Pat Stallworth – Questions (recorded February 21, 1974)
This unsung phenomenal silky love jam was backed by Mother Braintree, a Cleveland funk group containing a future member of The Dazz Band.
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Exactly fifty years ago on February 21, 1974, singer Pat Stallworth was at Agency Recording Studios in Cleveland, Ohio with producer and songwriter Bill Jacocks.
They were recording her little known, phenomenal silky love jam “Questions” (1974) backed by Mother Braintree, a local funk group led by Larry Ross that also included Pierre DeMudd, a future trumpet player with The Dazz Band. The song remains obscure, as evidenced by the fact it has only been sampled twice so far according to WhoSampled.com.
In 2023, Larry Ross, the bandleader for Mother Braintree pictured in the above photo with Stallworth and Jacocks, left a lengthy comment on our YouTube channel about the recording of this track and his time with the band, which is quoted in full at the end of this post.
Bill Jacocks was the Assistant Public Affairs Director at WEWS TV-5 and Cleveland's first Black news anchor. He had previously been a songwriter for Motown's Jobete Music division, working out of the Brill Building in New York City. In Cleveland, he ran his own short-lived label Fly-By-Nite Records and wrote “Questions” for 22-year old Stallworth after seeing her in a play at the Karamu House community theater.
Jacocks explained in 2011 how it happened:
“Pat Stallworth became my third “pay it forward” project after hearing her sing in a local play. Being in my sixth year as a radio and TV news personality (at WEWS-TV in '74) the money was great. And I was continuing my dream project of finding Cleveland (my hometown) talent, writing songs for and recording them. That way they'd have a showcase: pursue major labels, careers, etc.”
“Questions” was the second and final release on Fly-By-Nite. The 45 featured “Questions (Part I)” on the A-side backed with the sexy, near-instrumental “Questions (Part II).” Both parts were written and produced by Jacocks. The flip was originally intended to be an entirely different song, but Jacocks was so excited by how the A-side turned out that he and band director Larry Ross co-arranged a second part to the track, conceived (and possibly originally titled) as “Answers” to the record’s first side.
The record was pressed at Queen City Albums. It was released less than two weeks after the recording sessions, on March 4, 1974. “Questions” never charted but was rediscovered years later by crate diggers, hip hop producers, and Northern soul and rare groove enthusiasts. The single was finally re-released in 2012 by the Chicago-based reissue label Numero Group.
On September 27, 2023, Mother Braintree’s bandleader Larry Ross left the following lengthy comment on our YouTube channel, shedding much more light on this track’s back story:
“Hi! That's me in the picture with Pat and Bill, and my name is Larry Ross: this was recorded 49-years-ago, so it's been a while! I was the bandleader of Mother Braintree, and Bell Telefunk is a completely different band: Bell Telefunk was Bobby Harris' group (I knew his father too, who was a jazz saxophonist and great friend at the Casino Royale in the 1960s where I was in the house band called The Casino Quintet with Akmu (Walter Johnson on tenor saxophone), Dale Mangum (Piano), Chuck Turner (drums), and Devere Pride (Upright Bass), in 1968 when I played my Gibson L7 with the DeArmond pickup through a Fender Bandmaster head & speaker cabinet: OMG!.
Mother Braintree was Edwin Starr's backup band in 1971-72, and when he fled to England, we changed our name to Mother Braintree when we went through Braintree, MA on our way to play in New Haven, CT: our roadie named Sonny was a great artist, and he drew a sketch of a tree, put each of the band members heads on a branch, and we said that our band was like a "Mother" because we were SO close, hence the name Mother Braintree was brought in replacing our previous name "Creation" that we had when we played with Edwin.
Bill Jacocks does not read music or play an instrument, so I used two major 9th chords and added a minor 9th for the vamp of Questions Part II, and arranged the rhythm section and horns around those progressions, to compliment Bill's melody: Bill came up with the melody and lyrics, so all I did was add the chord progressions and harmonize Bill's melody with something that would 'work' with his melody. From what I recall, the melody and lyrics didn't last long enough for both sides, so I added that minor 9th 'groove' and we filled that side up...
I played Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Elka Rhapsody 490 String Ensemble, and Piano for this recording, and Pierre DeMudd (Trumpet) later played with The Dazz Band (we were in the high school band together for 3 years, and I got him the gig with Edwin; Pierre also lived at my house); Watson Vaughn ("Quadir," Trumpet), Rasool Carey (Flute & Alto Saxophone), Ulysses Young (Trombone), Tracy Pruitt (Bass), and James Ensley (Drums) were the other musicians.
Bill handed me two copies of the record after it was finished, and I 'think' that my younger brother lifted one, so I only have one copy left. That Cry Baby Wah-Wah pedal was 'the thing' back in the day, and all of the guitar players had one. Later, Mother Braintree played for Dennis Edwards after he left The Temptations, and I worked on arrangements with him: Den-Den was the BEST piano-playing R&B singer ever, in my opinion so go back and listen to how he transformed The Tempts. We had big fun, back in the day!”
Two unreleased tracks by Mother Braintree that were recorded in 1973 finally saw the light of day in 2017, issued on a single by the UK label Super Disco Edits. The mellow groove “Sailing” was the A-side, b/w the epic jam “Let Me Stay Beside You.” Both were co-written by W. Preston and Ross.
#soul #funk #unsung #LarryRoss #MotherBraintree #BillJacocks #PatStallworth