standing in the

shadows of

MOTOWN

 

Gil Askey will introduce the film and discuss his Motown experiences after the screening.
Don't miss this chance to discuss the history of Motown with the man who was there and played with the Funk Brothers and all the greats of the Motown era.

A native of Austin, Texas, Gil Askey studied music at the Boston Conservatory of Music and the Hartnett School of Music in New York. He has played or appeared on stage with some of the biggest names in jazz such as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lucky Thompson, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, the Duke (Ellington), the Count (Basie), Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey and even did a set with Billie Holiday.

Gil Askey spent almost twenty years in the jazz scene prior to his twenty-three year career at Motown, Warner Brothers and other companies, working as musical director, arranger or producer for such artists as Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five (with Michael), Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and of course the Funk Brothers whose music is celebrated in STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN. Askey has worked with many other musicians and performers including Liza Minnelli, Ann Margaret, Mitzi Gaynor, and his dear friend Curtis Mayfield. Askey now lives in Melbourne with his family, and tutors young musicians, hosts workshops and still plays trumpet at various venues around town.

Gil Askey playing after a screening of Standing in the Shadows of Motown at the KinoDendy Cinema in Collins Place in January
Image courtesy of ESP (Elliott Scott Productions)

STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN documents the true story of the Detroit sound and musicians, the Funk Brothers. Their music is famous around the world, though their names are not. Known as the Funk Brothers, they put the backbeat - the soul - into the countless hits of Motown Records. They played on more #1 hit records than The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley combined. Standing In The Shadows Of Motown is the story of these remarkable musicians whose talents have gone unrecognised for over 30 years. Exhilarating, funny and moving - their story is one of triumph and tragedy, hits and heartbreak.

Combining current interviews with rare vintage footage, as the story unfolds, the Funk Brothers are reunited after three decades to take the stage with contemporary vocalists - including Ben Harper, Me'shell NdegeOcello, Joan Osborne, Bootsy Collins and Chaka Khan - to perform classic songs and generate the unmistakable beauty and authenticity of the Motown sound.

from Inside Film


WINNER
2002 National Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Non-Fiction Film

WINNER
2002 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Best Non-Fiction Film

Director: Paul Justman

Cast: Richard 'Pistol' Allen
Jack Ashford
Bob Babbitt (II)
Bootsy Collins
Johnny Griffith
Ben Harper (II)
Joan Osborne


Passion for music won't let Askey hang up his horn

Read a transcript of Judy Tierney's interview with Gil Askey on the 7.30 Report, ABC, 21/04/99, introduced by Maxine McKew.


 

 

Review of Standing in the Shadows of Motown
by Margaret Pomeranz:

 

 

 

 

Motown, the record label founded in 1958 which spawned some of the great music of the sixties and seventies and which created the sound for such names as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder was founded on the backbeat talents of a group of musicians known as the Funk Brothers. Standing in the Shadows of Motown acknowledges their contribution to the sound of Motown and recalls the people and the times of the company's heyday. The Funk brothers - the ones that are left - regroup to talk about old times, revisit old haunts and to play music again with some incredible contemporary vocalists. This is fascinating stuff, delving behind the hits that are familiar to so many of us from so long ago now. There are some great stories, there's some terrific music, and there's a great acknowledgement of the contribution made by these background musicians when the fame and fortune went to others. There's no bitterness, there's only joy in the memories and in the music.

Margaret: 
(David: 
 No review)SBS Movieshow


 

For more info about the Funk Brothers visit the History of Rock website.


 

 

Review by Megan Spencer:

 

 

Music documentaries are always well worth the trip. How often do we get to hear people discuss the alchemy of music making? Not often enough.

Standing In The Shadows of Motown is one such music film and like the hugely successful feature length music documentary Buena Vista Social Club before it, Standing In The Shadows of Motown heralds a band of unsung heroes in popular music.

Standing In The Shadows of Motown tells the story of the original Motown studio "Hitsville USA", founded in Detroit in 1958 by legendary music producer Berry Gordy. In archive footage, present-day interviews and new concert recordings, we visit the surviving musicians from that pivotal 60s soul era, affectionately dubbed the Funk Brothers. And a funkier bunch of old dudes you're never likely to find, especially when they're given nicknames like "The Chunk of Funk".

Standing In The Shadows of Motown might not be the definitive Motown documentary, but it isn't a bad start. A stronger, more comprehensive and cohesive film would have gone harder on the politics of the era of "race music" in America, and traced the music's lineage back to the days of blues and gospel, instead of building foundations on the Funk Brothers' anecdotes. (Perhaps the filmmakers were a little too 'in awe' of these music legends?)

Instead the film enlists the help of Ben Harper, the fabulous (and wild) Bootsy Collins and such, to not only sing the Funk Brothers' classics, but their praises. These contemporary artists lend testament to the legacy of this group of - until now - sorely overlooked musicians.

Standing In The Shadows of Motown thus settles for being a musical tribute to the men who made the Motown sound, and that's just fine.

3 Stars ABC TripleJ film review

 

 

from Standing in the Shadows
of MOTOWN website
:

In 1959, Berry Gordy gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on "My Girl," "Bernadette," I Was Made to Love Her," and every other hit from Motown's Detroit era.

By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers.

Forty-one years after they played their first note an a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story in STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN.

With the tumultuous sixties as a backdrop, Motown's unsung heroes take the viewer on a compelling journey in time as they trace the evolution of The Motown Sound" from its origins in Detroit to its demise in Los Angeles during the seventies. Through the eyes of the riveting characters who ruled Hitsville's studio by day and the club scene of Detroit by night, we enter a world of unparalleled soul and emotion as the Funk Brothers revisit the sites of their musical roots, triumphs, and eventual heartbreak.

For more than four decades, from the dance floors of the world, to the Detroit riots of 1967, to the war in Vietnam, the music the Funk Brothers created has played a major role in the cultural fabric of all of our lives. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN finally puts some faces on that music and introduces these heroic musical figures to the world.

Fourteen years in the making, this film is based upon a book of the same title that won the 1989 Rolling Stone / BMl "Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award", STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN was shot in 35mm film, on location in Detroit and elsewhere. This one hour and forty-eight minute documentary and performance film tells the Funk Brothers' saga through archival footage and still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Funk Brothers backing up Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Montell Jordan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, and Gerald Levert.

 
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