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B. B. & Q. band Wow, what a fantastic band this is! Right from the start in 81 B. B. & Q. band showed what real music is about. With a smooth and irresistible pop funk sound with highly addective and catchy melodies they were a perfect blend of European writing and producing skills and American musician and vocalists that made this band to a classic! The background Jacques Fred Petrus, the man behind Change and Peter Jacques band among others, was also the force behind B. B. & Q. band. Being the tycoon of Milan based Goody Music Productions (GMP) since the second half of the 70s together with his co-founder, song writer wizard Mauro Malavasi, he had plans ready for a hot new project. After a certain amount of success with his first productions in the late 70s Petrus wanted more of the US market. Change became a real breakthrough it that sense, but Petrus didn't stop there. Besides his brilliant staff of Italian musicians like Malavasi, Romani and Gianolio he hired a handful of skillful musicians and vocalists in the US for the new deal, later know as The B. B. & Q. band. In that search, as well as in other areas, guitarist Doc Powell from New York played an important role connecting Petrus with local key figures that might be useful for this new album. The competent and young musician of Powell, that earlier worked as musical director for Wilson Pickett was spotted by Petrus performing in a New York club. Petrus liked what he heard and invited him to come to Italy and play on the debut album of Change in 1980. Soon Powell not only became a guitar player but also the musical director of Change and soon for B. B. & Q. band as well. Powell was the one that got in touch with bassist Paris Ford (called Peewee Ford on the record) from Bronx in New York and introduced him to Petrus. In November 1980 Petrus went to the studios and met up with Paris Ford and a couple of his "cats" together with the rest of the potential string of musicians and vocalists Petrus had brought in. Petrus handpicked the ones he liked to be the band as well as the additional players and vocalists. Paris Ford and his musicians were among the ones Petrus picked. But their final role was still a well kept secret that only Petrus did know about. Ford's "cats", that later did really became the band, were Abdul Wali Mohammed on guitar, Ike Floyd as lead singer, Dwayne Perdue on drums and Kevin Nance on keyboards (picture beneath). Ford had been a part of the obscure funk band Tyrone Thomas and the whole darn family in the mid 70s. In 1976 they released the classic underground funk hit "Seven minutes of funk" that is one of the most sampled tracks of modern rappers. Both Ford and Mohammed had also worked on Lonnie Liston Smith's jazz fusion album "Loveland" in 80 on which Petrus' "recruiter" Powell played guitar on as well. Nance, a competent keyboardist, was at the time a member of the famous soul, disco and funk band Machine, known for their socially engaged lyrics and their 1979 cult classic "There but for the Grace of God Go I". Petrus did also use the brilliant genius Malavasi to write the music that was the real inventor of the B. B. & Q. band sound and the following success! Malavasi wrote all tracks except one that fellow Italian Marco Tanasi took care of. In the summer of 1981 everything was set for the release of the bands first single. Petrus, his core of Italian musicians and the hired American musicians and vocalists recorded Malavasi's songs during a session with lyrics by Paul Slade and Tanyanette Willoughby and a few others. At this moment Petrus asked Paris and his musicians if they were interested to be the actual "band", not surprisingly, they said yes. Meanwhile Petrus had manage to catch a deal with Capitol records in New York but still needed a name for his new act. Paris Ford came up with The Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens band, named after the three main parts of New York. They were all important parts to black music in the big apple as well as the boroughs from where the band members came from. As the name was very long the shortened version of "The B. B. & Q. band", and later only "B. B. & Q. band" or simply BB&Q band, was later used on their albums. A perfect start in 1981
The sound The music of B. B. & Q. band can be described as discofunk, or popfunk as former Change member Jeff Bova's once said. Compared to the only other Petrus/Malavasi production that year, "Miracles " by Change, B. B. & Q band had a slightly more funkier sound but was still as accessible and appealing as the album of Change. The similarities with Change weren't a coincident however. The way Petrus ran his empire was by letting Malavasi and and a few others create the music, arrange, conduct and produce it (under Petrus' given guidelines) and then by himself place them on the albums he thought suited them and the band's best. Only Petrus did know where each track were going to be placed at the end. That procedure was a trademark of Petrus and was performed continuously all the way from the start to the end. That's why all tracks written that year could easily been used either on the albums by Change or B. B & Q. band.
