Motown Legend, Joe Messina, Dead at 93

Courtesy of Motown Museum

Joe Messina (right) helped define the "Motown Sound."

Joe Messina, a jazz-trained musician whose rhythm guitar playing helped define the "Motown Sound," died Monday at his son's home in Northville, Michigan.

The Detroit News confirmed the death of the guitarist, who lost his 12-year battle with unspecified kidney disease. He was 93.

The Motown Museum posted a lengthy tribute to the artist on its official Facebook page.

"It is with a heavy heart that Motown Museum announces the passing of one of Motown’s original Funk Brothers, Joe Messina," the post read in part.

"We remember Joe Messina for his prolific contributions to Motown Records and Motown Museum. In the museum’s first temporary exhibit called 'The Magic Behind the Magic,' a tribute to the Funk Brothers, it was Joe who donated the first instrument, his famous guitar... Motown Museum sends our sincere condolences to the Messina family, and to Joe’s friends and fans around the world."

Messina jokingly referred to himself as “the cream in the Oreo cookie,” due to his status as one of the few white musicians in the Motown house band the Funk Brothers.

He played on numerous Motown hits in the 1960s and early '70s as part of the iconic studio band, including recordings by Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Four Tops, and had was one of the sole surviving players from its original core ensemble.

Alongside regulars Robert White and Eddie Willis, inside Motown’s fabled Studio A, Black guitar virtuosos he set between — the cookies to his cream — while helping lay down the backbeat for the sound that would become synonymous with Motown on his Fender Telecaster with a modified neck, Messina and his fellow Funk Brothers operated in obscurity.

They finally got their due for their crucial role in the label's hitmaking success in 2002. The award-winning documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" exposed them to the world and led to several prominent live reunion shows and eventually an audience with President George W Bush at the White House.

RIP Funk Brother Joe Messina

Here in the studio recording with The Temptations pic.twitter.com/Wf2fzt17Mv

— Record Lovers (@recordlovers) April 5, 2022

Jon Batiste Becomes 11th Black Artist to Take Home Album of the Year Honors at Grammys

Jon Batiste became just the 11th Black artist, and the first in 14 years, to take home album of the year honors at the 64th Grammys Sunday.

The multifaceted singer and musician went into the night with 11 nominations for “We Are,” which peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard 200 music chart, and to the shock of many finished the night with five trophies.

The album took home golden gramaphones for American roots performance and American roots song, best score soundtrack for visual media (in a tie with Carlos Rafael Rivera’s score for The Queen’s Gambit) and best music video for “Freedom.”

What incredible blessings tonight 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/uDv2kx8X0N

— jon batiste (@JonBatiste) April 4, 2022

“I focused on love and freedom when making this album. I just wanted to give some good ole Black joy to the world. My other focus is family, my mom, my grandfather who is 90, my dad, my sister, and everyone is here,” Batiste said of the win in The Recording Academy’s press room. “I wasn't prepared to win album of the year, but I hope this resonates with the young people to be yourself.”

Prior to Batiste taking home the Grammys top award, fellow jazz musician Herbie Hancock was the last winner for 2008’s “River: The Joni Letters.”

Other big winners included R&B duo Silk Sonic. The collaboration between singer Bruno Mars and rapper Anderson .Paak won record and song of the year for their hit “Leave the Door Open.” They also scored best R&B performance (in a tie with Jazmine Sullivan) and best R&B song.

Click here to see a full list of the nominees and winners.

Precocious Prince Revealed in Rare Footage

Screenshot: WCCO - CBS Minnesota

The keen eye of Minnesota news production manager Matt Liddy, unearthed a long-lost treasure recently in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

A Minnesota native, Liddy, was looking through archival footage for WCCO, where he works, last month when he spotted a familiar face in a story about a school strike that took place in 1970.

The resemblance to Minnesota's Muse, the Purple One himself —Prince, as an 11-year-old speaking in support of the teacher's strike was so stunning that Liddy immediately ran to the newsroom to confirm that he was not crazy.

"I immediately just went out to the newsroom and started showing people [the footage] and saying, 'I'm not going to tell you who I think this is, but who do you think this is?" he told WCCO.

According to Liddy, every single person responded "Prince."

Still, after being advised by experts that pre-teen videos of Prince are nearly nonexistent, the team at WCCO had to go the extra mile to verify the video and confirm that their footage contained a rare look at the legend who came to embody the Minnesota music scene as a child.

After restoring the video, the station found Kristen Zschomler, a professional historian, archeologist and researcher who has written extensively on his journey from Minneapolis’ northside to Paisley Park and the world.

When she was shown the clip, in which the young boy is called Skipper by his classmates (a nickname Prince had as a child), she was convinced it was the star immediately.

“I think that’s him, definitely. Oh my gosh! Yeah, I think that’s definitely Prince,” Zschomler said. “This definitely looks like Lincoln Junior High School where he would have been attending school in April of 1970."

The news team got its final confirmation when it hunted down Terrance Jackson, a childhood friend and former neighbor who was also in the singer’s first band, Grand Central, as teens.

“We go far back as kindergarten at John Hay Elementary in north Minneapolis,” Jackson told WCCO.

“That is Prince! Standing right there with the hat on, right? That’s Skipper! Oh my God!" Jackson exclaimed.

So, what did the star, who died at age 57 in 2016 from a fentanyl overdose, have to say about the striking teachers?

“I think they should get some more money because they be working extra hours for us," he said.

Watch the clip below for the entire story: