LUXE Serendipity magazine

By Donna Richardson

Meet the dynamic duo from Detroit who have connections to Motown Greats. Kern Brantley, Lady Gaga’s former bass player and Sam Donald, President of Detroit Musix­

“My mum went to High School with Diana Ross – Kern Brantley

“Smokey Robinson used to steal my dad’s girlfriends” – Sam Donald

Motown is a musical movement which burst on the scenes in the 1960s and 1970s from Detroit in Michigan. Detroit became known as Motor City in the 1920s when the automobiles trade dominated the field—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—were all based in the Detroit area. By 1950, the auto industry had 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit, giving it the nickname Motor City just about the time Motown Records began in the 1960s.

Its fortunes grew and it soon became the richest city in the world. It was also a place where different nations came together. Many came from the Deep South and from Africa. They sang soulful music and gospel at church and with such a vibrant population, soon a musical movement was to shake up the industry and produce some of the greatest musicians of our time. And it is all thanks to a factory worker called Berry Gordy, who listened to soul and gospel music as a way to get through repetitive days on the assembly line. He had a dream to unite these styles and with a loan of $800, he set up what was to become one of the most successful record labels of all time – Tamla Motown a nod to Motor City.

The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, all share one thing in common, they came from Detroit and the musical talent there is so strong there must be something in the water. By six degrees of separation, most people in Detroit knows someone in the Motown scene.

Kern Brantley, 62, is a musical director for the stars who was born and raised in West Detroit.  He was Lady Gaga’s bassist for six years and musical director for Beyonce, Destiny’s Child and Mary J Blige, he has also toured with Chris Brown and Ne-Yo and has collaborated with P-Diddy, Aaliyah and Faith Evans to name but a few. His brother Valdez Brown was the musical director for Usher for 12 years. The brothers grew up during the Motown explosion in the 1960s.

His mom went to school with Diana Ross and he grew up listening to Motown records. He attributes this early exposure to this music to his success as a musician. Choosing to follow a musical path himself he got his first big break at the age of 21 when Thomas Whitfield became his mentor, introduced him to the late, great Aretha Franklin and he went on he a session musician on her album when Whitfield co-produced her albums. This early exposure led to collaborations with a whole host of Motown, gospel and jazz greats and later R n B and popstars of the present day.

I met him and his manager Sam at Trav Media’s International Media Marketplace (IMM), and learned all about his musical journey.

Kern told me: “In Detroit, music is entwined into the fabric of the city. It is a very versatile city, we represent so many different genres of music,

“I have had a chance to record with a lot of recording artists and gospel legends in Detroit, like the Winans and the Clark sisters. It is all thanks to the late great Thomas Whitfield who became my mentor, that’s how it started.  I also worked in the jazz world with jazz musicians like Earl Klugh as well as the great bassist Ron Carter. There were so many great legends in Detroit and I got to hang out around Motown at United Studios.

“James Lee Jamerson was the famous bassist who played on all of the records from the Temptations to the Four Tops, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder,  Gladys Knight and the Pipps, The Jacksons and Marvin Gaye. Growing up in that musical atmosphere was just amazing and music has always been a way of life for me. I wasn’t good at sports. I didn’t play baseball or football.. but I gravitated to music.  I remember my mum used to play a lot of Motown Records around the house. My mom went to high school with Diana Ross, It was Northeastern High where Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson went too. She would tell us what it was like going to school with Diana Ross. We were influenced heavily by the sound of Motown in Detroit. Motown informed our parents’ lives because they were there when their schoolmates started to make it and it was an exciting time to be alive, and growing up.

His music manager and friend, Sam Donald, added: “While his mum went to high school with Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson used to steal my dad’s girlfriends, so just imagine growing up seeing your classmates make it to the world stage. That’s the city that we grew up in. We had parents who appreciated the times and rooted for their friends, colleagues and classmates who had made it big. Detroit celebrated Motown, and everyone in the city embraced it. As a result, our parents, and we in turn, were exposed to incredible music and people as we grew up. You all got the music and we got a little bit of an inside story into the development of Motown. My aunt Dolores was great friends with Dennis Edwards, the lead singer of the Temptations.

