Bio



he Dazz Band was a funk music band that enjoyed brief popularity in the United States in the early 1980s. The name of the band is a concatenation of "Disco Jazz" or "Danceable Jazz". Among their biggest hits were the songs "Let it Whip" and "Joystick".

The Dazz Band came about when founder Bobby Harris (sax, clarinet, background vocals) formed a fusion group entitled Telefunk which featured Isaac "Ike" Wiley, Jr. (drums), his brother Michael Wiley (bass), Michael Calhoun (guitar) and Kenny Pettus (percussionist/vocalist). Telefunk eventually became Kinsman Dazz, Kinsman being the name of the street Harris grew up on in Cleveland. Dazz, which stood for danceable jazz, had no connection to Brick's song by the same name as DB had changed its name before the No. 1 hit came out in '76. Still a lot of people missed out on the talented Atlanta group thinking the Dazz Band had come out with that tune.

Kinsman Dazz went to L.A. to record for producer Marvin Gaye after landing a deal with 20th Century Records exec Joe Lewis. Gaye, however, got sick during the recording sessions and had to back out of the duties and Harris requested and got Philip Bailey (great vocalist of Earth, Wind & Fire and Christian solo artist) who was the first producer for the first album, Kinsman Dazz, and co-produced the second one, Dazz. Bailey helped the group tremendously with vocal arrangements, the downside of that was the first album sounded a lot like EW&F material!

The Kinsman Dazz became the Dazz Band after 20th Century dissolved their record division and DB subsequently got signed to a deal with Motown. The group changed personnel and included the originals: Harris, Wiley brothers and Pettus; and brought on newcombers, Keith Harrison (keyboards/vocals), Steve Cox (keyboards), Eric Fearman (guitar), Pierre DeMudd (trumpet/vocals [falsetto]), and Sennie "Skip" Martin (lead vocals/trumpet). Martin would eventually join Kool & The Gang after original lead man James Taylor tried to go it, unsuccessfully, alone. Martin was vocalist for almost all the Dazz Band hits including Grammy winner 'Let It Whip'.

Dazz's first album for Motown was Invitation to Love which was self-produced by the group. They followed up on that effort with Let The Music Play which featured the single 'Knock! Knock!'. The group started making headway and gained notoriety with the 3rd release, Keep It Live (1982). which scored a They would go on to score R&B hits with Swoop (I'm Yours), Joystick, Let It All Blow, and Party Right Here but to some the ballads were the best part of the Dazz Band, which includes: Now That I Have You, Stay A While With Me, Just Believe In Love, Until You, Heartbeat; and two Pierre DeMudd-led scores: Let Me Love You Until and We Have More Than Love, where DeMudd shows tremendous vocal range.

After Keep It Live DB recorded On the One (1983), Joystick(1983), Jukebox (1984) and Hot Spot (1985), all for Motown. The band really made a name for itself on the road, touring with Rick James after blowing away tour headliners. In '86 Dazz recorded Wild & Free under the Geffen label. Soon after its release, the band switched to RCA. The group failed to have another hit and quietly faded away. But the music lives on and the band does get together for reunion "Old School" tours. Add/Complete Bio

Appearances

Articles and Documents

Click To Enlargethe dazz band

Copyright © 2004 - 2024 SOULANDFUNKMUSIC.COM. All Rights Reserved.