Keeping the Creative Funk alive: An interview with Gary DeBerry Sr.

THE MOTOWN FROM JAMAICA, QUEENS

When recalling how it all started and where the Creative Funk name originated, Gary remembers that ‘Andre, a trumpet player from our neighbourhood, and I got together one day, and everyone was getting music classes in school those days so we just looked for some other kids from the Queens area who wanted to join our band. And then when we had a group together we said to each other that now all we need is a nice, creative, funk name. And one of the guys just says, “Well, that’s it! Creative Funk!” (laughs) It can be that simple sometimes.’

‘This was in 1970. When Andre and I started Creative Funk, we started getting some gigs around the local area. I was still very young, around 16-17, and I started telling my mother about going to play these gigs, and she said ‘Deek, go out and see what your little brother is doing.’ He was 15 years older than me and understandably quite reluctant to have to babysit me, so he came out to see us not expecting much, but when he heard us play he was in shock and said ‘OK, I want to manage you guys!’

The idea to start their own record label followed not much later: ‘After the success of our first single ‘Ready Made Family’ we were approached to join Atlantic Records, but we were so young and some of the parents were hesitant about us joining such a big imprint, so we got signed to the Atlantic sub-label Bell Records. That lasted for about a year, a year and a half and that’s when Deek said “why don’t we try doing this ourselves and see where we can get?”. So that’s when the label side of things was born.’

‘Deek was really good at spotting talent and there were a lot of gifted musicians in Queens at that time, so after the band Creative Funk got off the ground, he wanted to see if we could help some of the other kids in the neighbourhood to make it in the industry. He had bands contacting him all the time, and together we started picking groups and songs to see if we could get our own little Motown going in Jamaica, Queens (chuckles). The first release we did from another artist was a Diane Jenkins’ single. She was a singer in the Creative Funk band, but she was so good we decided to make her a solo artist. So Diane was the first one to sort of lead the label with a few songs.’

SKIPPING SCHOOL AND COMPETING WITH THE BIG LABELS

Those first releases did really well in the Tri-State area around New York, but their do-it-yourself approach also had its downsides, Gary recalls.

‘Today everyone is recording their stuff at home but back then you needed the big 24-track machine, mixdown to your 7-inch machine, we couldn’t afford that stuff so we were being held captive by the big studios. And we didn’t have the money to run a label, do promotion and marketing and then on top still have a recording studio.

But at least we had our own space, because when we first started, we were still rehearsing in the basement of Clarence Bassett, one of the members of The Limelites. After the money from ‘Ready Made Family’ came in, that was made entirely in Clarence’s basement, we got ourselves a warehouse and that really turned into our rehearsal space. We could stay there as long as we wanted, so of course we would get in trouble for not going to school and being in that warehouse playing music the whole day.

But we didn’t have the means to make it nationwide. It was all really DIY when we were going independent, because at that time the record companies controlled everything you needed to get heard, you know. They controlled the recording studios, they had the funding power for promotion and marketing, which was really expensive to do. But we did well locally. People came to our shows and bought our records on the independent level, and we got a lot of airplay on local R&B stations like WWRL.

At that time the money wasn’t there to keep us at the top of the charts. It was a time when you had Warner, Atlantic and Motown and you know what that was about. But we did good as an independent record label. We pressed about 2000 records a year, about 300 at a time per release, and then those were distributed in the record shops throughout the five boroughs because our music got a lot of support from the community there.’

BLACK POP MUSIC

‘So, for us, playing live in our area was the biggest and best marketing tool. We had some shows at the legendary Apollo theatre in Harlem, NYC, but we didn’t have the means for Billboard type of marketing. We were just grassroots. Today, because of the internet, it’s a great time for independent artists and DIY labels, but back then it was pretty much impossible to make it big without the big record companies.

Being local, our music was always finding a bigger audience within the black community, and we didn’t have the resources to get it out to a more diverse crowd. In those days in the early seventies, it was incredibly difficult to make it as a label putting out what I consider to be black pop music. Black pop music was consistently being labelled as R&B by the music industry in those days, and the term pop music was being kept almost exclusively for white artists. They were afraid of black artists making music that could get too popular. Believe me, Motown, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations have had to sell a ton of albums before their music was being regarded as pop by the big players in the industry back then!’

WHERE’S THE ROYALTY MONEY?

With the rise of the internet in the early 90s, it was no longer viable to run a small-scale DIY imprint focussed on physical releases. And while Creative Funk might not have become the Motown from Jamaica, Queens, like he once dreamed of, Gary DeBerry Sr. is equally surprised as he is grateful to see that the music he put out with his friends and brother is still touching people’s hearts today.

‘Before I never actually really considered bringing out the music digitally because I honestly didn’t think people would still be interested in it because there’s so much stuff out there nowadays. I mean, I was 17 yrs old back and just having fun, I never thought we would be having this talk today. In fact, If you would’ve told me back then in the 70s that our music would still be alive nearly 60 years later, I would’ve immediately called you a liar!’ (laughs).

I was aware some of our releases were quite wanted by European collectors, because a couple of people contacted me years ago to show me their collections of Creative Funk records, and I was really amazed by that. And then I noticed that there are websites where people can sell their physical copies of our music to each other, which I thought was just incredible! Then I saw some of the prices some people are asking for the records.. I mean, I’m honoured, but sometimes I also think ‘where’s the royalty money?!’ (laughs).

So I thank you for wanting to bring back our music and for being honest enough to get in touch with me. What you did with your project is you’ve revibed my spirit. I went back through all of our old records and thought to myself  “wait up, there’s indeed something here”. And I understood that it’s really the people, the music lovers and projects like yours that keep the music alive. And I really thank people for still valuing what we did and wanting to pay for it, because it’s so much more than just the music. It’s supporting someone’s creativity and livelihood.

When asked for some parting words, Gary’s eyes light up again: ‘I am forever grateful for everyone that is still interested in our music, and I just hope people will enjoy!’

The first official Creative Funk reissue that is available only on Revibed is Jade’s 1984 late night Freestyle anthem “Dance Me!”, with the rest of the catalogue following throughout the coming weeks.