From
left to right: Frankie Crocker, noted NY radio personality on WBLS,
Peewee Ford (Paris Ford), Abdul Wali Mohammed and Ike Floyd. The
first track on the album was something that no one was going to forget
in a hurry, whether you talk past or present. If you haven't heard "On
the beat", that reached the #8 spot on the Billboard black singles charts,
you certainly got something to do! Was it a band or just a studioconcept? Even though Ford and his gang were asked to be the band and a picture of them were shown (above) on the album, no separate presentation of them were made on the cover. They main reason to the picture must simply have been that Petrus needed to show a touring band, a commercially very important face, and not to show a real group. Whether Ford or anybody else performed as the band were of no interest to Petrus, only musical success. The "group" was more of an informal, temporarily nature in the nonstop Petrus music machine and could change in any minute, a fact that Ford and his musicians soon were to experience. Also Petrus specific way of working with small parts or bits instead of bigger selfgoing group identities didn't allow group thinking as the working procedure was way to open, virtually chaos like and mobile for that. That's why the concept of B. B. & Q. band wasn't stone hard, from-now-and-forever group in the common use of the word. Petrus didn't want it to be that way. He just used the parts, like bits in a puzzle trying to create as good music as possible that commercially could break and he was damn good at it. This was Petrus way of working, and a sign of his need for total control over the overall production. Petrus may have looked after a real group, but only if he was sure it would fit his planes. It was first on the B. B. & Q. band's album in 82 as a more stable group identity occurred.
Consequently
the new B. B. & Q band in 82 featured besides Kevin Nance on keyboards,
Kevin Robinson, that not only played guitar but also became the lead
singer after Ike Floyd, Chieli Minucci (a second generation Italian
and like Robinson from Kinky foxx as well) on guitar and Tony Bridges
on bass guitar. Kinky foxx contributed with just another member, the
later successful solo artist Johnny Kemp as background singer. This
lineup probably also became the group in 82 as they were separately
presented on the back cover although without being stated as the band. Once again the release was produced by Petrus, but only on paper. The highly regarded Luther Vandross was no longer a background singer like he was in 81 but others, both new and old names were stepping in. The background singers included the superb and sensual vocalist Tawatha Agee (Mtume), Timmy Allen (Change) and Alyson Williams (High fashion) to name a few. Now when everything was set the audience were exited to know if the new lineup were up to something good, and yes they were! The earlier more or less monopoly among the Italians of Malavasi and Romani when it comes to writing and producing was now much more mixed up with American skill. Even so, the mighty Malavasi wrote three of the tracks including the hit "Children of the night". The rest of the written material was shared between Kevin Robinson with two tracks and Kae Williams, Tony Bridges and Timmy Allen with one each. The album got some great tracks that are almost on the same level as the debut. Together with Robinson's voice working passionate true the songs the result was over average. The most appealing tracks are sing-a-long "All night long (she's got the moves I like)", electrofunkish "Imagination" (#21 spot on Billboards black singles chart) and the already mentioned Malavasi penned smooth and slender "Children of the night". All of them really great dancebeats with catchy melodies that very well could match the most distinguished tracks from the album in 81. Also the listener finds some nice ballades on the album. New directions - close to a flop B. B. & Q. band was now on top, so what to do? Well, why not produce a bad album, with less glow and enthusiasm. That was exactly what happened in 83 when "Six million times" was released on Capitol records for the last time. Although the foxy lady on the front cover looked all right the inside was not as seductive and interesting as the outside and the band had lost the sparkle from the two earlier albums. In addition the skills of the main song writer Malavasi were used on the albums of High fashion and Change instead, something that had great impact on the final musical result of "Six million times". As a significant result of that both Change and High fashion launched albums considerably stronger including several great tracks penned by Malavasi like "Tell my way" by Change and "Stay" by High fashion. A
crucial explanation to why Petrus' decided to not use Malavasi on B.
