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Go-Go, Yesterday and Today

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Go-Go, Yesterday and Today Brown and the Soul Searchers, Trouble Funk, Lead Go-Go, Yesterday Head, Hot, Cold Sweat, Cro Magnum Funk, Stacy & the Soul Servers, Class Band & Show, Mouse and Today Trap, The Shadows, and go-go icons including Ice Berg Slim and Big Tony, began to add the "live" by Iley Brown II features of go-go to their shows or recordings: he early 1970s in Washington, D.C., choreography, smoke and fog machines, go-go marked the beginning of a new musical dances, and extended instrumental solos including T sound that was still untitled. Basements in the trademark cowbells, whistles, and drum and neighborhoods throughout the city were convert­ conga solos added to known radio songs popular­ ed into after-school stages and rehearsal halls for ized by local radio stations. Radio hits that became budding bands and musicians. In many parts of go-go hits were "Family Affair" by Experience the city, an organist would meet up with percus­ Unlimited, "Run joe" by Chuck Brown, and sionists and drummers, who "Trouble Funk Express" by in turn would know of a Trouble Funk, which is a horn player. Bands were cob­ take from "Trans Europe bled together, and bonds Express" by Kraftwerk. were formed. In live performances audi­ To satisfy audiences of ences engaged the bands in teenagers, young adults, and call-and-response segments grown-ups, local "funk" of songs, usually during bands would play the radio percussion breaks ranging hits of Mandrill, Kool & The from a three-minute teaser Gang, New Birth, Average - a short percussion solo White Band, or Herbie with strains of the radio Hancock, among others. version of the song - to as Musicians and singers began much as 17 minutes of to provide listeners with something extra - a percussion and call-and-response. Chuck Brown, sound they could call their own because it was Trouble Funk, and Reds and The Boys all popular­ homegrown. ized this style of go-go. And the music lives on A fresh new energy with percussion-based funk today because of the creativity of its style of song (bongos, congas, cowbells, whistles) as a bedrock crafting. As a full-fledged movement began to for rhythm and blues, inspired by the national grow in D.C. and spread elsewhere, promoters and funk and soul music surge, was the beginning of record labels including TTED- DETT, I Hear Ya, the music known then and now as "go-go." and jam Tu all released hits. Their contributions Instrumentalists in and around Washington, have kept the music going for nearly 30 years. inspired by this movement, were now 'jamming" Go-go has enjoyed local, regional, national, and and playing the hits at recreation centers, international success, and its influences are summer-in-the-park concerts, or "show-mobiles" evident in the music of hip-hop inventors Africa throughout the city and newly blossoming Bambaataa, Doug E. Fresh, and most recently Will suburbs of Landover, Pepper Mill Village, Capitol Smith, who included a version of "Pump Me Up" Heights, and Chillum, among others. Photo: Go-go has influenced D.C . style, as exhibited in the Dozens of bands across the city, such as jacket worn by Rare Essence band member Andre Johnson. Experience Unlimited, the Young Senators, Chuck Photo by Darrow Montgomery 26 by Trouble Funk on his Willenium CD. There are competitive "step show" at Howard University in also local record and production companies, 1976. Today stepping can be found on many local including PA Palace, releasing cassette tapes of the campuses, and performances are shared ever-popular go-go groups Only 1 Purpose frequently with District residents. (01P), Rare Essence, Chuck Brown, and But stepping is no longer just for fraternities junkyard. A book documenting go-go will be and sororities. As stepping has received wider published by Billboard next year. exposure in D.C. and the country, schoolchildren, K-12, are performing the dance with tremendous Iley Brown II is a native Washingtonian and has been a Jan of enthusiasm. Step teams can be found in numer­ go-go music since its inception. He has worked extensively in ous District high, middle, and elementary schools the music industry in New York, Los Angeles, and overseas. with teachers using the dance form as a way to foster teamwork, discipline, and community D.C.-based churches have also picked up the "Stepping" form with Gospel step teams found in practically every Out quadrant of the city Stepping is definitely an by C. Brian Williams StepP,ing is, important part of our city's daily cultural life. tepping is a uniquely w1thout American, percussive que?t~on, C. Brian Williams is Director of Sdance genre that grew Step Afrika! USA, and co-founder out of the song and dance a r1s1ng of the Step Afrika! International rituals performed by histori­ Arts & Cultural Festival. cally African-American frater­ art form. nities and sororities. As dis- cussed by scholar Jaqui A. Malone in her book Steppin' on the Blues, stepping is "one of the most exciting dance forms to evolve in the twentieth century" The Vietnamese The tradition's " ... precise, sharp and complex rhythmical body movements combined with Wedding in singing, chanting, and verbal play require creativ­ ity, wit, and a great deal of physical skill and Washington, D.C. coordination." Stepping is, without question, a by Thanh-Thuy Nguyen rising art form with growing popularity among hundreds of thousands of Americans, young ietnamese Americans are the fastest­ and old. growing ethnic group in Washington, Washington, D.C., more so than any other city V D. C. While some Vietnamese, the "boat in the country, can claim "bragging rights" to this people," came after the end of the Vietnam War in traditional dance form. As home to Howard 1975, most of the District's Vietnamese communi­ University, the birthplace of several African­ ty arrived 15 to 20 years after the fall of Saigon. American fraternities and sororities, the city has They are a diverse group, mainly ex-military, witnessed the beginnings of the tradition, dating government officials, and family members who, back to 1907, all the way through the first having associated with the United States during 27 .
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