RAY PARKER JR NEW DOCUMENTARY "WHO YOU GONNA CALL!

(Photo left to right) - Ola Strøm, Ray Parker Jr and Fran Strine host private screening of the new Ray Parker Jr documentary "Who You Gonna Call?" at the ArcLight Hollywood. #whoyougonnacallfilm

(Hollywood, CA) - Power Chord Films held a private screening of their new Ray Parker Jr documentary "Who You Gonna Call?" which chronicles Parker's rise from the racially charged streets of Detroit, to writing and recording the global smash hit song Ghostbusters, an Oscar-nominated pop culture classic. The single went platinum in eight countries and won Parker Jr a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

You know Ray Parker Jr. as the artist who wrote and recorded Ghostbusters, but what you don't know his back story and what it took for him to get there. From the streets of Detroit to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Parker's journey is one you won't believe.

Described as one of the baddest guitar players ever to hit this earth, the multi-talented songwriter, producer, and musical phenom, gigged with the legendary Funk Brothers at age 13 and quickly became one of Motown's most in-demand studio musicians. Music mogul Clive Davis brought him to frontman, solo artist status.

"Who You Gonna Call"? is the first film under the new Power Chord venture, a production company dedicated to telling the unknown stories of iconic music artists. It is helmed by global financier Ola Strøm; 2020 Kodak Documentary Award winner Fran Strine, and Parker Jr. with plans to hit the film festival circuit later this year. Fran Strine

LEGENDARY BASSIST JAMES JAMERSON DIED ON THIS DAY: AUG 2 1983

On this day: Bassist James Jamerson, who laid the foundation of the Motown sound, dies of pneumonia on this day in 1983.

There was a time in pop history when you could hear a record for the very first time and have a pretty good chance of guessing where it was recorded. Record labels like Stax, Chess, Atlantic and Philadelphia International made the distinctive sounds of Memphis, Chicago, Muscle Shoals and Philadelphia internationally famous in the 1960s and early 1970s. But for every fan of that era’s music who can pick out a record made in those cities, there are probably more who can pick out one that was made in Detroit, home of Motown Records and “The Sound of Young America.”

When you think of Motown in the 1960s, you tend to think of performers like the Temptations and Marvin Gaye or legendary songwriters like Smokey Robinson and Holland/Dozier/Holland.

But unless you’ve seen the 2002 documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown, you probably don’t think of bassist James Jamerson. Along with men like drummer Benny Benjamin, pianist Earl Van Dyke, guitarist Richard White and percussionist Jack Ashford, Jamerson was a member of the Funk Brothers—a rotating cast of unsung, uncredited and non-royalty earning studio musicians drawn from the cream of Detroit’s jazz scene who laid the foundation of the Motown sound.

It was the Funk Brothers, working in a studio they called the Snake Pit in the basement of Motown’s Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters, who arranged, orchestrated and performed nearly every instrumental track of nearly every classic Motown record.

"The bass playing is an event itself. Noticed it when I was a kid. It was the bass that made the song. It seemed no one else my age (12) caught on to it. They acknowledged everything but the bass-playing. Mesmerizing even today. Hard to describe it but whoever did that had something going on.
Mike Eiland

Essential James Jamerson Tracks

It was James Jamerson’s unconventionally melodic bass lines that made many of those records great. “My Girl” by the Miracles, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by the Supremes, “What’s Going On?” by Marvin Gaye, “Dancing In The Street” by Martha and the Vandellas—these are among the dozens of timeless Motown hits to which Jamerson made a critical contribution.

Unlike many of his fellow Funk Brothers, Jamerson moved west with Motown Records when it pulled up stakes and left Detroit for Los Angeles in 1972. His relationship with Motown ended shortly thereafter, however, and 10 years later, when the company celebrated its anniversary with the Motown 25 concert and broadcast, Jamerson was a paying member of the audience sitting in the back rows rather than an honored guest performing onstage.

After a long struggle with alcoholism, James Jamerson died on August 2, 1983, at the age of 42. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 17 years later, in March 2000.