Larry Veeder was a member of the Joe Hunter Band that played on the early Tamla recordings. He played on Motown sessions up to 1962, but White, Willis and Messina quickly took over most of the guitar duties.
Robert White was born in Billmeyer, Pennsylvania, in 1936. He played guitar and bass, thanks to music tuition from his uncle. He moved to Detroit in 1960, where he found session work with Anna Records, later joining the session band at Motown, working alongside Joe Messina and Eddie Willis. His regular contribution was as a rhythm guitarist, but the three guitarists would usually work out who did what just before each session and White played lead on some well-known hits.
Robert White
Eddie Willis joined Motown in 1959, playing on Marv Johnson’s early Tamla hit “Come To Me”. His distinctive style can be heard on hundreds of Studio A recordings, adding depth to the sound and reinforcing the patterns being played on the snare drum. Willis played electric guitar, using a Gibson Firebird in the early days at Motown and then, later, a Gibson ES 335. Unlike many of his co-musicians, Willis’ musical background was in Blues and Country music.
Eddie Willis
Joe Messina, one of the few White session men in Studio A, was the third member of the trio of guitarists whose names are synonymous with Motown. He was born in Detroit in 1928, and took up the guitar at the age of thirteen. He was a student at Cass Technical High School, studying music, before dropping out of college to become a professional musician.
His first foray into that world came via Detroit’s Jazz clubs. A few years later, he was a member of the studio band at WXYZ, a TV station affiliated to ABC Television, which brought him into contact with Jazz greats such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1958, when Berry Gordy asked Mickey Stevenson to come up with the names of some talented local musicians, Joe Messina was high on the list. He was now aged thirty and had been playing in clubs or in a studio band for over ten years. His formal music training and background in Jazz meant that he had the ability to lead the other guitarists and make a strong contribution to the creativity in Studio A. Messina became one of the most important members of the Motown studio band, playing on recordings for all the Motown star performers.
Joe Messina
Most Jazz guitarists play hollow-body instruments, but Messina chose to play a solid-bodied Fender Telecaster with a modified Jazzmaster neck. He fitted heavy-gauge flat-wound strings that gave his playing a brighter sound. The Motown signature sound features a strong backbeat that Messina locked into, adding texture to the snare drum and tambourine beat. Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing In the Street” is a perfect example of Messina at work. For good measure, he also played the harmonica on the recording. He was also adept at doubling the bass line, as on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Your Precious Love”.
The three guitarists, Messina, White and Willis, often played together in the studio, with Messina standing in the middle of the other two. Each had their own style. White preferred to thumb-pick sweet introductions, Willis added a Bluesy feel to his playing and Messina just set the beat, using a plectrum for emphasis. The others played off him.
Marv Tarplin was born in 1941 in Atlanta, Georgia. His family moved to Detroit during his childhood. His first interest in music came when his mother signed him up for some piano lessons, but he soon turned to the guitar. As we have seen, he started playing with the Primettes in 1959, following an invitation from Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, who attended the same school as Tarplin. The girls were beginning to perform locally and were keen to get an audition at Motown. Smokey Robinson heard them and recommended them to Berry Gordy. More significantly, Robinson could also see the value of having Tarplin in the group to steer them musically. As a result, he invited Tarplin to play some shows with the Miracles, which grew into a link that lasted nearly fifty years!
Soon after Tarplin’s arrival, the Miracles’ “Shop Around” went to number one. It wasn’t a surprise that he stayed. Tarplin became Robinson’s right-hand man in respect of songwriting, with Tarplin coming up with the tunes and Robinson then writing the lyrics. He is credited on many of the Miracles’ hits. When Smokey Robinson later left the Miracles and then decided to go solo, Tarplin left the group to continue working with Robinson. Together, they wrote several more major hits for Robinson. Their songwriting partnership also benefitted several other Motown artists, including Marvin Gaye.
Tarplin was not considered to be a member of the Funk Brothers because he was generally occupied with the Miracles’ recordings and performances. Nevertheless, when Smokey Robinson was producing tracks for Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Temptations or the Marvelettes, he often called on Tarplin to play guitar in the studio. Tarplin played a Gibson Les Paul and developed a style similar to that of Curtis Mayfield. It was a style that Robinson recognised and valued.
Huey Davis played guitar with Contours, both on the road and in the studio.
Header Photo: Mkim0219 (Wikimedia Commons)
