On 7/24/05, Tony Brooke recorded the Funk Brothers at Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco.
The Funk Brothers are Motown's unsung heroes: the studio band which put the backbeat into hits for Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, etc. They played on more #1 records than The Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley COMBINED, but no one knew their names.
The reunited Funk Brothers were a similar lineup as appeared in the 2002 movie "Standing In The Shadows of Motown": Joe Hunter and Johnny Griffith on keyboards, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis on guitar, Bob Babbitt on bass, Jack Ashford on percussion and vibraphone and Uriel Jones on drums. They were joined in spirit by those who had passed away: leader/keyboardist Earl Van Dyke, legendary bassist James Jamerson (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee in 2000), drummer Pistol Allen, guitarist Robert White, percussionist Eddie "Bogo" Brown and drummer Benny Benjamin.
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