The Recording Academy Honors Gamble and Huff, Philadelphia Orchestra, Other Philly Faves

In its ongoing series recognizing heroes of key music scenes throughout the country, the Recording Academy honors Philadelpia icons Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the Philadelpia Orchestra, promoter Larry Magid, and producer/songwriter Scott Storch at a gala fund-raising dinner and show April 10 at the Hyatt Regency Penn's Landing.

The Recording Academy Honors series pays tribute to outstanding individuals and institutions whose achievements have "enriched the creative community and the community at large" and event proceeds benefit area music advocacy, education and professional development programs.

Gamble and Huff

Songwriters, producers, entrepreneurs: Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff were the
focal point of the urbane soul of the "Philly Sound" from the mid '60s through the early '80s. Their Philadelphia International Records was to the '70s what Motown was to the '60s: the preeminent black-owned entertainment enterprise in America and the conveyance of the finest soul music to the world.

The pair's work with the Intruders, Archie Bell and the Drells, Jerry Butler and Wilson Pickett is classic; but their innovations with the O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, and their house band, MFSB, helped lay the foundations for both funk and disco and generated some of the '70s most enduring music.

Visionary/lyricist Gamble and pianist/composer Huff gathered a street-tough rhythm section of Philadelphia road and studio veterans - Earl Young (also of The Trammps) on drums, Ronnie Baker on bass, Roland Chambers and Norman Harris on guitar, Vincent Montana Jr. (founder of the Salsoul Orchestra) on vibes, multi-instrumentalist Bunny Sigler, Huff on keyboards - and melded this rhythmic muscle with horns and strings from the Philadelphia Orchestra to create a fine tuned machine that consumed and reconciled racial, sonic and thematic contradictions to generate a transcendent, melodic groove.

Kenny Gamble was born August 11, 1943 in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in the same neighborhood as songwriter/producer Thom Bell. Gamble and Bell wrote songs together as teens and recorded a duet, "Someday," for the Heritage label in 1959. They also formed a band, the Romeos, which played around the area in the early-to-mid-'60s, backed up black acts on the local Cameo-Parkway label (Chubby Checker, the Orlons, Dee Dee Sharp - later Mrs. Kenny Gamble for a time), and toured with Chubby Checker and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

Article Author: Eric Olsen

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