The (G.A.S.) Station Grown & Sexy Groove Ballads
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One of the most underrated funk groups of the 1980s, Zapp revolutionized the computer pop of electro with their trademark vocoder talk boxes and bumping grooves, emulating the earthier side of Prince and Cameo, with a leader in Roger Troutman who was more than efficient at polished production. The family group, with brothers Roger, Lester, Larry, and Tony Troutman, grew up in Hamilton, OH, influenced by hometown heroes the Ohio Players as well as Parliament and other funk groups. Tony was the first to begin recording, with an obscure single for Gram-O-Phon Records, "I Truly Love You," which scraped the R&B charts in 1976. Joined by his brothers (with Roger on vocals and guitar, Lester on drums, Larry on percussion, and himself contributing bass) and christened Zapp, the group played around the Midwest and gradually picked up backing vocalists (Bobby Glover, Jannetta Boyce), keyboard players (Greg Jackson, Sherman Fleetwood) and a horn section (Eddie Barber, Jerome Derrickson, Mike Warren).
Zapp's following quickly gained notices, and Bootsy Collins himself was hired on to work with the group on their debut album. Released in 1980, Zapp hit the Top 20 on the pop charts, thanks to the single "More Bounce to the Ounce." The following year, Roger worked on Funkadelic's The Electric Spanking of War Babies and released his solo debut album, The Many Facets of Roger. His special cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," complete with vocoderized talk box, pushed the album into gold territory (as Zapp had done). Zapp II appeared in 1982 and proved just as popular as the group's first, including Zapp's only number one R&B single, "Dance Floor."
Zapp III barely made the Top 40 pop charts upon release in 1983, and Roger's second solo album, The Saga Continues, was also a disappointment, though his cover of "Midnight Hour" featured the Mighty Clouds of Joy. The New Zapp IV U fared slightly better after release in late 1985 (thanks to the single "Computer Love"), but in 1987, Roger's third solo album, Unlimited!, featured the group's biggest hit yet, "I Want to Be Your Man," a chart-topper on the R&B lists and a respectable number three pop. Though Roger and/or Zapp hit the R&B charts frequently during the rest of the late '80s, the unit had effectively halted recording with the 1991 Roger LP Bridging the Gap. Roger continued to produce and play with other artists, and it was his talk box that graced Dr. Dre & 2Pac's Top Ten 1996 single "California Love." The 1993 Roger & Zapp collection All the Greatest Hits sold well, earning the collective their first platinum record. The Zapp story ended in tragedy on April 25, 1999, when Roger was shot to death by Larry, who then turned the gun on himself.
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
Jimmy is the son of Cornbread Harris, a Minneapolis blues and jazz musician. Jimmy met Terry in high school in Minneapolis and formed a band called Flyte Tyme, which evolved into the Time. In 1981, they were joined by Morris Day and toured with Prince as his opening act. As members of The Time, they recorded three of the group's four albums (The Time, What Time Is It? and Pandemonium). The first two albums are said to have shaped early 1980s R&B music[attribution needed] (featuring "Cool," "Get it Up," "The Walk," "777-9311," and "Gigolos Get Lonely Too").
In 1982 Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were introduced to Music Executive Dina R. Andrews who was then a key employee of Dick Griffey's Solar Records (The Whispers, Shalamar, Lakeside (band), Klymaxx, The Deele, Babyface). The pair asked Andrews to manage them, and through her relationships Andrews first introduced Jam and Lewis to Music Executive Clarance Avant. They produced their first masters for Avant for the SOS Band. Andrews set-up Jam and Lewis's company Flyte Tyme Productions as a business entity, and continued shopping them to her other record executive colleagues. The producers went on to produce several other masters for Avant under Dina Andrews Management for the SOS Band, Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal and Change. Additionally, Andrews shopped the duo to many of the executives and artists who used their services, such as Klymaxx, Cheryl Lynn (Encore), and executives such as John McClain (Janet Jackson), Clive Davis, Sylvia Rhone, Warner Chappelle (Rachele Fields), and many others.
The pair was fired by Prince from a tour because a blizzard left them unable to rejoin after a short break to produce music for the SOS Band. However, one of the tracks they were producing, "Just be Good to Me", became a big hit and sealed the duo’s reputation, as well as that of the SOS Band. The duo would rejoin The Time for one album only, 1990’s Pandemonium.
