Brainstorm (disco band)
Encyclopedia
Brainstorm was an American
funk
and R&B
band, based in Detroit, Michigan
in the late 1970s. Their debut album
, Stormin'
, was their best selling album, and was released in 1977 on Tabu Records, executive-produced by Clarence Avant
and produced by Jerry Peters
. It contained the disco
hit single
"Lovin' Is Really My Game", which was featured in 54 (film)
starring Mike Myers, and won the 1978 Billboard Magazine Light Radio/Heavy Disco Record of the Year. The album also contained the radio hit "This Must Be Heaven", which is considered a soul classic, by virtue of its continued air play to this date (2011), 34 years later, frequently, in the R&B radio market nationwide. Other single releases from subsequent albums included 1978's "On Our Way Home", and "Hot For You", featuring Belita Woods
on lead vocals.
The members of the band (on the Stormin'
album) were Belita Woods
, bandleader and saxophonist Chuck Overton, Lamont Johnson on fretless bass and vocals ("This Must Be Heaven"), Renell Gonsalves on drums, Treaty Womack on vocals, percussion and flute, Bob Ross (a.k.a. Professor RJ Ross
) on keyboards, Gerald (Jerry) Kent on guitar, Jeryl Bright
on trombone, and "Leaping" Larry Sims on trumpet. Future Wham!
/George Michael
bassist
, Deon Estus
, was also a member of the band for a time. A teenage Regina Carter
, who later became internationally known and respected as a jazz violinist, joined the band around 1978 and performed for a time with them. The Brothers Ali, Jerome and Jimmy (bass and guitar), joined about the same time in 1978, these days performing in Las Vegas and other venues.
Members of Brainstorm continued their musical careers with other bands or in production. Woods later went on to perform as part of the Parliament-Funkadelic
collective in touring sets around the world. Sims became the trumpet
er for the Sounds of Blackness
, which won two Grammy Award
s during the 1990s. Bright went on to play trombone
with the funk band Cameo
for over twenty five years, and later released an album with other former Cameo members Aaron Mills
, and Thomas TC Campbell, known as MCB (which was also the title of their album). Trenita (Treaty) Womack performs regularly with the Funk Brothers as well as a wide variety of other artists, and appeared in Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
, an award-winning documentary, as percussionist. Gerald (Jerry) Kent has produced a BMI-affiliated self-published CD in 2006, under the name Kent's Way Overdue entitled Tone Paintings, an original jazz-fusion guitar-based collection of instrumental cuts. He also plays guitar and bass with the IDMR Detroit Choir, which choir was used in the closing scenes of Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
, singing background harmony behind Chaka Khan
in a Grammy 2003 winning performance of What's Going On
. William Wooten, who joined the band after the first album playing keyboards, now tours with The Dramatics
and The Spinners. E. L.(Lamont) Johnson has released new material and has a website as well (see external links), and teaches bass. Renell Gonsalves performs with a wide variety of artists, as a skillful Latin-jazz percussionist (His father was renowned jazz saxophonist Paul Gonsalves
, late of the Duke Ellington
band). Professor RJ Ross
has written and co-produced a number of music projects with well-known artists in California including a 2008 CD "Face to Face".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
band, based in Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
in the late 1970s. Their debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Stormin'
Stormin' (album)
Stormin' is the debut album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm.-Reception:Released in 1977 on the Tabu Records label. Produced by Jerry Peters.-Track listing:#Lovin' Is Really My Game 4:59 #Waiting For Someone 6:13...
, was their best selling album, and was released in 1977 on Tabu Records, executive-produced by Clarence Avant
Clarence Avant
Clarence Avant is an American music executive, entrepreneur, and film producer. He was also known as the Godfather of Black Music.Avant's 75th birthday was celebrated by Billboard magazine, on its February 2006 issue....
and produced by Jerry Peters
Jerry Peters
Jerry Peters is an American songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for writing the hit song Going In Circles" by The Friends of Distinction.-Career:...
. It contained the disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
"Lovin' Is Really My Game", which was featured in 54 (film)
54 (film)
54 is a 1998 drama film written and directed by Mark Christopher, starring Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, and Neve Campbell...
starring Mike Myers, and won the 1978 Billboard Magazine Light Radio/Heavy Disco Record of the Year. The album also contained the radio hit "This Must Be Heaven", which is considered a soul classic, by virtue of its continued air play to this date (2011), 34 years later, frequently, in the R&B radio market nationwide. Other single releases from subsequent albums included 1978's "On Our Way Home", and "Hot For You", featuring Belita Woods
Belita Woods
Belita Woods is a former lead singer of late 70's R&B group, Brainstorm. Brainstorm had a disco hit in 1977 called "Lovin' Is Really My Game". Their follow-up album, 1978's Journey To The Light featured a more soul-funk sound, anchored by the album tracks "We're On Our Way Home" and "If You Ever...
on lead vocals.
