Our Influences
Probably our closest associates and influences were the late great John E. Griffith and Richard “Pitstol” Allen. Johnny (who co-founded MCB with Louis in the mid 1980s) and Pistol were jazz players from Detroit who collaborated with Berry Gordy and together with a group of jazz guys turned studio musicians, who came to be called “the Funk Brothers”, were the heartbeat and core of the Motown sound beginning in the early 1960s (Supremes, Smoky Robinson, the Tops) continuing through the mid 1970s (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations).
We all learned a lot from Johnny and Pistol, who were equally adept at straight jazz and “funk”.
In terms of the actual music which we play, our big influences on the jazz side would include: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, singers, including Louis, Ella, Frank and Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Tom Jobim and Stan Getz, Miles Davis and many more.