The duo was noted for early use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine in English-language popular music, which was used in most of its productions. After working with other artists such as Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, Jam and Lewis were introduced to Janet Jackson and produced her breakthrough album Control in 1986, for which the duo won a Grammy Award. Their collaboration on her next album, 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814, proved even more successful as the album became one of the top-selling albums in history with five No.1 hits.
Since that time, they founded a record label, Perspective Records (an A&M/PolyGram Records-distributed label that has since shut its doors), and worked with artists including TLC, The Sounds of Blackness, Yolanda Adams, Jordan Knight, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Prince, Spice Girls, Vanessa Williams, George Michael, Melanie B, Rod Stewart, Kelly Price, Gwen Stefani, New Edition, Eric Benet, Pia Zadora, Solo, Morrison Slick (an unreleased cut, slated to appear on Morrison Slick's Flyte Tyme Records debut Kiss Da Sky came out on little known UK compilation Soul & The City[2] ) and The Human League. In 1999, they produced the major hit "Open My Heart" by Yolanda Adams which helped her popularity. In 2000, the two were guest performers for J-pop singer and songwriter Hikaru Utada's Bohemian Summer concert tour in Japan.
Terry Lewis married R&B singer Karyn White, with whom he had a daughter, Ashley Nicole Lewis. The pair has since divorced. He later married Indira Singh and had two children, Talin and Tierra. Jimmy Jam served as Chairman of the Board of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is currently listed as Chairman Emeritus 
.
In 2005 Jam and Lewis opened their new recording studios in Santa Monica California naming it Flyte Tyme West. In 2006, they won a Grammy for Yolanda Adams' song "Be Blessed" from her 2005 album Day By Day. In 2007, Jam and Lewis produced the two-time Grammy Award winning CD Funk This for Chaka Khan, which included the Award winning R&B duet "Disrespectful", with Mary J. Blige.
The production duo recently reunited with The Time at The 50th Grammy Awards on February 10, 2008 in a medley that included the artist Rihanna, and featuring "Jungle Love". In June and July 2008, all of the original members of The Time (Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jesse Johnson, Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson, and Monte Moir) reunited once again for a series of shows at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Jam and Lewis worked on Ruben Studdard's new CD, Love Is.
To date, Jam and Lewis has produced 17 Hot 100 #1 singles:
A documentary called Flyte Tyme was made recently, which focuses on their label and them.
The Gap Band
The Gap Band, centered around brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, toiled in obscurity for several years prior to becoming one of the most popular funk groups of the late '70s and 1980s. The Tulsa, OK natives produced 15 Top Ten R&B singles ranging from ferocious funk anthems to gorgeous slow jams. Many of their hits, such as "Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" and "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," featured instantly memorable, rippling synthesizer basslines. All of them featured Charlie's deep, invigorating lead vocals. While casual R&B fans and most critics associate the Gap Band with the early '80s, the Wilsons' run of hits spanned nearly 20 years, from 1977 through 1995.
Born and raised in Tulsa, OK, the Wilson brothers began singing and playing in their father's Pentecostal church; at home, music lessons were mandatory. They learned various instruments, primarily the piano. As much as they despised the lessons at the time, they proved to be invaluable. Ronnie, the oldest sibling, established his own band by the age of 14. Charlie, a few years younger, joined a rival band a couple years later. One night, the two bands were performing across the street from one another. Ronnie stopped by to check out Charlie grooving on the organ. While there, Ronnie asked Charlie to join his band for 50 dollars over what he was making. Though Charlie's bandmates doubled that offer, he joined his brother's band. Ronnie gave him no choice.
At a gig not too long after the two had joined forces, the bass player quit and Ronnie and Charlie summoned their younger brother Robert, barely 14, to take the spot. For a short while, the band performed without a name but eventually settled on the Greenwood, Archer & Pine Street Band. As advertising such a name on posters was cumbersome, the Wilsons shortened the name to the G.A.P. Street Band. Due to a typographical error, they were advertised as the Gap Band, and it stuck.
The band performed at venues around the Tulsa area, including country & western joints, tennis clubs, and rock clubs. However, by the middle of the 1970s, Charlie left Tulsa to explore his possibilities in Los Angeles. A short time later, he convinced his brothers to join him. The bandmembers floundered until they met entertainment businessman Lonnie Simmons through their friend, singer/songwriter/musician D.J. Rogers. Simmons owned a recording studio and nightclub, both of which were dubbed Total Experience (also the name that would appear on Gap Band releases during the '80s), and signed the Wilsons along with their nine bandmates.
