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Challenger Community News • t hec hallengernews.com •September 30, 2021
Disco vs Motown: An Interview with The Tramps Earl Young and The Contours’ Joe Billingslea
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f you’ve spent time on a dance floor over the last half century, you’ve felt the irrepressible and incredibly influential pulse of Trammps/MFSB/ Salsoul Orchestra drummer/vocalist Earl Young. As the originator of the disco style of drumming--utilizing four on the floor bass drum and hi-hat--Young (along with late bassist Ronnie Baker and also departed guitarist Norman Harris) drove the grooves of Philly soul milestones like Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes’ “The Love I Lost,” MFSB’s “Love Is the Message” and The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno.” “We’re excited and we’re ready to burn baby burn,” said Young by phone when asked what the audience can expect when Disco Vs Motown which showcases The Trammps featuring Young, The Contours and The Shades of Blue visits the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda on Saturday, October 2. Prompted to explain the origins of his drumming style that provided the back beat to The Stylistics, The Three Degrees, The Intruders, The O’ Jays, Eddie Holman and The Love Com- The Tramps (Earl Young 2nd from right) mittee, among so many others, while also laying the blueprint for House music, Young explained: “I listened to Motown’s drummers, to the Memphis drummers and I wanted to get a sound of my own. You can pick up a Philadelphia record and automatically know it’s a Philadelphia record. Norman, Ronnie and I played together for so long on the chitlin circuit that before we started playing we knew what we were going to do and that’s one of the things that made us popular. ” With 50 Gold records, 2 Grammys, 5 plaques on the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame and a cover story in the August issue of Modern Drummer Magazine, Young remains a vital artist at 81. The Trammps featuring Earl Young (this line-up of the band has been together over 30 years) will be performing timeless classics like “Zing Went The Strings of My Heart,” Hold Back The Night” and “That’s Where The Happy People Go,” which innovatively honored the soul music tradition--seamlessly blending doo-wop vocals with disco’s transcendence. Nick-named “The Bad Boys of Motown,” The Contours formed in the Motor City in 1959. Initially rejected by Berry Gordy, an intervention by Jackie Wilson (a The Countours (Joe Billingslea center) cousin of then band member Hubert Johnson) secured the group a contract as one of the label‘s earliest signings. “We were called the Bad Boys of Motown because we were always bucking the system,” laughed Joe Billingslea, who at 83, is the last surviving member of the group. “We were under the age of 18 or 19 years old. Every act had to be groomed. You had the Temptations which was a groomed group, you had the Miracles, of course, who were a groomed group. We already had our own style, so the only thing we needed to be taught was how to enter and exit the stage.” Contrasting the suave image and sound of Motown’s early era, the regional release of the group’s debut single “Whole Lotta Woman” was a more stark offering than the label’s thencurrent fare. It and its follow-up “The Stretch” failed to chart. The next single, the Berry Gordy-penned “Do You Love Me,” ON STAGE charted twice on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962 and 1988. While Billingsley initially disliked it, feeling it was too similar to the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” “Do You Love Me,” was the group’s biggest hit. Different line-ups of The Contours have performed throughout the years and Billingslea embarked on a career as a police officer, returning in 1988 and remaining since. While we won’t know who wins this clash of soul titans until October 2, one thing is for sure--it will be an evening of classic soul goodness.
Marsha McWilson will be on stage October 14 at Batavia Downs Park Place Event Center 8315 Park Road. See Marsha’s debut performance of her original hits along with tributes to Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and other Motown favorites. Doors at 6p.m. show starts at 7p.m. Tickets are $10 atBataviaconcerts.com
100 Years From Mississippi
Award-Winning Documetary on Life of Buffalo’s Mamie Kirkland Will be Screened at the Buffalo Int'l. Film Festival Writer/Director and Buffalo native Tarabu Betserai Kirkland will present his documentary film “100 Years From Mississippi” in a special LIVE HOMETOWN screening and post-show in-person talkback at the Buffalo International Film Festival, Sunday October 10th at 1:45 PM at the North Park Theatre, 1428 Hertel Avenue. "In the city where #MamieLangKirkland lived to be Buffalo's oldest citizen at 111, we are excited to share her true story of resilience, forgiveness, memory, and hope," stated her son Tarabu. Mamie Lang Kirkland was seven years old when she fled Ellisville, Mississippi in 1915 with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. John Hartfield returned to Mississippi in 1919 and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era. Mamie had vowed for a century that she would never return to Mississippi. Yet with Tarabu’s remarkable find, he urged his mother to finally confront her childhood trauma by returning to Ellisville. Mamie was 107 when they began the journey to connect her story to the larger impact of America’s Tarabu Betserai Kirkland legacy of racial violence, which echoes today from Ferguson to New York, Writer/Director Atlanta to Los Angeles. Like many of the six million African Americans who left the Deep South, Mamie’s story is a testament to the courage and hope of her generation. Her indomitable will and contagious joy of living is exceeded only by her ability to tell her story now 111 years later. In a time of great social divisions, 100 Years From Mississippi gives us the simple wisdom of an ordinary woman’s extraordinary life. Tickets can be purchased at:https://www.buffalofilm.org/.../100-years-from.../... “100 Years From Mississippi” is directed and produced by Tarabu Betserai Kirkland and Producer Gina Rugolo Judd. It was initially screened in May at the Harlem International Film Festival where it won for best documentary award and also in May at the National Black Film Festival in Houston where again won the honor for best documentary. In August it was screened at the Indianapolis Black Documentary Film Festival where it won for best documentary narrative. Most recently it premiered on the West Coast in Los Angeles swhere it creened to three sold out audiences. The Buffalo Int'l Film Festival is on from October 7 -11.Learn more about tickets and passes on their website www.buffalofilm.org
