Un autre R.I.P. malheureusement : Ray Davis

(news un peu en retard, il est décédé mardi 5 juillet)

Ray Davis, un des fondateurs de Parliament-Funkadelic sous l'égide de George Clinton, est mort à 65 ans, mardi, dans un hôpital du New-Jersey aux Etats-Unis, des suites de complications respiratoires. La grosse voix sur Give Up The Funk ou sur One Nation Under A Groove, c'était lui. Ray Davis avait rencontré George Clinton au lycée dans les 50's et faisait partie du premier groupe de Clinton, les Parliaments.



I was all set to give yall a sterling report from the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Inductions.
However on my way back tonight my cellphone was burning up with calls, not unlike what happened to me on Friday afternoon with Luther Vandross. I was getting phone calls all the way from Chicago to NJ from members of the P-Funk family.
Right at this moment I don't feel much like writing anything

Ray Davis the GREAT bass singer for P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp passed away this evening. At various points in his career, Ray had been a member of all three groups.
However he is best known as one of the founding members (along with George Clinton, Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon) of a relatively unsuccessful/long suffering doo wop group from Plainfield New Jersey called the "Parliaments" back in the late 1950's.

They later went on to great fame as "Funkadelic", then later "Parliament" and of course as "Parliament-Funkadelic" during the 1970's. Ray Davis's is voice is famous for having delivered some of the most memorable and lasting lines in the history of FUNK MUSIC. In fact some of his most famous lines have become a part of the lexicon of the American language as we know it today and will last well into the future. And for those accomplishments and more, Ray Davis was enshrined into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Later he joined Zapp where he played a similar role. Then he joined the Temptations, replacing Melvin Franklin. It is Ray's bass singing that you hear on what was in my opinion, the last great album by the Temptations ("For Lovers Only" - 1995). After that album Ray was forced to leave the Tempations because of the onslaught of lung cancer. When the cancer receded Ray along with Fuzzy Haskins, Grady Thomas and Calvin Simon formed a group called "Original P" touring the country performing P-Funk, Temptations and Zapp songs.

Ray Davis was a member of the Soul-Patrol mailing list for many years and he loved it, although he never made more than a few postings He was one of the first artists to become "internet savvy" and as such was a big supporter of what we were trying to accomplish here on Soul-Patrol. He opened many doors for us, that we otherwise would not have been able to walk thru...
He was a friend to me.

I am going to miss Ray Davis quite a bit....

NP: "We gonna tear the roof off the muthasuka, tear the roof off the muthasucka, tear the roof off the suka..."
--Ray Davis


Bob Davis (7/2005)

BIG RESPECT !!!

B.

RIP..............

il a aussi fait partie de ZAPP ...

rip

Il fait partie de la Légende du FUNK!!

J'ai vu son nom dans la liste des gens ayant chanté avec THE TEMPTATIONS c'était bien lui ?

encore une biblithèque vivante qui part !!!! quelle perte !
Dommage que tous ces artistes qui se sont éteints n'ont pas eu l'occase de laisser -à par leurs oeuvres, heureusement- des bios, des notes, des livres sur eux, sur ce qu'ils ont vécu ! Ca laisse aux générations d'apres des lacunes considérables car je suis persuadé de cela, bien qu'on dise que l'expérience qu'on a vécù n'est bon que pour soi même, c'est toujours bon de faire des mise en gardes, des solutions sur un probleme (technique ou de carrière) qu'on a rencontré et qu'on sait que d'autre vont devoir gerer.