The Gap Band's first album, Magician's Holiday, was released in 1974 to little fanfare. A self-titled album followed three years later; despite guest appearances from D.J. Rogers, Reverend James Cleveland, Chaka Khan, Leon Russell, and Les McCann, it didn't leave any chart impressions, either, though it did feature a pair of minor hits in "Out of the Blue (Can You Feel It)" -- an excellent, mellow, electric piano-driven song written by Charlie -- and "Little Bit of Love."
A deal with Mercury put the Gap Band on the fast track. A self-titled 1979 album reached number ten on Billboard's R&B chart, led by the success of "Shake" (number four R&B) and "Open Up Your Mind" (number 13 R&B). They followed it later in the year with The Gap Band II, an album that spawned two more Top Ten R&B singles. Released in 1980, The Gap Band III was their first number one R&B album, where their sound became even more distinctive. It wasn't just the voice of Charlie that stood out. "Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" was the band's first major hit dominated by a synthesizer bassline, provided by Cavin Yarbrough, who scored around the same time with his and Alisa Peoples' "Don't Stop the Music." Just as those two songs defined the sound of clubs in 1980, "Yearning for Your Love" quickly became a classic ballad, and was covered a decade later by Guy (whose Aaron Hall was the younger singer most evidently inspired by Charlie's sound and style).
There's no denying that the Gap Band's peak came during the early '80s. This notion would have been easy to predict as early as 1982, when they released three major hits: "Early in the Morning" (number one R&B; covered by Robert Palmer), "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" (number two R&B), and "Outstanding" (number one R&B). Even so, it's not as if the remainder of the decade was dry for them, not when they released 16 additional charting A-sides (including the title song to Keenan Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka), six of which reached the R&B Top Ten, as well as popular albums on an almost annual basis. Their popularity waned only when they slowed their recording schedule. Three studio Gap Band albums were released during the 1990s. Charlie Wilson concentrated on his solo career, starting in 1992 with You Turn My Life Around. The singer began to reach out to a younger audience in 1996, when Snoop Dogg featured him on "Snoop's Upside Your Head." Further collaborations with Snoop, R. Kelly, and Justin Timberlake followed throughout the 2000s. In August 2010, Robert Wilson died of a heart attack.
The Jacksons
The Jacksons: Live
It's easy to forget, in the wake of a decade of bizarre behavior, rumors, and innuendo surrounding Michael Jackson that the Jacksons were once known solely for being a major music franchise. This live album, which was pretty obscure in its original double-LP vinyl version, is a reminder of how great an act they were, and captures what was just about the end of Michael Jackson's work with the family group, all of it very much on a high-note. Live opens with a pounding, powerful rendition of "Can You Feel It" and, with one exception, never lets up, pushing on through a high-velocity and high-articulation version of "Things I Do for You," and a soaring "Off the Wall." There's an unfortunate lag where Michael Jackson slows things down for "Ben" (arguably the nadir of his Motown career), but "This Place Hotel" and the far more effective ballad "She's Out of My Life" make up for that lapse. The last section of the album, commencing with Off the Wall's "Rock With You," is practically a live rendition of that album, and so bracing as to almost exhaust the listener; and the preceding medley of their early Motown hits is just about worth the asking price of the disc by itself. On the down side, there are no notes and barely any credits, and the volume is set a bit low, but it pumps up beautifully with virtually no excess noise. The album is worth tracking down as an artifact of a simpler, more unabashedly joyous time in music, as well as the family's history.
2300 Jackson Street
This was the final gathering of the entire Jackson family, and it turned out to have both historical significance and some musical value. The team of L.A. and Babyface, then emerging as major producers, spearheaded the track "Nothin' Compares to U," and the title track was a nice autobiographical/family outing song.
