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By ROBERT MUSIAL
Of The Oakland Press
It was supposed to be a one-shot deal.
Rick Steiger, a founder of Detroit's legendary Sun Messengers band, was to get some guys together to play a little New Orleans-style jazz for an art gallery opening of Mardi Gras photos in 1993.
That was it.
But they had so much fun, they formed the Motor City Street Band.
Six years later, they are still mixing Big Easy street jazz and Motown funk into their own tasty gumbo.
The group plays regularly before Pistons and Shock games at The Palace and at places such as the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival, the Frog Island Music Festival in Ypsilanti and the Ann Arbor art fairs.
But Steiger wants to clear one thing up.
"We re not a strict New Orleans group, a copy of what they do down there. We pay tribute to New Orleans, but we also have that certain Detroit sound, that certain vibe," he says.
"Our musical history just isn't the same as New Orleans."
So these guys dish up some George Clinton funk and some Bo Diddley "chunka-chunka" sound with their Basin Street boogie, hence their name.
And part of their Detroit heritage is a Sun Messenger heritage, in personnel and choice of songs.
In all, there are four Sun Messengers in the seven-man group, including Steiger on baritone sax, John "T-Bone' Paxton on trombone, Terry "Thunder' Hughley on bass drum and vocals, and Russ Miller on alto and tenor saxophones.
Rounding off the five-horn, two-drum group are Carl "Cheez' Harris on snare drum and Vince Humphrey on tuba.
Also on the group’s first CD, 'Sun Street Boogie,' [which will be released June 6,]* are Kurt Beguin on trumpet, Akunda Hollis on the African djembe drum and vocalist Arthur "Speck" Colden.
Three of the eight songs are Sun Messenger raves: "Party Time," "Nuclear Freeze" and "Zorro."
Steiger says playing in a street band may look easy, but it's not.
"It's very hard work because there's no traditional rhythm instruments so the horns are working constantly. Well play for 90 minutes and when you're done, you know you're done."
He says the group fulfills a long-time dream of his: To have a band that parades around as it plays.
"I was a big fan of Sun Ra and he always walked through the crowd as he played. We used to do it with the Sun Messengers, but we were limited by our sound system and the electric instruments."
This group is all-acoustic and fully mobile.
"That’s great for breaking down that wall between the audience and the band."
Even with a ladle full of funk, they still fit the New Orleans tradition.
In fact, they've been called on to play two traditional jazz funerals in Detroit.
One was for a boogie-woogie piano player in Hamtramck and one was for a Detroit jazz buff whose memorial service started at Alvin's in the Wayne State area and meandered down the Cass Corridor to his favorite watering hole.
You can't get more authentic than that.
*1999
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