Tony Delgado: News

It's that time again...gear geeking in Anaheim and seeing old friends.

Incredible show this year. Had the opportunity to hear E.W.F. with a orchestra! and see my good friend Estaire Godinez open the after party jam session with Rafeal Siddiq,Marcus Miller,Stevie Wonder,Denice Williams and Sheila E with the E.W.F Band.What a treat!

Is still finding listeners,I'll be starting my second Cd soon.It will be a radical departure from A Better Place...Let the funk begin and to God be the glory!

My good friend and fellow bassist Robert Wilson made his transition on 8/15/2010.I send my prayers and condolences to his family and to those who knew and loved Robert.I thank God that I had the opportunity to spend what time I did have with him,it was always eventful,never a dull moment.Robert was very spiritual and I know he is with the Lord.He blessed me in many ways,not just musically. Here's a great article written by Steve Ivory about Robert.... *I kid you not: late Sunday afternoon, August 15, I was at home in front of my computer trying to decide what music to play, when I had the sudden urge to hear “Shake” by the Gap Band. It’s not like I’d have to search for the track to hear it. Though it was the Gap’s breakthrough hit way back in 1979, that funky party groove is among some 300 songs spanning pop music’s gamut that I’ve had in heavy rotation for the past year. I play “Shake” like it came out yesterday. I ended up not listening to the song Sunday evening. But the urge to do so came, I learned the next day, about the same time Gap’s Robert Wilson, fifty-three, suffered a massive heart attack at his Palmdale, California home. I figure my urge to hear the “Shake” was simply the sonic boom of Robert leaving the planet. I know. But I believe in stuff like that. For many of you, Robert’s name may not ring a bell. Even if you’ve heard such Gap Band hits as “I Don’t Believe You Want To Get Up and Dance (Oops, Upside Your Head),” “Burn Rubber On Me,” “Humpin,’” “Yearning For Your Love,” “Early In The Morning,” “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” “Outstanding” and “Party Train,” you don’t have to know Robert. But Bass players and lovers of funk bass do, because on bass guitar, Robert Wilson was a monster. Robert Wilson Robert’s style, like only every other “popping,” “slapping” and “thumping” bassist to play the instrument from the ’70s on, was heavily influenced by the legendary Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone and later Graham Central Station. The two had more than bass in common. Just as a young Graham developed his iconic thumping style in church –accompanying his mother on piano, he thumped and slapped the strings to make up for there being no drummer–Robert also honed his funkiness in the house of the Lord, holding down the bottom every Sunday for his piano -playing mother and brothers Charlie and Ronnie at their Pentecostal minister father’s church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was locally based country rocker Leon Russell who “discovered” the Wilson Brothers and band playing top 40 covers in a Tulsa bar. Russell (who as a songwriter, had penned such future pop classics as “Superstar,” “A Song For You” and “This Masquerade”) told them he was looking for a backing band to take out on tour. Russell gave the Wilsons all his albums and checked off the songs they’d need to learn if they were interested in auditioning for him. During his talk, the band remembered Russell saying the most important part of a song’s live performance is a strong beginning and ending. “So, those are the only parts of his songs we learned,” Gap vocalist Charlie Wilson told me recently, laughing. “When we auditioned, our performance of the songs themselves were rough, but our intros and endings were tight as hell, so he hired us.” In addition to working as Russell’s live band, Gap (the initials are for Greenwood, Archer and Pine, the three intersecting streets in Tulsa’s historically black Greenwood area) recorded one obscure album for the rocker’s Shelter label and another for Tattoo Records before joining Los Angeles entrepreneur Lonnie Simmons’ Total Experience Productions. Simmons landed the Wilson trio a deal with Mercury in 1978. It was during the final minute-plus of “Shake”–whose action-packed arrangement pinched from Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1978 cover of the Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life”–that Robert officially put the funk world on notice. Channeling the Ohio Players’ Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner by singing along with his blistering solo, Robert made those bass strings moan. But then, the soft-spoken Robert usually communicated more through his bass than with words. In all the times I interviewed the Gap Band, I don’t think Robert ever said more than a couple sentences. Throughout the ’80s, the youngest Wilson brother struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. He reunited periodically with Charlie, who launched a solo career several years ago, to do Gap dates (Ronnie left the fold to become a bishop). At the time of his death, Robert was working on an album to be released this fall, co-produced by fellow Oklahoma bass man Wayman Tisdale, who died of cancer in 2009. Tisdale referred to Robert as one of his first mentors. Now they’re both gone. I’m writing about Robert Wilson because he deserves the honor. It is heartbreaking enough that modern black music continues to lose some of its greatest artists. But recent untimely passings such as Parliament/Funkadelic vocalist/guitarist Gary Shider and guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins, who, with his younger bassist brother Bootsy Collins, augmented one of James Brown’s mightiest bands and played with Parliament/funkadelic before ultimately launching Bootsy’s Rubber Band, represent the loss of a certain kind of musician. These guys didn’t read music; they created from a crevice deep within their souls. Music courses can teach technique, but just try learning from a book the spirit, passion and emotion with which these guys played. They’re not being replaced by younger musicians. Which is why I wish there existed a machine you could hook humans up to–much in the way you attach an external hard drive to a computer–and extract from them their various gifts. That way, when certain people pass on, their incredible talents would remain, to be used and appreciated. It’s a silly, selfish thought, I suppose. But for Robert Wilson to leave here and take all those chops with him is a doggone shame. Steven Ivory is a journalist/author who has covered popular culture for magazines, newspapers, radio and TV for more than 30 years. Respond to him via STEVRIVORY@AOL.COM

If you've read my bio you know that JB,MJ and Sly are my biggest inspirations.Robert Wilson invited me to a Sly & The Family Stone rehearsal,They were killing it!..great music never dies.I had the opportunity to talk with Mr.Stewart in his home later and listened to some of his new music...what a blessing.Thank you "Kingpen" and Val Young..I got to be a 9yr old again for a night.God is good.

The J5 was my inspiration.I LOVED those brothers,they were my heroes when I was a child.Michael Jackson,Sly Stone and James Brown.My condolences to the Jackson family.I didn't really know what Michael meant to me until yesterday.

Brian@Lowend Bass Shop has done it again,I'm proud of this new bass.It sits in the mix well,has definition and clarity,punch with no mud,playability and an improved neck profile,plus it's a stunner.I'll post some pics and video soon.

Just wanted to tell ya'll about Jammin Jay and his wife Susan,check out their station when you get a chance,real cool peeps.www.kbigradio.com

People from just about every Country in the world have visited this website.Thank you Jesus.

A funky funk loving bassist by the name of Lee Finch is spining "Hello Yello" and "What I Say" on his radio show "Funk Show" Thanks Lee for the love I appreciate it.

Fran has included me again in an issue on Radio Esperantia in Spain.Check it out when you get a chance on the net.I did a promo spot in spanish.I'm glad he chose "Full Count" because I hesitated putting it on the CD.Thanks again Fran for your friendship!.

A Better Place is now on the air in Australia.

There's a guy in Spain named Jesus who has been promoting the Cd and I'm touched and humbled by his kindness.I have never met nor spoken to him. I pray that he finds this message and may he receive blessings beyond measure.Thank you for your help Jesus.

"A Better Place" has been sent to 7 different countries in less than a month..... God is awesome.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported "A Better Place".I greatly appreciate it.