Out of the Shadows

Wearing a red tracksuit and a black baseball cap Jack Ashford looks conspicuous amidst the palatial surroundings of the Radisson Edwardian Kenilworth Hotel. But behind this casual exterior, Jack Ashford is certainly music royalty, only the lettering on his baseball cap giving any indication of his stature. His hat reads, in bold white letters, “Motown.”

When Motown music first reached British shores in 1960, EMI Records boss, Sir Joseph Blackwood, remarked that the studio would never create hits because the tambourine was too prominent in the musical arrangements. That tambourine would become the very essence of the famous Motown sound, and the man who added that tambourine is Jack Ashford.Bandleader and percussionist for the original Motown Rhythm Section, Jack has played on more number one records than Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined, and earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award for his efforts.

At 73, Jack shows no signs of slowing down. I catch up with him in London, where he is set to play tambourine, marimba, and percussion with his band for three sold-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Jack has flown to London straight from playing a sell-out concert in Paris. “We tore France up!” Jack remarks, jubilantly. “They were queuing outside in the rain to see us! We have to go back soon at the venue’s request, but we’re going to tour the whole of France, not just Paris.” Following his London shows he will return briefly to the US to rest before touring Europe and Asia—but not the US. “I don’t like touring in the States,” he says with a grimace. “Their interest over there is driven by something other than creativity and appreciation.”

Jack is also hard at work on a brand new solo album. “I’m about sixty days late with the record already,” Jack says wearily. “But I have been so busy. We’ve got a lot of great stuff on this album. There’s one tune, “Sunshine Girl”—it’s what we call a toe-tapper. I sing on it! I’ve never sung before but it sounds okay. I’ve been around a lot of great singers so I guess I know what not to do.”

For the album, Jack has teamed up with Angelo Earl, owner of Soul Street Records and currently Jack’s tour guitarist. “Angelo is extremely computer-literate and he has put some more modern stuff in there; some hip-hop grooves. One of the songs has a real funk edge to it,” Jack says, tapping his feet as he sings a few bars and describes the hissing tambourine. “I guess you could describe the new album as the direction Motown was going in right before it closed down in the seventies; it’s reminiscent of Motown but with a new flavor.”

Listening to Jack describe his hectic schedule and his enthusiasm for his new album, it’s easy to forget that despite his influence and his years of loyal service at Motown, things didn’t always run so smoothly for him.

In 1963 Jack was spotted performing in a club and invited to tour with Marvin Gaye. At the end of the tour, Gaye invited Jack to join the Motown band. “The rest,” says Jack, “is history.”

Jack remained at Motown for a decade, arranging hit after hit for icons such as Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder, and laying his signature percussion and vibes on classics, including “My Girl,” “Baby Love,” and “Heard It Through The Grapevine.” His proudest achievement at Motown, though, was his integral role as bandleader on Marvin Gaye’s seminal 1971 album, What’s Going On. Such was the soul maestro’s impact on Jack that he once cited his two greatest influences as “God and Marvin Gaye.”

What’s Going On would turn out to be one of Jack’s final projects for Motown, for one cold morning in 1972 Jack arrived at the Motown Studios to find a group of devastated musicians staring a note in the window, informing staff members that the company had moved to Los Angeles and they had not been invited. The various members of the band fell on hard times and several were forced to abandon their musical ambitions altogether. In his 2005 autobiography, The View From The Bottom, Jack spoke candidly of his “anger and disappointment,” branding the sudden move a “betrayal,” and detailing his grief at the fact that several of the band members died having never been recognized for their outstanding body of work.

Indeed, it was not until 2003 that the band’s impact on the music industry would truly be celebrated when Motown guitarist Robert White told his film producer friend Alan Slutsky of the band’s history. Intrigued by their story, Slutsky produced a documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, charting the band’s phenomenal success and celebrating their achievements. Rebranding the band “the Funk Brothers” and billing them as “the best kept secret in the history of pop music,” Slutsky catapulted them into the limelight. But, says Jack, all was not what it seemed.

One of the terms of the band’s contracts was that following the film’s release, they would be managed by Alan Slutsky for a year. “It was a disaster!” exclaims Jack. “We were set up to be cash cows.” Although clearly angry about the situation, Jack soon adopts a more philosophical attitude. “It’s not a perfect world we live in and we sometimes run into things we don’t like, but we have to endure them. I just thought of it all as a catalyst to getting where I am now. That was the only way I could get through it without having a nervous breakdown or hurting somebody.”

When the group’s one-year contracts came up for renegotiation Jack and fellow band member, pianist “Papa” Joe Hunter, elected to form their own group. “Before we came to Motown we were mostly jazz musicians,” Jack explains. “Joe Hunter and I were the only guys left from the original group and we wanted to start playing some jazz in our live shows to show the audience what we’re doing now and how we’d evolved. The other guys joined Motown after us and they didn’t play jazz, so we left together and started our own group.”

The two became a successful touring act, playing a mixture of Motown music and jazz to full houses all over Europe. However, after two years of success, and just one week after last January’s sold-out concerts at Ronnie Scott’s, tragedy struck. Joe Hunter crashed his car and died shortly afterwards. “I kept trying to call him,” Jack says, “but he wasn’t answering. In the end I called his son, who I know very well. His son went ’round there and found him dead. It looks like that night he was playing piano at home when he fell over backwards and died on the floor. He was bleeding internally and he didn’t know it. But at least he died doing what he loved.”

One year later, Jack has come full circle. He’s back in London with the same band and playing to more sold-out audiences at Ronnie Scott’s. Following a series of concerts in the UK last November with funk legend George Clinton, Jack also looks set to star in his very own documentary. “There was a film crew shooting the concerts for a George Clinton documentary,” he explains. “I got talking to the producer and he wants to do one on me now!”

Whilst clearly proud of his achievements and pleased with his newfound fame, Jack has remained calm and dignified, explaining that he feels duty-bound to preserve the memory of the group. “My history,” he says—”I realize it is vast and very unique. How many guys can say they do what I do? I enjoy the adulation, but it can be a burden to be a legend; to carry that responsibility and be the voice of those who are no longer with you. When I speak, I don’t only speak for me. It’s the legacy of the band, of Berry Gordy, of Motown. The Motown story is not closed yet. I don’t know if the final chapter will ever be written because the music is still everywhere.”

For Jack, the final chapter also remains unwritten. Excited about his new material and ever-keen to achieve more, he says, “I have two Grammys and a Lifetime Achievement. When I went up to collect my Grammy Lifetime Achievement, I said, ‘I kinda like it up here, I think I’m coming back.’ I’m gonna get back. I think ‘Sunshine Girl’ can get me back.”