B . & Q. band's third album except for one mediocre track might
also be explained by his grooving financial problems that affected the
relationship with the golden calf's of Malavasi and Romani. That also
made Petrus invite new hungry America songwriters at the expense of
the old Italians and B. B. & Q. band got most affected by these
changes. One of these Americans that stepped forward from the album
in 82 and received that writing freedom was Kevin Robinson. He wrote
almost all tracks on "Six million times". Robinson was, and
is, absolutely a good musician and a rather competent singer but not
as near as good songwriter. He simply couldn't compete with the master
Malavasi. This move of Petrus was the main reason to the dramatic drop
in quality and commercial success of B. B. & Q. band in 1983.
B. B. & Q. band searching for inspiration In 82 Petrus and Malavasi didn't work together as well as before and finally their companionship broke apart in 83 due to econimical problems and the collapse of their Goody music production company. Petrus continued as a producer and executive producer, but Malavasis exellent talent of writing the music was lost. If that was not bad enough, Petrus had also lost the highly used Romani, Gianolioi and Trevesi due to the same economical problems. B. B. & Q. band now stood in front of some heavy economical and musical problems, and the future was uncertain, especially after the flop in 83 that made the situation even tougher. Petrus however didn't gave up. Change album "Change of heart" in 84 had instead of Malavasi and the other main Italians used upcoming producers/writers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis with great success. He understood that their new and characteristic sound was something not to forget, a notion that later was implemented on BB's album in 85 with its clear influences from Jam and Lewis. He couldn't use Jam and Lewis themselves once again however, because they didn't get paid either and soon left Petrus like the Italians. So with all his experience and knowledge, what did Petrus decide for B. B. & Q. band's future? First of all Petrus waited two years for the release of B. B. & Q. band's fourth album on Elektra records featuring a completely new band including none of the earlier band/touring members. Lead singer Kevin Robinson was involved in the group Network in 84 that might has been a reason to his departure. But the over all reasons were that Petrus didn't pay the members or the musicians and even the engineers for that matter anymore and that there were no gigs going on with BB, so they simply left him for other projects. Petrus was now almost completely deserted by everyone. He was in this precarious situation forced to catch other musicians and singers and invited the marvelous singer Curtis Hairston to be lead vocalist and used the old fox Kay Williams to write all songs as well as playing keyboards and piano. Williams had earlier participated on B. B. & Q. bands second album as songwriter and bassist. The new B. B. & Q. band also included Ullanda McCullough as background vocalist (she was background vocalist on Change's 81 album), Timmy Allen on bass and Michael Campbell on Guitar, both from Change. Petrus decided to use Allen and Campell from Change instead of taking anybody from outside. Both had played bass and guitar respectively on BB's second release. Once again Petrus took advantage of what was left of the in-house talents and used them in the band. Back on top, but just for a year
The two most prominent tracks were "Genie" (no 40 on Billboards top 40 in 85) and "Dreamer" (no 35 on Billboards top 40 in 86) that got some great values with a smoth and spell bounded dreamy sound! Two similar harder tracks are also representative in the sing-a-long "Main attraction" and the electro-funk like "On the shelf" (#72 spot on Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-hop singles & tracks chart) that included a blues/rock break of the highest musical standard, although nothing sensational, well worth a closer attention nonetheless. Also the good ballad descent "Minutes away" and the fast and scratchy "Riccochet" were included. All together, although not a classical album, this is a good example of mid 80 Jam/Lewis influenced music well worth buying. The end and beginning of other projects
Different covers in 85
The album was released on several labels (Elektra, Mega, Cooltempo,
ZXY etc) both in 85 and 86 and with different album covers. The first
release in 85 was recorded at the Morning studios in Milan and featured
in Europe a red cover (top) on some issues and a blue cover on other
issues.
The cover of the US release in 85 was completely different in its design
and didn't have the same stylish look as the European versions.
On
the 85 issues Petrus was both the producer (with Kay Williams) and execuitive
producer. According to the second release in 86 however fomer basket
pro Earl Monroe was the executive producer and Kay Williams the producer.
The albums in 86 were also recorded in the Castle studios in Milan instead
of Morning studios in Milan. The second release must obviously have
been edited and released after Petrus death in 86.
