Mike Parker: 6th Funk Fest highlights musical innovators
The doors of the Kinston Community Council for the Arts at 400 North Queen Street will open to welcome those who want to honor and celebrate a musical genre that developed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. That musical genre is known as “Funk.”
“Funk is an instrumental and vocal genre of dance music popularized in the 1970s that embrace many styles from the jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, soul jazz, gospel, and rock traditions,” according to the Timeline of African American Music web site. “Rhythm takes precedence over melody and harmony, and repetitive ‘grooves’ keep the dancers moving. Funk came on the scene during a period of social activism in the late 1960a and crystallized during the 1970s.”
So, why is Kinston so keen on dedicating a festival to Funk music? Many argue that Kinston was the birthplace of Funk. According to the Timeline article I mentioned earlier:
“Among the pioneers of funk are James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone, whose revolutionary sounds became popular at the height of the Black Power, anti-Vietnam and hippie movements of the late 1960s. Soul singer James Brown gave funk its polyrhythmic foundation.”
But the music of James Brown took a magical turn when he enlisted several Kinston musicians for his band. Among those were Nat Jones, Melvin and Maceo Parker, and Dick Knight. The influence of these talented Kinston musicians took James Brown’s music in a new direction and created a musical revolution.
At this year’s Funk Fest, lovers of this musical style are going to look back to honor two influential artists from Kinston: Little Eva and Geneva Perry.
Geneva Frances Perry, who passed away on April 6, 2002 at age 76, performed with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm dance orchestra in the 1940s. The orchestra, among the strongest musically of the all-female groups of that era, was primarily a touring group with a rare multiracial lineup of players. The dance band made appearances at the Howard Theatre and the Apollo Theater, and the group performed at other well-known venues nationwide. The group broke up in 1949.
After the band broke up, Perry began teaching music at schools in North Carolina and New York. She served as the band director at Adkin High School. Perry was called “Teacher” by bandmates, so no one was surprised when she embarked on her teaching career in the 1950’s. One of her band students was Nat Jones, who later worked with and influenced James Brown.
Eva Narcissus Boyd was born June 29, 1943 in Belhaven, one of sixteen children. In 1962, she moved to the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn where she had relatives. One of her relatives knew the singing group the Cookies and suggested her as a stand-in. Whenever one of the Cookies could not get out of class for a performance, Eva substituted for her.
Since work as a back-up singer was sporadic, Eva often found herself babysitting for songwriters Carol King and Gerry Goffin. One day they returned home and found her singing a song they had written for Dee Dee Sharp. They liked what they heard, so they rushed her into the studio. Carol King performed the backing vocals.
Little Eva was only sixteen when “The Loco-Motion” hit No. 1 on the charts. Her salary as the Goffins' babysitter was $35 dollars a week. Her earnings from “The Locomotion” were reported to be around thirty thousand dollars.
She appeared on television shows and numerous magazines featured her. She performed live in the United States and did several tours of England. But she became disenchanted with the music business. She retired in the early 1970’s, but in the 1990’s began performing live on the oldies circuit.
Little Eva passed away on April 10, 2003, at age 59.
If you want to join in an evening of food, fun, fellowship, music, and dancing, be sure to attend Funk Fest Saturday evening. The program begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25. Funk Fest is sponsored by the African American Heritage Commission of Kinston and Lenoir County.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
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