The Jacksons
After the commercial reprieve of the innovative "Dancing Machine" single (and album of the same name), the Jackson 5's successful five-year relationship with Motown and Berry Gordy ended. Their last Motown effort, Moving Violation, had barely made a dent. After an acrimonious split, brother Jermaine Jackson stayed at Motown, and Gordy fought and won, keeping the Jackson 5 moniker. The Jacksons isn't only their Epic label debut, it's the first album to feature youngest brother Randy Jackson. To ensure chart success, the group was teamed with Philadelphia producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, as well as their staff of writers and players. Despite the promise, The Jacksons is hampered by derivative tracks and a lack of knowing what to do with the group, particularly lead singer, Michael Jackson. The big hit here, the jerky "Enjoy Yourself," perfectly captured Michael Jackson's late adolescence, with his newfound vocal tics and inflections. "Show You the Way to Go" best captures the Philly sound, with a pretty melody and a great vocal from Michael, but it's a weak lyric. The Dexter Wansel-written and -produced "Keep on Dancing" matches a substandard discofied track to Michael Jackson's singular vocals. The last track, the graceful "Blues Away" marks the writing debut of the group and is a great match between artists and producers. For the most part, The Jacksons gives the guys by-the-numbers Philly tracks that could have been easily done by Lou Rawls. Despite the best songs, The Jacksons misses more than it hits.
The brothers' third post-Motown album as the Jacksons was their most successful release, both commercially and creatively, since 1974's Dancing Machine. Their first two Epic albums, where they aligned with Gamble, Huff, and other Philly soul stalwarts, had some strong singles but were very uneven and somewhat awkward in stretches, and this time out, they wrote and produced on their own. Backed by an arsenal of up-and-coming and veteran L.A. session musicians -- including guitarists Michael Sembello and Paul Jackson, Jr., drummer Rick Marotta, arranger Thomas "Tom Tom 84" Washington, and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, the last of whom played on just about everything involving a Jackson family member through the early '90s -- Destiny did much more than set the stage for Michael's Off the Wall. The sunny "Blame It on the Boogie" and the dazzling Off the Wall prelude "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" were the album's only singles, upbeat numbers that peaked at number three on the Black Singles chart, but the mature Michael showcase ballad "Push Me Away" (pointing toward "I Can't Help It" and "Human Nature") and the alternately somber and uplifting "Bless His Soul," containing a startling confession from Michael ("There is no life for me at all/'Cause I give myself at beck and call") added an impressive level of depth to the Jacksons' discography.
Triumph
Released during the summer of 1980, just as the hits from Michael's Off the Wall were sliding off the charts, Triumph became the Jacksons' first Top Ten pop album since 1972's Lookin' Through the Windows. This despite the album-opening "Can You Feel It," promoted with a spectacle of a video that made the Jacksons into gigantic superheroes capable of transforming bridges into bendable rainbow tubing, stalling at number 77 on the Hot 100. It didn't make much of an impact on the R&B chart either, but then again, its supernatural anthemic stomp is more a fireworks program finale than something as small scale as a mere single. As on 1978's Destiny, the Jacksons wrote and produced the material, this time with keyboardist Greg Phillinganes bumped up to associate producer, and with an uptick in star backing -- including but not limited to Ronnie Foster, Phil Upchurch, Webster Lewis, Michael Boddicker, and Ollie Brown, as well as Triumph holdovers Michael Sembello, Thomas Washington, and Nathan Watts. The other singles, including "Lovely One" (very nearly "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" reheated) and "This Place Hotel" (an elaborate six-minute affair, written and arranged by Michael, that could have easily swollen to greater length) propelled the album into sales greater than that of Destiny, and it's equally durable (and markedly slicker) all around.
Victory has the distinctions of being the only Jacksons album to feature all six brothers and the last Jacksons album to feature Michael Jackson. In the four years that had passed since the last Jacksons studio album, Triumph, Michael had become the biggest pop star in the world because of 1982's Thriller. He had little excuse other than family ties to work with his brothers again, but he agreed to a final album and tour. So, here one has the ludicrous situation of an album in which Marlon Jackson has as prominent a role as Michael Jackson. That's how it sounded to listeners in 1984, anyway, and they weren't fooled -- "State of Shock," on which Michael shared vocals with Mick Jagger, was a gold Top Ten hit, and "Torture," which teamed Michael with Jermaine, made the Top 40, while the album went platinum. But the tracks by other group members went virtually ignored. In retrospect, Victory is a competent album of slick contemporary R&B, occasionally goosed toward greatness by the appearance of one of pop music's most identifiable voices. Which is the same thing you can say about nearly the entire Jackson 5/Jacksons catalog.
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