Standing In The Shadows Of Motown

Performer: Original Soundtrack
Engineer: Kooster McAllister; Mike Tarsia
Producer: Ted Greenberg; Harry Weinger; Lamont Dozier; Lawrence Horn; Berry Gordy, Jr.; Brian Holland; Al Slutsky (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: STANDING IN THE SHADOWS contains new live versions of classic hits sung by today's stars and backed by Motown's house band, the Funk Brothers. Included are three original, previously unreleased tracks from Motown's vaults. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Album For A Motion Picture Or Television. "What's Going On" (Chaka Khan) won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. Personnel: Levi Stubbs, Me'Shell Ndeg�ocello, Bootsy Collins (vocals); Eddie Willis, Robert White , Joe Messina (guitar); Luigi Mazzocchi, Florence Rosenweig, Larry Abramovitz, Orest Artymiw, Olga Konopelsky (violin); Davis A. Barnett (viola); Tom Scott (flute, saxophone); Danny Turner , Mike Pedicin, Ernie Rodgers, Kasuku Mafia, William Zaccagni, Ron Kerber (saxophone); Evan Solot, Marcus Belgrave, Maurice Davis (trumpet); Ted Greenberg (French horn, hand claps); Ron Kischuk, Edward Gooch (trombone); Eddie "Bongo" Brown (organ, congas); Earl Van Dyke, Demetrios Pappas, Rudy Robinson, Joe Hunter , Johnny Griffith (keyboards); Jack Ashford (vibraphone, percussion); Richard "Pistol" Allen, Uriel Jones (drums); Seth Justman (hand claps); Carla Benson, Keith Benson, Misty Love, John Ingram (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Ted Greenberg. Recording information: Hitsville Basement Studio "The Snakepit", Detroit, MI (12/06/2000-12/??/2000); Royal Oak Music Theater, Royal Oak, MI (12/06/2000-12/??/2000). Unknown Contributor Role: Benny Benjamin. Arrangers: Willie Shorter; Ritchie Rome; Paul Riser; Seth Justman; Wade Marcus; David Van De Pitte. During Paul Justman's film documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, based on Al Slutsky's book of the same name about the session musicians who played on Motown recordings in Detroit from the late '50s to the early '70s, one of the interviewees is heard to comment that once those musicians, who dubbed themselves the Funk Brothers, finished cutting a backing track, it almost didn't matter who sang over it. It is no criticism of the singers who appear on this soundtrack album, which consists mainly of the new performances of Motown hits that punctuate the film, to say that the music heard here bears that observation out. The singers have been well chosen for the songs. Me'Shell Ndeg�Ocello, for example, offers a contemporary gloss on Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and channels Eddie Kendricks on the Temptations' "Cloud Nine," while Gerald Levert makes like Levi Stubbs on the Four Tops' "Reach out I'll Be There," Joan Osborne lives up to Martha Reeves on the Vandellas' "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave," and Bootsy Collins brings humor and outrageousness to the Contours' "Do You Love Me" and the Capitols' "Cool Jerk." But the legend on the back of the disc, "Starring the Funk Brothers on all tracks" is well put. This is a cohesive group, not just some studio professionals. The band is mixed louder and much more clearly than they were in the 1960s, when their sound was compressed, toned down behind the vocalists, and presented (at least on the AM radios on which it was most frequently heard) in mono. While the Motown sound was the product of its singers, songwriters, arrangers, and producers as well as the musicians who played the instruments, their contribution has been undervalued, and this recording demonstrates that amply. ~ William Ruhlmann

Uncut (9/03, p.106) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The old dudes remain innately fluid..."

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