The Funk Brothers (with Joan Osborne, Sam Moore, the Four Tops, and More) - International De Jazz De Montreal, Montreal, Canada, 7-4-2004

Have you ever heard of the "Funk Brothers?" Maybe not, but you certainly must know many of the songs they played on. They were the house band for Motown Records in the 1960s and early 1970s. They played on at least 50 Number One hit songs in the U.S., and many hundreds of other hits. But they played in almost total obscurity until 2002, when the documentary movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" finally told their story. They did some touring in the wake of that movie. Here's one concert where they were joined by some famous singers, especially Joan Osborne, Sam Moore, and the Four Tops.

I'm not going to go into a detailed history of the Funk Brothers. If you want to know more, here's the Wikipedia page about them: 

The Funk Brothers - Wikipedia

But I will mention that there were about 13 members in all. The involvement of different people changed over the years they worked for Motown, roughly 1959 to 1972. By the time of this concert, many key members had died or retired. These are the ones who actually performed at this concert:

Jack Ashford - percussion
Bob Babbit - bass
Eddy Jr Willis - guitar
Joe Hunter - keys
Uriel Jones - drums
Ed Green - drums

Since none of them sang, the lead vocals are done by a series of guests. I couldn't find any information about the first singer, Naydan Neile. It's possible the spelling of that name is incorrect. (I got the name from the DVD of this concert, and they misspelled the name of another singer.) The second singer, Haydain Neale, was the lead singer of the band Jacksoul. He died quite young of lung cancer in 2009. Then there were four songs by Joan Osborne. Two were followed by Sam Moore, of the soul duo Sam and Dave. A short set by the Four Tops followed. They still had their same four original members.

Then, for the last song, everyone (but the Four Tops) sang together. A couple of other singers were present, including Carolyn Crawford. She sang on some Motown hits back in the 1960s, including "My Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)." But in this recording, we only get her singing a couple of lines in the final song. I assume this concert is edited down, and she sang one or more songs earlier in the show.

The sound quality is excellent, because I took this from a DVD of the concert. It hasn't been released on any audio format. But, as I was just suggesting above, the actual concert must have been longer. The editing is tight, with almost no pause or banter between songs. 

The Funk Brothers were getting rather old by the time of this concert. So they did some touring from 2003 to 2005 to celebrate and promote the "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" movie, then retired for good. I've come across various bootlegs of some of their concerts from those years, but this one has the best sound quality, by far. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Funk Brothers)
02 You Can't Hurry Love (Funk Brothers with Naydan Neile)
03 Ooo Baby Baby (Funk Brothers with Naydan Neile)
04 Let's Get It On (Funk Brothers with Haydain Neale)
05 Mercy, Mercy Me [The Ecology] (Funk Brothers with Haydain Neale)
06 What's Going On (Funk Brothers with Haydain Neale)
07 For Once in My Life (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
08 talk (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
09 [Love Is like A] Heat Wave (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
10 talk (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
11 What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
12 talk (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
13 I Heard It through the Grapevine (Funk Brothers with Joan Osborne)
14 talk (Funk Brothers with Sam Moore)
15 [Your Love Has Lifted Me] Higher and Higher (Funk Brothers with Sam Moore)
16 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Funk Brothers with Sam Moore)
17 Baby I Need Your Loving (Funk Brothers with the Four Tops)
18 Reach Out, I'll Be There (Funk Brothers with the Four Tops)
19 Standing in the Shadows of Love (Funk Brothers with the Four Tops)
20 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch] (Funk Brothers with the Four Tops)
21 talk (Funk Brothers with the Four Tops)
22 Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Funk Brothers with Everyone)

This album is 57 minutes long.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rW8yXYkg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/lsvjG4vKabl1kzg/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. It shows three of the Four Tops in black jackets in front, plus some of the Funk Brothers wearing red jackets a bit behind.