Bobby Harris: Let It Whip, United We Funk and Reclaiming the Dazz Band

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Saxophonist and vocalist Bobby Harris founded the group that became the Dazz Band in Cleveland in 1976. First a jazz fusion act called Bell Telefunk, they became the house band at the Kinsman Grill, where playing for diners turned their sound into danceable jazz, or Dazz. With grill owner Sonny Jones and manager Ray Calabrese, who suggested the name Kinsman Dazz, they signed with 20th Century Records. Marvin Gaye was set to produce their 1977 debut in Los Angeles but fell ill, so Harris recruited Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire to produce the first album and co-produce the second.

The band signed with Motown in 1980, shortened its name to the Dazz Band and added Sennie "Skip" Martin on trumpet and vocals. Producer Reggie Andrews wrote and produced Let It Whip, from the 1982 album Keep It Live, while Harris served as associate producer. When hip-hop pushed legacy funk acts off U.S. radio in the 1990s, Harris co-organized the United We Funk All Stars tour. In the early 2010s former guitarist Michael Calhoun, released from the band in 1981, filed to trademark Kinsman Dazz and Dazz Band, and the Patent and Trademark Office registered the mark in 2015.

• Let It Whip reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and won a Grammy for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals.
• Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich gave the band the key to the city.
• United We Funk joined members of the Bar-Kays, Con Funk Shun, the S.O.S. Band, Zapp's Roger Troutman and the Gap Band's Charlie Wilson, with promotion from Tom Joyner.
• Harris hired Gary Krugman, a former judge of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, to fight the registration.
• In 2017 the board canceled the marks, and the band planned to mark 50 years in 2026.