Why Genie was recorded and/or edited in two different locations is unknown,
even though it's not unusual to release different editions of the same
record.
This is definitely a great group and one of my favorites but unfortunately very hard to get these days. Although a best of B. B. & Q. band on CD was released in 88 on the little Italian record company Streetheat, but it was no success. One reason was that it was released in such small numbers so almost nobody ever got the chance to get a copy of it. Besides that the choice of tracks was really bad, missing out many great tracks together with the feeling that the release was such a hasty work impossible to give the group it's true credits for their great earlier achievements. I got a suggestion however on how the best of B. B. & Q. band really should look like. Go check it out Exclusive B. B. & Q. band reissues
A
second release by Fonte records was made on the 15th of November 2005
featuring a box of five CD's including the first three albums together
with the two albums of High fashion. More
info about this box and the additional four exclusive boxes in the series
can be found here On the 7th of August 2006 the Duth label PTG records finally re-issued "Genie" on CD as well. You can find that album at www.vinyl-masterpiece.com On
the 6th of February 2008 Fonte
records released the "Final collection" of B. B. & Q.
band featuring tracks from all four albums.
(Patrik
Andersson)
Discography of The B. B. & Q. band Please click on the covers below to see a complete list of songs from each record.
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The
debut album (#72 spot on Billboards black albums chart and #109 spot
on Billboards pop albums chart) on Capitol that was released in September
81 was produced by Petrus and Mauro Malavasi. In reality though
the music was fully Malavasi's piece of art. Petrus partly took the
credits of the productions more than he should, something he did when
it came to the other projects he was running as well. All songs except
Tansini's ballad "Don't say goodbye" were composed, arranged and conducted
by
the mastermind Malavasi (see picture beneath). He was riding on the
waves of the magical flow of never ending success and this album made
him reach the highest wave!
Once again, as so many times during the late 70s, Italy and Bologna
was the playground for the recording of the music of this self titled
album. And as before Petrus split up the recordings by letting the vocal
parts take place in New York instead of Bologna. Why he didn't let all
of the recording take place at one single spot is both due to economical
and chauvinistic reasons. To completely leave Europe and the beloved
Italy for US was simply out of the question and to do the whole thing
in Bologna was simply to expensive.
This
is truly one of the best tracks ever in its genre and with its fast
and catchy melody, lovely song by Ike Floyd, intensive guitars and deep
bass lines. It includs an indescribable hypnotic intro performed by
a synth gone crazy. This puts you on the floor, whether you want it
or not! And
the story didn't end there as the album included three more outstanding
eternal hits. The strongest among them were the masterfully and sensitively
singed "Time for love" (#72 spot on Billboards black singles chart),
an absolutely perfect balanced track with a short but intense break
after three and a half minutes and fat bass guitar riffs. Also more
disco like "Mistakes" and dreamy "Starlette" (that was originally
intended for the debut album of Change) were competent songs that
got much in common with the tracks on Change's album that same year.
Although B. B & Q. band emphasized heavily on speedy tracks the
album also included the sad, but yet irresistible ballad of "Don't say
goodbye" and a somewhat misplaced mid tempo reggae imitation that many
artist did add at the time of strange reasons. This
amazing and classic album is perhaps Malavasi's most brilliant and genius
one.
The next album was released on Capitol in 82 titled "All night
long" (#32 spot on Billboards black albums chart). With a view of their
beloved New York shining up at night they continued to point out their
origin. The front cover showed the two twin towers of World trade center
in the middle that since the barbaric act of terrorism of the 11 th
of September 2001 no longer exists. The lineup was very different this
time however. In fact all of Ford's players were gone except Kevin Nance.
The main reason to that was that the top studio and touring musicians
that were used as the band in 81 had other and more prioritized engagements
with artists that, besides being much more well-known also offered better
salaries. B. B. & Q band was after all still an uncertain card despite
the relative success after the first album and that made the difference.
