Transcriber: David Aquino Reviewer: David DeRuwe
(Music)
Are you feeling the funk?
(Audience) Yes!
David Webb: Put your hands together! Come on! Come on!
Feel the funk! Feel the funk! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
We want the funk!
Come on!
Feel it! Are you feeling it? I can't hear you. Are you feeling it?
(Aud) Yes!
DW: You're feeling it?
(Aud) Yes!
DW: This section? Are you feeling it?
(Aud) Yes!
DW: All right, all right.
In the 1960s, there was a movement in the South
to migrate to the North for jobs, the industry.
At that time, my family moved from Milan, Tennessee, to Dayton, Ohio,
to discover a better way of life.
And that's when I was introduced to funk music at a very early age.
At that time, young people were focusing on their art form in music in schools.
But I was in the fifth grade, at Jefferson Elementary School,
(Laughter)
and learning to play an instrument for the very first time.
And I wanted to play the drums.
So I went to my music teacher
and asked her, "Can I play the drums in the band class?"
But instead, she gave me a flutophone.
(Laughter)
She felt
that the drums would be too difficult for me to learn.
And she said I could't keep a beat.
So after school, I ran home
to show my instrument to my mother and father,
the flutophone.
(Laughter)
You know, my mother was a little disappointed.
She knew my dreams were to play the drums.
That day, that moment, I learned something.
My mother
was a "drug" addict.
She drug me to music class,
(Laughter)
she drug me to drum corps for band rehearsal.
She drug me to church.
She drug me anywhere possible so I can learn how to play
an instrument.
(Laughter)
But then in the early 1970s,
there was a group out of Dayton, Ohio,
called the Ohio Players.
(Cheers)
(Applause)
I used to listen to songs like
"Pain," "Funky Worm," "Skin Tight," and "Fire."
and right then,
I knew I wanted to be a drummer.
Then the funk explosion took off in Dayton, Ohio for me,
making the "Gem City"
the funk capital of the world.
(Applause)
But there were other innovators who influenced me
on my journey for knowledge for funk music.
In Augusta Georgia, it was James Brown,
who combined the music genres of rhythm and blues,
jazz, and soul to an art form,
which we know now as funk music.
And Detroit, Michigan, George Clinton.
And also, in Memphis, Tennessee,
Isaac Hayes.
And on the West Coast, in San Francisco,
influencing the messages of family and positive culture,
his name was Sylvester Stewart,
who later became known as his band as ...
Sly and the Family Stone.
These gentlemen, among others,
planted the seed of funk music as a creative art form in Dayton, Ohio.
And they, too, influenced my career as a professional drummer.
After so many years,
funk music became a lost art form,
fallen to the wayside like art and music classes,
no longer offered in public schools
until
the Arts Education Partnership,
with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
commenced a study to examine the impact,
and why and how a young person like me,
at thirteen years old was changed ...
due to the art experience.
Evidence demonstrates that children with a high level of art participation
outperform art-poor students by virtually every measure.
The study, "Champions of Change,"
found much evidence that learning in the arts
helps develop habits that will support other discipline areas
and it can often reach at-risk students when other discipline areas cannot.
The arts provide young people authentic learning experiences
that engages their minds, their hearts, their bodies.
Art education helps students to learn.
It can enhance creativity, self-discipline,
and the skills and confidence necessary
to meet the challenging encounters
in my life,
as a student,
and as an adult.
So, let's do a demonstration, OK?
on how to keep a funky beat and keep it on the one.
(Laughter)
It's that funk music bridges the gap between our racism.
For example, everybody remember KC and the Sunshine Band?
Y'all remember that?
OK! Yeah! Yeah!
Remember the group, Average White Band?
and a group right here out of Ohio called Wild Cherry.
Y'all remember "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" right?
Good, OK. Let`s do a little demonstration.
So let's do a random song, see if you know this.
If I go, "There she was
just walking down the street," you say,
(Aud) Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.
DW: Wow, then that's great.
(Laughter)
So, let's do this. Let's put a beat to that, OK?
because that's done in a two-four, OK?
So I'm going to count it off, and I want you to help me to sing it, OK?
So are y'all ready?
Here we go.
One, two, one, two, three, four
"There she goes just a walking down the street singin'
(Aud) Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do."
DW: One more time,
"There she goes just a walking down the street singin'
(Aud) Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do."
DW: Good, good, good.
Now, funk music is on the one and the three.
OK? So let's take a bit of ...
"Play that Funky Music White Boy" by Wild Cherry
Y'all know that right?
Let's take it from the part where they go,
and if you know it help me out,
"And they were dancin' and singin'
and movin' to the groovin',
and just like it hit me
somebody turned around and shouted,
(Aud) Play that funky music white boy
DW: Oh, y'all are good!
(Laughter)
Can we put a beat to that?
Let's put a beat to that.
Let's try it again. I'm going to count you off.
So here were we go.
One, two, one, two, three
"And they were dancing, and singing
and moving to the grooving
and just like it hit me
somebody turned around and shouted
(Aud) Play that funky music white boy."
DW: Good, good.
Now, some of y'all didn't get it.
(Laughter)
Some of y'all that still didn't get it.
So I need you to do this.
Turn to your neighbor, and say, "Neighbor."
Turn and say: Neighbor,
(Audience) Neighbor
DW: I wanna get funky.
(Audience) I wanna get funky
DW: Now -
(Laughter)
Now
(Laughter)
Turn to your other neighbor, and say, "Neighbor"
(Aud) Neighbor
DW: Neighbor,
(Aud) Neighbor
DW: I hope you give me another chance
(Aud) I hope you give me another chance
DW: to get funky.
(Aud) to get funky
DW: OK, I'll give you another chance to redeem yourself.
So everybody stand up, come on!
Everybody stand up.
We're going to do a little exercise here, OK?
Now,
everybody knows how to spell Ohio, right?
(Aud) Right
DW: If you're from Michigan, a Wolverine, I understand
it might be a little difficult,
but we're going to spell this out
using our hands and mouth at the same time, OK?
So it's like this:
the pattern is one, two, three, four, and
O - h
- i - o
and O -
- h - i
o. Now,
we're going to add a little music to that.
Y'all ready?
Drop the music
(Music)
You ready? Feel the funk.
(Rhythmic clapping)
and O -
h - i
o and
O - h -
- i - o - Come on!
O - Come on! - h - i - o -
O - h - i - o -
in the balcony -
O - h - i - o -
in the balcony -
(Aud) O - h - i - o -
DW: This section -
(Aud) O - h - i - o
DW: This section
(Aud) O - h - i - o
DW: This section
(Aud) O - h - i - o
DW: Give yourself a round of applause.
Be seated please.
(Applause)
You see, someone asked me,
what was my purpose?
So I told them this,
"To educate the public's knowledge in the history of funk music on the one."
This genre of funk music the collective was told in a rhythm
geared for me,
as an adult to a youth to a professional artist, and playing.
As I conclude,
Ohio
is the heart of it all for funk music,
and Dayton, Ohio is the nerve center of funk.
Music is harmony.
Harmony is music.
Harmony is the strength of support of all institutions,
especially this.
Funk music, the empowerment of education
in my life.
Thank you.
(Cheers)
(Applause)