It Takes Two
HONOURING AND CELEBRATING MOTOWN’S BEST FRIENDS
The Recording Academy’s tribute to Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, held in Los Angeles on February 3 during the GRAMMY® weekend, came with a supreme irony: none of the many Motown hits performed that night by a cavalcade of stars were ever awarded a Grammy.
Still, it was quite a night. Gordy and Robinson were honoured and celebrated as 2023’s “Persons of the Year” by the Academy’s philanthropic arm, MusiCares. As you may already know from media coverage, the original Motown acts who played and sang that night included Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Isley Brothers, Valerie Simpson, Lionel Richie and Smokey himself.
Berry and Smokey: persons of every year
There were more performers, including Trombone Shorty, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Mumford & Sons, Brandi Carlile, Dionne Warwick and Michael McDonald, plus well-regarded newcomers Samara Joy, Molly Tuttle and Chloe x Halle. The venue was the Los Angeles Convention Center, the guests numbered more than 2,000.
The MusiCares event is staged annually by the Academy as a fundraiser to provide health and welfare services to musicians in need (and others in the music community). Aside from eye-watering ticket prices – prime, ten-seat tables can cost $70,000 – the occasion features a silent auction, with various offerings designed to liberate still more cash from guests’ wallets.
This year, for example, an original Tamla 54034 pressing of the Miracles’ “Shop Around,” framed and with the signatures of Gordy and Robinson, sold for $7,000. Three Motown books, including the honourees’ autobiographies, also signed, went for $500. Two tickets for a show on Beyonce’s upcoming world tour brought in $5,000.
The Temptations: the way they do the things they do
Clearly, the two Motown honourees were appreciative of the recognition, while accepting its charitable underpinning. “In my life,” said Robinson, “I’ve been blessed enough to get a few awards. But this one is really the most special to me because I’m getting this award with my very best friend in the world.”
Artists aside, members of the wider Motown family were present, including Claudette Robinson, Eddie Holland, Iris Gordy, Suzanne de Passe, Shelly Berger, the Motown Museum’s Robin Terry and Paul Barker, and Gordy offspring Sherry and Kerry. Some are accustomed to these regular celebrations of the company’s legacy, having been at the presentation of the National Medal of the Arts to Berry Gordy by President Barack Obama in 2015; the Hitsville Honors (a fundraiser for the Motown Museum) exactly four years later, during Motown’s 60th anniversary celebrations, when Gordy also announced his retirement; and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021, when he was among those recognised for lifetime artistic achievements, in the presence of President Joe Biden.
Backstage: Samara Joy, Universal Music’s Harry Weinger, Michael McDonald
The Recording Academy organised another such shindig, Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration, in 2019, featuring – well, yes – Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Valerie Simpson and John Legend, among others.
The young music makers who were present were effusive about the honourees. “They mean a lot to me as creative minds,” said Latin star Sebastián Yatra, who sang “It Takes Two” with Rita Wilson that night. “They’ve really shaped music ’cause they’ve guided so many artists in their paths, and they’ve created really their own way of doing things and they’ve broken rules, all the rules, in a beautiful way.”
Lalah Hathaway, Donny’s daughter, who sang “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” with PJ Morton, said, “Motown’s musical impact and its personal impact are the same for me. I grew up with that music. It’s foundational for the culture of America and the world at large.”
Trombone Shorty: load it up, baby, now
Wilson, Hathaway and Morton are MusiCares board members. Wilson (whose husband, Tom Hanks, accompanied her on February 3) recorded “Where Is The Love” with Robinson for her current duets album, Now & Forever. That also has a version of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” by her with breakout country singer Jimmie Allen. At the MusiCares show, Allen sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Valerie Simpson.
The evening’s musical director/bandleader was Detroit-born Greg Phillinganes, who was discovered by Stevie Wonder and played in the latter’s band, Wonderlove, during the mid- to late-1970s. Phillinganes picked most of the songs for the MusiCares performers, according to trade-paper Variety. Among the more unusual was Trombone Shorty’s blast of “Shotgun.”
“Junior Walker was a saxophone player and he sang,” said Shorty on the pre-event red carpet, “so I guess me singing and playing a horn today, I guess that made sense for them to reach out. I have to make it my own, you know – I can’t get some of the sounds that he was able to get on the saxophone, but I’m making it my own and put a little hot sauce from New Orleans on there.”
Lionel Richie: easy on a Friday evening
Other re-flavoured recipes included Mumford & Sons’ acoustic, bluesy interpretation of “Money (That’s What I Want)” and Samara Joy’s jazzy, downtempo take of “Ain’t That Peculiar.” The latter yielded for 23-year-old Joy one of the evening’s spontaneous standing ovations, not to mention a genuine jaw-drop from Berry Gordy; two nights later, she netted the much-sought-after Grammy for Best New Artist at the Recording Academy’s main awards gala. Two of her competitors for that prize also appeared at the MusiCares ceremony: jazz duo DOMi & JD Beck (playing an avant-garde interpretation of Wonder’s “All I Do”) and bluegrass guitarist Molly Tuttle (Robinson’s “The One Who Really Loves You”).
Other classics in the tribute setlist included “This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)” sung by the Isley Brothers, “My Guy” (Dionne Warwick), “Lonely Teardrops” (Michael McDonald), “The Tracks Of My Tears” (Brandi Carlisle), “I Want You Back” (Sheryl Crow) and, in a surprise appearance by Lionel Richie, “Easy.” There were medleys from the Temptations and the Four Tops, while Wonder entranced with “I’ll Try Something New,” played on a harpejji, and a reggae rendition of “The Tears Of A Clown.”
When it came time for Gordy and Robinson to be presented with their awards by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., it was the younger of the two who did most of the talking. (Asked if he wanted to speak, Gordy quickly retorted, “Not particularly.”) “I’m standing here tonight because when I first met [Gordy], it was the beginning of my dream come true,” said Robinson, 82. “I wanted to be a singer, to be in show business, write songs and make music. I never thought it was be possible for me from where I grew up. But he took me under his wing…I love you man, you are so precious.”
Amen, Smokey, amen.
After the MusiCares gala, the Grammy weekend saw the Recording Academy dispense a clutch of its lifetime achievement honours, including one for the Supremes. Accepting this on February 4 were Turkessa Babich for her late mother, Mary Wilson, and Lisa Chapman for her late mother, Florence Ballard. Neither Diana Ross nor any of her children attended.
The following day, the 65th annual Grammy Awards took place at the Crypto.com Arena, which included a three-song set by Stevie Wonder. This comprised “The Way You Do The Things You Do” with WanMor, the R&B boy band whose members are sons of Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris; “The Tears Of A Clown,” with Smokey Robinson, the song’s co-writer; and “Higher Ground,” with Robinson and country music star Chris Stapleton, which climaxed in a spirited instrumental jam.
The main Grammys show was notable, too, for a performance of another vintage Motown hit, Rare Earth’s “I Just Want To Celebrate,” by the Blind Boys of Alabama with Grammy nominees/winners Buddy Guy, La Marisoul, Bob Mintzer, Shoshana Bean and Maranda Curtis.