The members of the band (on the Stormin'
Stormin' (album)
Stormin' is the debut album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm.-Reception:Released in 1977 on the Tabu Records label. Produced by Jerry Peters.-Track listing:#Lovin' Is Really My Game 4:59 #Waiting For Someone 6:13...
album) were Belita Woods
Belita Woods
Belita Woods is a former lead singer of late 70's R&B group, Brainstorm. Brainstorm had a disco hit in 1977 called "Lovin' Is Really My Game". Their follow-up album, 1978's Journey To The Light featured a more soul-funk sound, anchored by the album tracks "We're On Our Way Home" and "If You Ever...
, bandleader and saxophonist Chuck Overton, Lamont Johnson on fretless bass and vocals ("This Must Be Heaven"), Renell Gonsalves on drums, Treaty Womack on vocals, percussion and flute, Bob Ross (a.k.a. Professor RJ Ross
Professor RJ Ross
Professor RJ Ross is a smooth jazz and classic R&B singer and pianist. His debut solo album Face To Face was released by Music Force Media Group in 2008.-Early career:Ross's career began as a founding member of Detroit funk band Brainstorm...
) on keyboards, Gerald (Jerry) Kent on guitar, Jeryl Bright
Cameo (band)
Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...
on trombone, and "Leaping" Larry Sims on trumpet. Future Wham!
WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
/George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
, Deon Estus
Deon Estus
Deon Estus is an American bassist and singer, best known as the bass player of Wham! and as George Michael's bassist on all of the latter's subsequent projects.-Biography:...
, was also a member of the band for a time. A teenage Regina Carter
Regina Carter
Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of famous jazz saxophonist James Carter.-Early life:...
, who later became internationally known and respected as a jazz violinist, joined the band around 1978 and performed for a time with them. The Brothers Ali, Jerome and Jimmy (bass and guitar), joined about the same time in 1978, these days performing in Las Vegas and other venues.
Members of Brainstorm continued their musical careers with other bands or in production. Woods later went on to perform as part of the Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...
collective in touring sets around the world. Sims became the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er for the Sounds of Blackness
Sounds of Blackness
Sounds of Blackness is a Grammy Award-winning vocal and instrumental ensemble from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota who perform music from several genres music including gospel, R&B, soul, and jazz. The group scored several hits on the Billboard R&B chart and Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play...
, which won two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s during the 1990s. Bright went on to play trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
with the funk band Cameo
Cameo (band)
Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...
for over twenty five years, and later released an album with other former Cameo members Aaron Mills
Aaron Mills
Aaron Scott Mills is an American former Arena Football League kicker who, in a career lasting two years, played for the San Jose SaberCats...
, and Thomas TC Campbell, known as MCB (which was also the title of their album). Trenita (Treaty) Womack performs regularly with the Funk Brothers as well as a wide variety of other artists, and appeared in Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film directed by Paul Justman. It recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who performed on Motowns' recordings from 1959 to 1972....
, an award-winning documentary, as percussionist. Gerald (Jerry) Kent has produced a BMI-affiliated self-published CD in 2006, under the name Kent's Way Overdue entitled Tone Paintings, an original jazz-fusion guitar-based collection of instrumental cuts. He also plays guitar and bass with the IDMR Detroit Choir, which choir was used in the closing scenes of Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (film)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film directed by Paul Justman. It recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who performed on Motowns' recordings from 1959 to 1972....
, singing background harmony behind Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
in a Grammy 2003 winning performance of What's Going On
What's Going On
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records...
. William Wooten, who joined the band after the first album playing keyboards, now tours with The Dramatics
The Dramatics
The Dramatics are an American soul music vocal group, formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1962. They are best known for their 1970s hit songs "In the Rain" and "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get", both of which were #1 R&B and Top 10 Pop hits.-Career:The Dramatics originally formed in 1962 recording as the...
and The Spinners. E. L.(Lamont) Johnson has released new material and has a website as well (see external links), and teaches bass. Renell Gonsalves performs with a wide variety of artists, as a skillful Latin-jazz percussionist (His father was renowned jazz saxophonist Paul Gonsalves
Paul Gonsalves
Paul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...
, late of the Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
band). Professor RJ Ross
Professor RJ Ross
Professor RJ Ross is a smooth jazz and classic R&B singer and pianist. His debut solo album Face To Face was released by Music Force Media Group in 2008.-Early career:Ross's career began as a founding member of Detroit funk band Brainstorm...
has written and co-produced a number of music projects with well-known artists in California including a 2008 CD "Face to Face".
Albums
- 1977: Stormin'Stormin' (album)Stormin' is the debut album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm.-Reception:Released in 1977 on the Tabu Records label. Produced by Jerry Peters.-Track listing:#Lovin' Is Really My Game 4:59 #Waiting For Someone 6:13...
- 1978: Journey to the LightJourney To The Light (album)Journey To The Light is the second album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm.-Reception:Released in 1978 on the Tabu Records label. Produced by Jerry Peters.-Track listing:#We're on Our Way Home, Pt...
- 1978: Funky EntertainmentFunky Entertainment (album)Funky Entertainment is the third and final album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm.-Reception:Released in 1979 on the Tabu Records label...
External links
- More extensive biography from one-time member Deon Estus' website
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameo_(band)/more on Jeryl Bright and Cameo
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_RJ_RossMore on Professor R.J. Ross, former keyboardist
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Cartermore on Regina Carter, violinist