Ford
had in 81 hired guitarist Kevin Robinson that earlier played in Kinky
foxx to be the 2nd guitar player. The two didn't get along very well
though and soon a conflict between them occurred. After a power struggle
Robinson took over as the new leader of the band. Even though the power
struggle gave Ford a headache it was Ford's more appealing and better
paid off engagements with major artists like Norman Connors, Johnny
Gill and Stacy Lattisaw that was the over all main reason to his departure.
Like him the rest of the band except Kevin Nance left at the same time.
Robinson, that wasn't a very well known and in demand player compared
with the rest of the B. B. & Q band members didn't have any other
engagements that year so he was simply the only available option left
for Petrus that immediately put him in the driving seat. 
In
85 it was time to release "Genie". Petrus had now left Capitol
and released the set on Elekta instead, probably because of the bad
selling figures that their last album stood for. When you're down, you
can lie down or rise, B. B. & Q. band did the latter after their
poor release in 83. I better say it right away, this was a great comeback!
The sound was new, modern and tough and the beautiful and funky cover
corresponded perfectly with the music! A critical mind might say the
release included way too much programmed drummachines without the warm
feeling of instrumental joy. To a certain degree that might be the case
especially on tracks like "On the shelf" and "Main attraction"
but they did not exclude a nice melody and the warmth was to be found
there as well like the splendid "Won't
you be with me tonight" clearly shows. The latter could more easily
be found on the rest of the album that is more soft and dreamlike. All
songs, whether hard or soft, were performed with a masters touch by
the wonder kid Curtis Hairston's sensitive voice that really helped
to create a perfect feeling drawn to the very limit of pleasure. To
use the old man Kay Williams and letting him do all the work was brilliant
as well. The lovely long version of the title track is a great laid
back, smooth soul piece that makes you sing along.
B.
B. & Q. band didn't release any more albums after "Genie" mainly
because of the tragic death of Petrus in 86 and the great group split
up. What happened to the different groupmembers after the split are
not known except for a few. Curtis Hairston released the dreamlike "The
morning after" on his one an only album in 86. Many of the tracks from
the album were very similar to the ones on "Genie" and could very well
have been on that record. In 92 he appeared as background singer on
former High fashion member Alyson Williams self titled album. The bussy
Chieli Minucci, a scholar in classic guitar, became famous and stepped
out from the studio to wrote songs to artists like Chaka Kahn and Roberta
Flack but did also worke as a producer. His very special way of performing
jazz was introduced on his debut solo album in 95. The great Mauro Malavasi
continued his work as a producer and songwriter for Change, High fashion
until 83. He then left his work with Petrus and continued on his own
with world famous artists like Andrea Bocceli and the beautiful Dalida.
Paris Ford continued his work and as a musician. He released his first
single ”Be My Girl” (# 69 on Billboard's Top 100 R&B/Dance chart) on
Streetwise records (Arthur Baker's label) and has been playing and/or
on tour with such great acts like Rick James, New Edition, Evelyn “Champagne”
King, Lenny White, Invisible man Band and Planet patrol to mention just
a few. Today he is still busy working with new hot projects after his
biggest selling single "2 Far" featuring ex Change member James Robinson
that was released in 1989. Paolo Gianolio continued playing guitar for
several artists like Eros Ramazzotti, Anna Oxa and Fiorella Manoia.
Timmy Allen became an even more successful songwriter and producer to
singers like Lillo Thomas and Milie Jackson. Today
Allen still works in the music business with acts like Britney Spears
and Backstreet boys.
Kevin Robinson played guitar on Mtume's albums in 83 and 84. Robinson
was also the force behind the hard-to-find group Network that released
their one and only album "I need you" in 84 on Salsoul (maybe just
on Rams horn when a rumor has it that Salsoul never released it but
Rams horn did, with or without their permission) that he produced
and played guitar on. Network's sound is similar to B. B. & Q. band
in 82 and 83 but with a more funkier groove. Johnny Kemp that sung as
background singer on BB's second album was also a member of Network
where he was lead vocalist on the hit "Cover girl" [
If
you can't wait for "my" "Best of" CD above you have
to order the fantastic re-issue series of
B. B. & Q. band's first three albums on CD that were released
in August 2004 and
produced by the Italian
record label Fonte records! You
can order them at the distributors
site 
Copyright
© 1999-2008
