Gary Shider….

Know who that is? P-funk fans know.

Okay… for those of you who’ve seen Parliament/Funkadelic in action over the years, remember the dude in the diaper? That’s Gary Shider. He was musical director of the band(s) as well as a signature guitarist.

He passed during June while myself, like many others, had my nose to the proverbial grindstone tryin’ to get over the proverbial hump.

My deepest sympathies to family, friends and fans.

So, what’s a signature guitarist? That’s a guitarist whose sound is so distinct that when you hear it you either know who is playing or it helps to immediately identify the person or the group the person plays in. There are signature musicians who play on other instruments as well. Marcus Miller, Stanley Clark, Miles Davis, Stuart Copeland (Police), Gato Barbieri, Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Buddy Miles, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Larry Graham to name a very few.

Some people create a signature sound via the production of music. DJs do this all the time.  Some even add (enhance?) to the music via their production or arrangement skills. Adding horns where there were none originally creating “sweet spots” for example. Gary Snider did that too.

Funkateers..remember Maggot Brain? Michael didn’t always play alone did he? How about Up For The Downstroke? Yanno…I think that’s the cut that caught my ear. “Testify” was okay but I kinda took it as more of the music the “old folk” listened to.. so …yeah…Downstroke did it for me. But rather than drag your eyes across my aural memories… Here’s something to check out if you ever wanted to know anything about P-Funk. I found this page on a Duke site. So check it quick. No telling how long it will be there okay? The page is called Motherpage…Making You Funk The P-Funk

Scroll through and let me know what you think. There will be a test on it!!