Kern added:  “I just felt this baseline and it spoke to me. I was heavily influenced by J James Lee Jamerson and The Temptations and at the age of 21, I was mentored by the late great Thomas Whitfield who introduced me to Aretha Franklin. Thomas also worked with the Winans and Anita Baker as well as with Micheal Jackson on The Man in The Mirror.”

“Detroit was where it was all happening,” said Sam. “All music in Detroit stems from gospel music which heavily influenced the Motown sound.  There’s Andre Crouch, the godfather of modern gospel and Lee Hawkins from the Bay Area. Both of these artists shaped contemporary gospel music. But back in Detroit, they created a gospel mix Motown hybrid. The Winans created a gospel., The Clarks, The Commission Family, Fred Hammond, Tasha Bays, Brance Allen, Stevie Wonder. It doesn’t stop.  

“At a young age, we were exposed to great music. The beautiful thing about it was there was a sound that influenced Motown. Pre-Motown is a definite era. Detroit had a definite sound which is down to John Lee Hooker. Then, along came Berry Gordy, who wrote hits for Jackie Wilson and founded Tamla Records on January 12, 1959 which became Motown Records, in 1960.

“ Everything revolves around music in Detroit. Talent was indeed expressing itself everywhere., Berry Gordy discovered much of the talent of Motown in Metro and Inskter where he went to the jazz clubs, and churches, on street corners and also discovered singers in talent competitions around the city of Detroit. There were a lot of these people around before Motown Records. Motown was just a convergence of different sounds. The trade is naturally a hybrid of different sounds which encapsulated a golden era.  The label began in 1960 but the music came before that. Before that was the likes of Rance Allen and our heritage blended into what became Motown records.  Detroit is a great hybrid and Motown was a great middle ground and everything after the golden era was something that came out of a hybrid of sound. What it was made up of was the Gospel in the churches, the Jazz in the jazz clubs and the blues. Berry also took the symphonic sound that the DSO produced as well. That is what were all raised on. Motown was the sound of the city. The Detroit sound is a sound onto itself. They say that so many people can sing in the city that they put something in the water. I can’t sing but I love music.

“Anita Baker was part of the second wave of Motown which came about in the 1980s and she was paired with Mike Cal. The singers the producers, we have a lot of good vocalists but also great musicians.  We have two great exports, our cars and our music. The great migration brought about all of the musicians who matched their lives and this is the product we have.”

There is something in the water in Detroit.”

Sam added: “Music is truly the soundtrack of our lives. It speaks to good times, bad times and times to come. Just like they say there are six degrees of separation in life, there are six degrees of separation in Detroit from people in Motown. Kern is a musician who has links to all the great musicians and that is a testament to the Detroit family, it’s the Detroit way to help each other. There are two main exports in Detroit. Our cars and our music. There are singers and artists and a key thread is this man, Kern Brantley, who has a direct link to any of these artists.”

Nowadays, Kern Brantley can be seen supporting major R n B and popstars: But what is it like on the road with Beyonce Ne-Yo and Lady Gaga? Kern was on tour with Gaga for two years so forged strong bonds with the supporting crew and even Gaga herself. He said: “You become friends with the people and the artists when you are on the road. You are all like one big family. Lady Gaga is a very hard worker so I learned a lot from her and Beyonce. I then went on to the next tour with Ne-Yo and then Chris Brown. I’ve been to London many times and played at Wembley with Lady Gaga and Beyonce and with an Asian pop artist called JJ Lin.”

As well as Motown, the ‘Detroit sound’ is also entwined with rock and roll. Bill Haley of the Comets,  who sang Rock Around the Clock and brought rock and roll to the masses was also born in Highland Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The city gave birth to Bob Seiger and Alice Cooper as well.

“It is this amazing place where creatives gather,” said Kern.

“Music is such a fun thing, support your children, take them to live shows and take them around live music because it is a great career choice. Lady Gaga played the piano at four years old and when she was about eight or nine she started writing songs. It was something in her but it helped her a lot. Music is a great foundation for future success”

Kern, works closely with the Motown Museum helping to present Bass Day On Rocket Plaza and the finals of the Motown Amplify The Sound of Detroit aimed at emerging Detroit artists to win a $5,000 cash prize, performance engagement with Motown Records Label, studio time and a mentorship session with Kern himself.