Marva Whitney with Live Band

Sunday April 29th

Doors 8pm til late

Special Live Funk & Soul Party after Live Show
Admission 22.50 euro (ex-handling charges)
http://www.choicecutsonline.com
http://www.marvawhitney.net

Tickets available from All City, Big Brother, Road Records, Sound Cellar, The Village, WAV Boxoffice, www.tickets.ie, www.ticketmaster.ie


We are very proud to announce the debut irish performance of bold soul sister....Marva Whitney, the dynamic vocalist cited as being James Brown's favourite female accompaniment on his tracks and the wife of JB's bandleader Alfred 'Pee Wee' Ellis...

When it comes to feisty femme funk or sassy sock-it-to-‘em soul, mighty Marva Whitney has no equal. Blessed with a lithe yet powerful church-raised voice, she first made her mark with the James Brown Revue in the late-1960s. Such was her impact during that time that she earned the titles “Marvellous Marva” and “Miss Excitement” for her dynamic stage performances. James Brown even went so far as to proclaim her “Soul Sister #1.” Many of the records she cut while she was the Godfather Of Soul’s protégé are now extremely rare and eagerly sought after by Rare Groove disciples, who regard Marva as the funkiest of all James Brown’s female singers.

Marva was born Marva Ann Manning on May 1st 1944 in Kansas City, Kansas. She began singing and playing piano alongside her younger brothers in the Manning Gospel Singers, and toured the USA. By the mid-‘60s she had became lead singer for a local R&B group called Tommy and The Derbys, led by Tommy Gadson, brother of legendary drummer James Gadson (who rose to fame with Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band). When the group moved to California, Marva stayed behind.
At the end of April 1967, James Brown visited Kansas again to play at the Memorial Hall. Cooper went along and discovered that the self-proclaimed “Hardest Working Man In Show Business” was seeking a new female vocalist for his Revue to replace the departing Vicki Anderson. Cooper persuaded Brown to grant Marva an audition. After the gig ended and the hall had cleared, Brown’s bandleader, Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, brought Marva onto the stage and went through some songs with her. He was evidently impressed by her audition and strongly urged The Godfather to hire the 23-year-old singer.

By May, Marva was riding on the Brown tour bus. She also signed to the funk meister’s record company, the Cincinnati-based King label, and in early summer began cutting tracks. James Brown was actually absent from her first studio session, which yielded the debut single, Your Love Was Good To Me, a searing soul ballad penned and produced by Motown singer, J.J. Barnes, with Walter Whisenhunt. The Detroit-based duo also helmed the record's flipside, Saving My Love For My Baby, a driving uptempo soul tune, which is now popular on the UK's Northern Soul scene,

In June 1967. Brown decided to take Marva in a radically different direction and masterminded her recording of a tune called Unwind Yourself. A ferocious, highly charged chunk of funk characterised by manic horn lines and heavy rhythmic syncopations, the record featured an intense, strident vocal from Marva. Although it didn’t chart when it was released in January 1968, Unwind Yourself heralded Marva’s new funk-oriented sound.

Marva performed with James Brown at President Richard Nixon's inaugural ball alongside Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Barbara McNair. Four months later she was rewarded with her first R&B hit, It's My Thing, co-written by Marva with James Brown and intended as an answer song to The Isley Brothers’ It’s Your Thing.

Cover features on Marva followed in the US press – the prestigious magazines Jet and The Scene both included in-depth profiles. Marva also made numerous appearances on national television, performing on The Merv Griffin Show, Dick Clark's American Bandstand, the Mike Douglas Show, Playboy After Dark and many other TV programmes.

Further funk 45s, Things Got To Get Better and I Made A Mistake Because It's Only You, also made their presence felt on the US R&B Top 40. This prompted James Brown to consolidate Marva's success by releasing a long-playing record. She had already recorded an album of jazz standards for King with the Dee Felice Trio at the beginning of the year. Entitled I Sing Soul and assigned a record company catalogue number, the LP never came out, though test pressings were made. It is thought that King decided to shelve the album and release the harder hitting It's My Thing to capitalise on Marva’s newfound success as a funky diva.

During the rest of the ‘70s Marva kept a low profile but in the early 1980s she briefly performed as part of a trio called Coffee, Cream & Sugar. In 1988, Marva’s career was revitalised by the release of James Brown’s Funky People, a CD showcasing the work of Marva and other members of The Godfather of Soul’s Revue. The success of that album (and a second volume released later the same year) resulted in several successful European tours as a member of the JBs Allstars alongside Bobby Byrd, Vicki Anderson, Lyn Collins, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis.

Marva’s music also provided some of hip-hop’s hardest working samples during that time. DJ Mark The 45 King famously looped the intro to Unwind Yourself on the dance hit, The 900 Number, in 1989 and introduced Marva to a new generation of listeners. In 1997, seven of Marva’s songs were featured on a Universal 2-CD retrospective called James Brown’s Original Funky Divas, while in 2000, Britain’s Soul Brother label reissued the in-demand It’s My Thing on CD for the first time.

It’s with great pleasure that we can introduce to Ireland Marvellous Marva for the first time. Truly a living a legend and somebody who the recently deceased James Brown held very dear. Cited as being the best out of all the soul sisters James Brown performed with was no mean feat, her talent, stage presence and and vocal range ensure that Dublin will be getting funky in The Village.

Recommended for fans of Marlena Shaw, Aretha Franklin, Lyn Collins, James Brown, Otis Redding and many more legendary soul vocalists.


Press Release issued by : Dan Belton
For further media information please contact dan@choicecutsonline.com or 087 2102922

http://www.choicecutsonline.com