SOUL MEN STUDIO MUSICIANS EMERGE FROM 'SHADOWS OF MOTOWN'.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

To paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan, a session musician's lot is not a happy one.

Nothing could illustrate that thought better than the story of the dozen or so anonymous jazz players who gathered in a tiny Detroit studio to craft a mountain of Top 40 hits by Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Supremes, the Miracles and other Motown acts.

For 14 years starting in 1958, the band dubbed the Funk Brothers was the secret heartbeat of a stream of Hitsville U.S.A. chart-toppers like ``My Girl,'' ``Baby Love,'' ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine'' and ``Dancing in the Street.''

The stellar backup ensemble, which played on more No. 1 hits than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined, was never credited on record until Marvin Gaye insisted their names be printed on the sleeve of his 1971 classic, ``What's Going On.''

Few listeners knew the names of the guys who played bass, keyboards, drums or guitar for the Motown Sound outside of musicians like Paul McCartney and record fanatics who spent their teen years squinting at album covers in darkened bedrooms. But most anybody can recall such Funk Brothers trademarks as James Jamerson's pulsating opening bass lines to ``Papa Was a Rolling Stone'' and ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine'' or Robert White's rhythm guitar intros to ``Reach Out'' and ``Heat Wave.''

End of an era

After Motown abruptly moved to Los Angeles in 1971, most of the original salaried session musicians remained in their native Detroit, playing local jazz gigs and eventually quitting music altogether and taking up work in other fields with no record royalties forthcoming.

Now, however, with today's release of the revealing documentary, ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown,'' the dwindling number of surviving Funk Brothers are finally getting some badly needed recognition. The film, which is opening in limited release, combines interviews, archival shots, reminiscences and concert footage of a reunited Funk Brothers backing various contemporary performers.

But the worldwide media attention now churning in response to the film came too late for keyboardist Johnny Griffith, 66, who died of a heart attack last Sunday just hours before the Detroit premiere of ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown.'' He became the seventh of the band's original 13 members to pass away. (Drummer Richard ``Pistol'' Allen died last June).

Griffith played piano and organ on such pop standards as the Supremes' ``Stop! In the Name of Love,'' the Temptations' ``Ain't Too Proud to Beg'' and Gaye's ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine,'' among many other songs.

``We never thought those records would get so big,'' the easygoing Griffith said a few months ago. ``We were jazz musicians, and we didn't really take Motown seriously until people kept coming up and saying, 'I heard what you played on that record.' And I'd say, 'What record?' Because you never remember what you played on those sessions. Then, I started listening to the music and I thought, 'This is pretty good.' There were no checks coming in, of course, but friends and neighbors gave us a lot of recognition.''

Hearing the pitch

It took 11 years to get ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown'' made. Based partly on musician and first-time film producer Allan Slutsky's award-winning 1989 book, ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson,'' which included audiotapes of McCartney and other stars illustrating the late Jamerson's complex bass lines for the Four Tops' ``Bernadette'' and other Motown classics, the documentary explores the life and times of Hitsville's back-room crew.

``It's the story of 13 guys who are fighting obscurity and running out of time,'' Slutsky said. ``Yet these guys are really royalty. All these musicians felt the exultation of talent.''

The film's director, Paul Justman (``Let the Good Times Roll''), said the team pitched the idea all over Hollywood, describing as typical the response they got during a meeting with a label executive who shall remain nameless.

``I'm giving an impassioned speech, and the woman in charge, who has this blank look on her face, suddenly goes, 'Oh, I get it. It's about the Temptations,' '' Justman said.

The $3 million film was released by Artisan, which also brought out the acclaimed ``Buena Vista Social Club,'' an artful look at Cuba's Latin-jazz pioneers, some of whom were in their 90s.

There are other similarities to that project. Like the largely unheralded Cuban musicians, the surviving Funk Brothers - some of whom hadn't seen each other in more than 20 years and are in their 60s and 70s - are pictured returning to their original stomping ground in Detroit and are captured in a tribute concert where contemporary singers such as Ben Harper, Joan Osborne and Meshell Ndegeocello reprise a dozen Motown numbers.

Rhythm kings

``Standing in the Shadows of Motown'' offers a rare glimpse of the faceless workers who toil on the assembly line of the star factory. As major components in music history, Motown's Funk Brothers are among such legendary rhythm sections as the Meters, Booker T & the MG's, the Wrecking Crew and the distinctive back lines that cut records for the Atlantic, Hi, Chess and Spring labels.

``Look, we lived well and put our kids through college on those sessions,'' said Motown bassist Bob Babbitt. ``When there was a session going on, you'd see nine or 10 Cadillacs in the parking lot out there. Most of the other people we knew were working at the auto plant.''

While Jamerson and the late guitarist White followed the company to Los Angeles, they never achieved the same status they enjoyed in Detroit.

Now owned by Universal, Motown founder Berry Gordy never acknowledges in the film the contributions of its gifted studio musicians or the genius of Jamerson's bass playing. It's suggested how undervalued the players were when the documentary relates the story of Jamerson reduced to buying a scalped ticket in order to attend the Los Angeles taping of Motown's 25th anniversary broadcast in 1983 shortly before he died.

But Gordy issued a statement after the completion of the film, saying that the Funk Brothers played an ``indispensable role'' in Motown's magic.

Slutsky said he thought when he first envisioned ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown'' that stars like Stevie Wonder would love to be interviewed for the film. Wonder, the filmmaker said, never responded to multiple attempts to contact him.

``To me, this is such an important American story,'' Justman said. ``Turn on your radio and you hear Motown. Walk through an airport or go shopping, you hear Motown. It's everywhere.''

Here's some ironic proof of that. The very day the movie's principles were gathered to meet the press at a Hollywood Boulevard club, rehearsals were under way next door at the Kodak Theatre for the next night's finale of ``American Idol.''

The opening number? A medley of Motown hits.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Ben Harper performing `Ain't Too Proud to Beg' in `Standing in the Shadows of Motown'

(2) Stevie Wonder, at the piano, with producer Clarence Paul, standing.

(3) James Jamerson in 1964 at the Detroit club Blues Unlimited

Box:

the sound that made Motown