Born: 4 August, 1957, in Newport News, Virginia. Died: 13 April, 2008, in Arlington County, Virginia, aged 50.
ROBERT Reed was a leader of the dance music band Trouble Funk, which flirted with international fame in the early 1980s.
Reed was a
pioneer of the style known as go-go, a rousing, infectious dance music combining elements of funk, rhythm and blues, gospel and Latin music. Trouble Funk, which Reed founded with his brother, Taylor Reed, and Tony Fisher in 1977, was one of the leading bands of the go-go era, which reached the peak of its popularity about 25 years ago.
The Washington musician Chuck Brown is usually credited with creating go-go, which bridged the period between disco and hip-hop. Go-go has a nonstop, driving beat and often blends one song into the next to keep fans dancing. Trouble Funk was one of several bands, including Rare Essence and EU (Experience Unlimited), that spread the appeal of go-go music from all-night dance parties in inner-city Washington to audiences worldwide.
Each group had its own style and usually featured a "talker" who sang and spoke to the audience – in Trouble Funk, it was "Big Tony" Fisher, the bass player – encouraging a call-and-response interaction.
Reed, who was known by the stage name Syke Dyke, was a guitarist, keyboard player, vocalist and songwriter who often experimented with outlandish electronic effects on keyboard. Other members of Trouble Funk included James Avery, Timothy Davis and David Rudd.
"Trouble Funk had an aggressive funk sound," said Kato Hammond, a go-go musician who runs a website about the music. "They were instrumental in opening the doors for go-go."
The band's biggest hits, all co-written by Reed, included Pump Me Up, Don't Touch That Stereo and Roll With It. "We used to play Roll With It for two or three hours at a time," said Taylor Reed, who played trumpet and keyboard. "We started playing at 10pm and played until 5am. You had to be in shape."
In 1982, Trouble Funk released their first album, Drop the Bomb, on Sugar Hill Records and embarked on tours in Japan, Europe and Australia. The group performed on the same bills as the Ramones, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Curtis Mayfield and once appeared before 70,000 people in London as the opening act for Def Leppard.
Trouble Funk later recorded two albums for Island Records, but the popularity of go-go began to wane outside Washington after the mid-1980s. The large bands, typically consisting of nine or more members playing horns, guitars, keyboards and drums, proved too expensive to take on the road. Moreover, the long, dance-marathon songs seemed more effective in live performances than on record.
"Go-go was going to be the new Motown," Hammond said. "But, commercial-wise, the labels didn't know what to do with it."
Robert Michael Reed was born in Newport News, Virginia. He came to Washington aged six. In the mid-1970s, before graduating from Howard University with a bachelor's degree in music, he helped form Trouble Funk while performing as a guitarist for visiting musicians such as James Brown and Gladys Knight.
In recent years, as go-go faded from the national scene, Reed worked with Federal Express and taught music technology at Bowie State University. He recently installed a full music studio in his home and operated a car service and music production business with his brother.
Trouble Funk had not recorded since 1987, but the band's early music has been widely sampled by younger hip-hop bands and remains popular with live audiences in Washington. The band gave its final performance last summer.
Reed is survived by his wife, Sheila, two children from an earlier relationship, a stepdaughter, his mother, three brothers and two sisters.
The full article contains 653 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
