Verda Mae Pugh
December 26, 2012
Three silent films, with live music
January 2, 2013
When John Hodges hears the Motown sound, he goes back his childhood, one hand tied to a doorknob while his sisters practice their dance steps.
“This was the music that my sisters, when we were coming up, they were out hand-dancing and stuff, so they would tie my hand to the doorknob and take my other hand and wuld be using me to practice their dance steps at night,” he says. “They would have my other hand and be out there, trying to spin and do all the hand-dancing stuff before they went out on their dates. It takes me back.”
Hodges is a lead vocalist and founding member of the Masters of Motown, a 10-person tribute act that strives to authentically reproduce sounds and dance from the 60s for audiences they serve
The group, scheduled to perform at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium on Jan. 15, pays homage to music that arose from Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit – the Motor City – in 1960.
The label incubated soul and rhythm and blues with popular appeal, producing 110 top-10 hits in 10 years for the likes of Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight and others.
Sassy and smooth, the energized sounds are recreated over the course of a 90-minute show produced by the Masters of Motown.
The show features era-appropriate dress and dance, as choreographed by keyboardist Jay Newsome.
The group – with three male and three female vocalists – has the flexibility to interchange The Supremes with The Temptations, Gladys Knight with Smokey Robinson. A four-person band incorporating guitar, bass, keyboard and drums backs the vocalists.
Some of the Masters of Motown’s songs include “Get Ready Cause Here I Come,” “Dancing in the Street,” “Stop in the Name of Love” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
“Motown is what I grew up on,” Hodges says in a telephone interview from Virginia Beach, Va., where he has lived all his life. “In the 50s and the early 60s, we were doing a cappella on the corners – even here in Virginia, every corner pretty much had somebody singing doo-wop and the a cappella.
“Berry Gordy just came up with a plan to take the harmony of the a cappella and put some music behind it, and that’s when he came up with Motown. It’s a never-ending sound.”
After singing throughout his youth in the church, junior and high school choirs, Hodges began playing music professionally upon his graduation in 1973.
For years he has been the leader of the TFC (Time For Change) Band, another dance band with a wider scope.
Specializing in performing songs from the 50s through the 80s for the last 30 years, the TFC Band has staged tours in Europe and Africa.
After being peppered persistently for more Motown, the group created to Masters of Motown in 2008.
“People are loving it because it takes them back to when music had meanings to it,” Hodges says.
Hodges is a bass baritone, so his personal musical preference is The Temptations or “anything else with a bottom to it,” he says.
Even when he’s not preparing for a performance, the 58-year-old largely stays away from modern music, often listing to Earth, Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang on his satellite radio.
“Not too much of this hip-hop stuff that is happening now,” he says. “Some of it is all right, but you want music that has a full band playing and you know guys are playing instruments. Music of today is just mixes or tracking, stuff like that.
“I think people want to get their money’s worth again, to be able to go to an event and watch a band play with instruments and choreography. I think that’s why the success of the Motown has been so great.”
Hodges also stresses that the performances induce nostalgia, which is the concert’s calling card.
“If they want to go back in time, when life was a lot simpler and the music had more meaning, and just want a good, family-based evening of music, choreography and having a good time, they owe it to themselves to come on out and see the sounds of the Masters of Motown,” he says.
For the younger, post-Motown generations, the concert offers a historically accurate portrayal of musical genre that dominated the airwaves in the 1960s.
“There’s something for the grandchildren all the way up to grandma – everybody will enjoy it,” he says.
Hodges, having played music professionally for roughly 30 years, says the ultimate goal is to entertain just enough to distract from everyday life.
“If you can go out there and put on a show or do something that will take the audience – one person – away from his or her problems … that’s what I thrive on,” he says.
– editor@gumboguide.com
The 10-member band Masters of Motown brings authentic costumes, choreography and sounds of the 1960s to Morgan City on Jan. 15. The band performs The Jackson 5, The Temptations and Gladys Knight, among other acts during its 90-minute show.
