James Brown

In 1984 Jack Mack was hired to perform for a very ritzy debutant ball in Fort Worth Texas. The party planners turned the Fort Worth Country Club into Route 66. They built a mini two lane highway that began at the entrance and wound throughout the different function rooms. They gave each room a theme based on a State. For instance, the Oklahoma room had Teepees and Indians and they were serving steaks, as you walked on the highway you came to a room and we were playing in it, another room had the Fabulous Thunderbirds and another had James Brown playing. The highway ended up at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills where a dance orchestra was playing while babes in bikinis and muscular model type guys were posing on a large float in the pool. The party was outrageous. This was really the first of many incredible parties we would play over the next 20 years however this was so special because on one of our breaks we got to walk over to one of the other rooms and watch James Brown in a small room that held approximately 200 people. I remember the band starting and Danny Ray his long time MC for 30 years, came out and said”

"LADIEES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S STARRR TIME! THE GODFATHER OF SOUL! THE HARDEST-WORKING MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS! SOUL BROTHER NUMBER ONE! THE LEGEND OF SOUL HIMSELF! MISTER DYNAMITE! IT'S MISTERRRR JAMES BROWN! JAMES BROWN! JAMES BROWN! and he went on and on and on for 10 minutes while the band played the intro groove. I guess James was tied up somewhere but he finally came out and gave a great performance. Listen to two amazing intros at http://www.myspace.com/mcdannyry,

After his show, some of us wandered back through the kitchen and found his dressing room. James came out and spoke to us for a little while and mentioned that he thought we did his songs more true to his records then he did. WOW! Can you imagine hearing that from the Godfather himself. James then invited us to come hear him perform the next night in Dallas. He said he would ask us to sit in” . We couldn't believe it. James Brown was the man, He wrote the Soul bible. His simple syncopated rhythms defined funky music and we grew up listening to him.

We showed up the next night at the theatre in Dallas and took our seats. We watched, listened and waited and waited and waited. Sure enough James kept his word. He got on the mic and said something like, I want to bring up to the stage some of the funkiest white boys I have ever heard. We bolted for the backstage door and because James had two drummers, two guitarist we slowly integrated into Sex Machine without the song stopping. We played, Cold Sweat and maybe one other. It’s a bit of a blur to me now. The highlight of the night was when James himself put his cape on our lead singer, Max. It was a dream come true and I am glad I can share these images with you. cl.ick on this link, it is a very interesting read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown#Concert_repertoire_and_format

from left to right JM Members, Bill Bergman, Jim Coile, JB member, John Berry, Lee Thornburg, JB band member, long time james Brown guitarist Jimmy Nolen, who died soon after this performance, Andrew Kastner (right behind James), Max Carl and our keyboardist John Paruolo.

http://www.funky-stuff.com/Nolen/bio.htm

From left to right, MC Danny Ray, JB member, John Paruolo aka JP, (The look on his face says it all), Max Carl wearing the cape that James himself just put on him and two JB band members.