Joe Weaver

Pianist Joe Weaver was a vital link between the gritty R&B of postwar Detroit and the fabled Motown sound of the 1960s. His band, the Blue Notes, played on many of the formative Tamla sessions, effectively establishing the sonic blueprint later honed to perfection by the Funk Brothers. Born in Detroit in 1934, Weaver began playing piano at age nine, and with guitarist Johnnie Bassett co-founded the Blue Notes while the two were students at Northwestern High School. An uncommonly versatile outfit equally adept at blues, boogie-woogie, and R&B, they regularly claimed top honors ...