume. Lewis worked
with the likes of Joe Cocker and Tina Turner.
Vigdor has blown sax with Chaka Kahn, the Temptations, jazz man Gerry
Mulligan and others. Even Deitch,
the newest member (joining in 2000) comes to AWB’s drum throne with a degree
from Boston’s Berklee School of Music and a passion McIntyre calls “truly
inspiring.”
The new AWB incarnation has released a respectable body of recorded work
in recent years, including 1997’s impressive Soul Tattoo and last year’s powerful live album
–– Face
To Face Live!
The latter was taped at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San
Francisco on the band’s 1999 tour and released via a distribution deal between
the band’s own label and EMI-Capitol Music.
Fans
unfamiliar with the band’s latter day efforts are hearing a lot of their new
songs during this tour.
“We’re doing a good deal of our newer material,” said McIntyre.
“Without having the benefit of radio anymore, we have to introduce
people to our new music at our shows. But
we are still doing all the songs that they have come to know us for.
We couldn’t get off the stage without doing songs like ‘Schoolboy
Crush,’ ‘Cut The Cake,’ ‘Person To Person’ and ‘Pick Up The Pieces,’ now could we?”
According to the
guitarist, 2001 was AWB’s most successful year since their 1995 reformation.
“Fashion and music is cyclical and our sound seems to be coming around
again,” said McIntyre. “We’re finding full houses wherever we go and it’s not
just older fans, but a lot of younger ones too.
That’s so important and makes us so happy. As a musician you are always
reaching out to touch new people with your music.”
In the grand scheme of
things, what has helped the Average White Band more than anything else has been
technology. Not any that they
have embraced themselves, but technology that has embraced them.
A number of
contemporary artists like Puff Daddy, Janet Jackson, Public Enemy and A Tribe
Called Quest have sampled the funky licks and riffs of the old Scottish groove
masters for their own recordings over the years.
“By today’s
standards, it’s really the same thing we did in our day,” said McIntyre.
“We all borrowed licks and riffs from artists we grew up admiring and
they have done the same. They’ve
not stolen anything, they’ve done all the legal things they need to do to use
those samples. It’s not only a
tribute to us that they would use our stuff in their songs, but it has turned
their fans on to us as a band. A
lot of kids want to see the band that Puffy and Janet liked enough to sample,”
concluded the guitarist. “So they
come to our show. How can I
complain?”
Log on at: www.averagewhiteband.com
Average White Band perform on July 20 at Chicago’s House Of Blues
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