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Jacques Fred Petrus & Mauro Malavasi

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B.B.&Q. Band

Besides Change other studio concepts emerged from the Little Macho Music factory such as The B.B.&Q. Band. It was originally a standard faceless aggregation of Little Macho Music staff musicians and American sessioneers. The informal groupmembers depicted on the first album were the American studio musicians Kevin Nance (keyboards), Dwayne Perdue (drums), Paris 'Peewee' Ford (bass), Abdul Wali Mohammed (guitar) and lead singer Ike Floyd. Studio guitarist William Doc Powell, who played on Change's Miracles, turned bassist Paris Ford on to producer Petrus who was looking for musicians for a new project. The B.B.&Q. Band were put together by Paris Ford on Petrus’ request and got signed to Capitol records. The acronym B.B.&Q. stands for the New York suburbs Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens, which were the areas where the original members of the group came from. The B.B.&Q. Band later stabilized into a self-contained group for two subsequent albums. Only Kevin Nance of the original line-up remained. The other studio musicians gave preference to stable session work and lucrative touring engagements with well-known artists. Paris Ford for instance has taken his place as one of the most enduring and groundbreaking session-bassists in the last two decades, playing for lots of R&B stars as Rick James, Glenn Jones, Johnny Gill, Stacy Lattisaw, Evelyn King, Marcus Miller, Norman Connors and Lenny White. The new B.B.&Q. Band touring entity comprised: Kevin Nance (keyboards), Kevin Robinson (guitarist), Bernard Davis (drums), Tony Bridges (bass) and Chieli Minucci (guitarist). The album sleeves don't show all of the five members, which indicates that the band was a rather loose formation, typical for most of the projects of Little Macho Music. In the early to mid eighties Kevin Robinson also worked with Change, High Fashion, Lillo Thomas and Mtume. Besides he was a musician with funkgroup Network and produced their rare I Need You album in 1984. Chieli Minucci formed the well-known fusion group Special EFX in 1982 and has since been a major force in the world of smooth jazz. Besides Special EFX, he has four solo albums to his credit and has played, recorded with, or produced a number of artists including a.o. Dave Grusin, Roberta Flack, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Noel Pointer, Angela Bofill and Chuck Loeb. He also writes for TV and hopes to get into scoring films.

The B.B.&Q. Band are best remembered for Malavasi’s hypnotic floorfiller “On The Beat” (# 8 Billboard R&B Charts), a joyous disco groove driven by funky rhythm guitars. It was the opening track on the spectacularly good debut release The Brooklyn, Bronx & Queens Band in 1981 and became a Top Ten R&B hit. This album also included the catchy “Starlette”, the swift and elegant “Mistakes”, the classy mid-tempo “Time For Love” (# 72 Billboard R&B Charts) and the graceful ballads “Don’t Say Goodbye” and “Lovin’s What We Should Do”, all composed by Petrus' Italian musicians Malavasi, Romani, Tansini and Trevisi. A host of American top session singers handled backup, among them: Luther Vandross, Gordon Grody, Fonzi Thornton, Bobby Douglas, Diva Gray and Robin Clark. B.B.&Q. Band's immortal disco classic "On The Beat" generated a second moment of radio and club interest in 1987 when the single "On The Beat - 87 Bronx Mix" was released on the Streetheat label, a subtle remix version that stayed very close to the original.

The fine follow-up album All Night Long in 1982 had less hit potential than the first album and featured guitar-player Kevin Robinson on lead vocals. All Night Long included the elektrofunkish hit “Imagination” (# 21 Billboard R&B Charts), composed by keyboardist Kae Williams and guesting Rick Brennan on vocals. Other very enjoyable tunes were “Hanging Out”, "Hard To Get Around", Malavasi's edgy “Children Of The Night”, the gentle “(I Could Never Say) It’s Over” and the punchy, Kevin Robinson-written single “All Night Long (She’s Got The Moves I Like)”. Malavasi composed half of the album's songs together with Johnny Kemp. The other half was written by the American musicians Kae Williams, Kevin Robinson and Timmy Allen, bass player with group Change. Both Johnny Kemp and Timmy Allen played with the New York funk outfit Kinky Foxx. Davide Romani only contributed as a bass player and this could be the reason why the record somewhat lacked the 'Italian chemistry' of the first album which holded songs of a stronger impact. Again Petrus spoilt his production with the rich tones of New York's most prestigious background singers. Credited session vocalists were Leroy Burgess, Tawatha Agee, Fonzi Thornton, Gordon Grody, Bobby Douglas, Eric McClinton, Johnny Kemp and Alyson Williams. 

After two good albums, they coughed up a third - their worst - in 1983. Six Million Times was very disappointing and scored no hits. This project, co-produced by groupmember Kevin Robinson, obviously lacked decent songmaterial and musical passion. It seemed as mentor Petrus held back the quality songs for his other projects. But the reality was that Petrus' Italian musicians were not willing anymore to supply successfull compositions as the good understanding with their employer was missing. Most of the album's songs came from groupmember Kevin Robinson, who co-wrote several tracks with top musician Howard King (Mtume, D-Train, Stephanie Mills, The Strangers, Candy Bowman, Karin Jones, Network, Freddie Jackson, Glenn Jones, Melba Moore,...). The long-player only boasted two proper tracks: the Malavasi-written single "Keep It Hot", reminiscent of the Dazz Band hit "Let It Whip", and "Stay". No wonder that the group was subsequently dropped from the Capitol roster. 

In 1985 Jacques Fred Petrus formed a new B.B.&Q. Band and released the album Genie which sold well in Europe but couldn’t fulfill the expected success in the U.S.. Featured tracks were the sweet “Minutes Away”, “Riccochet”, the vibrant dancer “On The Shelf” (# 72 Billboard R&B Charts), “Dreamer” (# 35 Billboard TOP 40), “Won’t You Be With Me Tonight”, the Prince/Minneapolis Sound-inspired “Don’t Force It” and the impressive “Genie” (# 40 Billboard TOP 40) that became their biggest hit since "On The Beat". Genie was a surprisingly consistent album that had all the right ingredients. It was composed, written and co-produced by collaborator Kae Williams (formerly with Breakwater and Hi-Gloss), featuring Curtis Hairston (picture) on lead vocals and Ullanda McCullough on background vocals, although there were no vocal credits on the sleeves. Unfortunately Curtis Hairston, who severely suffered from diabetes, passed away in January 1996. He was just 34 years old. The musicians involved were Timmy Allen (bass), Michael Campbell (guitar) and Kae Williams (keyboards, piano). The hi-tech sound was ostensibly influenced by the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis productions.  

B.B.&Q. Band samples appear on:

  • Seduced: "On Da Beat" (sample: On The Beat) 12", ARS Productions, 2004.
  • The Alchemist: "Strength Of Pain (feat. Chinky)" (sample: Lovin's What We Should Do) from 1st Infantry, Koch, 2004.

 


B.B.&Q. Band 1981