Joe Messina: Charlie Parker Gigs, Funk Brothers Guitar and 30 Silent Years

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Joe Messina was born in Detroit on December 13, 1928, got his first guitar from his father at 13, and moved from Central High School to Cass Technical High School before dropping out to play professionally. By his mid-20s he was in the ABC television studio band on The Soupy Sales Show, backing jazz figures such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1958 Berry Gordy recruited him for the Hitsville USA studio band that became the Funk Brothers, where he earned the nickname the White Brother with Soul and played on hundreds of records for the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops and Stevie Wonder.

The episode explains how his jazz background shaped Motown rhythm guitar: dense ninth and thirteenth chords struck percussively on two or three strings, with accents on the off beats. When Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, Messina stayed in Detroit and put the guitar away for three decades, later citing a complete loss of desire to play. During those years he developed the interval study method, a theory framework built on chromatic scales, and raised a family before returning to local jazz gigs and living to see the Funk Brothers honored.

He played rhythm guitar on Martha and the Vandellas' Dancing in the Street in 1964 and the Four Tops' I Can't Help Myself in 1965.
His role in the predominantly Black Funk Brothers reflected Detroit's mixed studio culture, where locking into the groove mattered most.
His wife Josie died in 2009; they had two children, Joel and Janice.
He was featured in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and the band received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2013.
Messina died in 2022 at age 93.

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