Chuck Brown Is At The Top Of His 'game' On Raw Venture

It's been a busy year for the recognized godfather of go-go music, Chuck Brown.

Still busy promoting the early summer release of his funk-pulsating CD, Your Game . . . Live at the 9:30 Club, on his Liaison Records-distributed Raw Venture label, he was among the musical guests invited to the White House to commemorate Black Music Month. Then on Aug. 31, Brown returns to Washington, D.C.'s popular 9:30 Club to headline his own birthday concert. He's also a prominent figure in the July-published Watson-Guptill/BPI book The Beat: Go-Go's Fusion of Funk and Hip-Hop by Kip Lornell and Charles Stephenson Jr.

Now Brown is gearing up for the Sept. 4 national release of that book's musical companion, a two-CD Liaison compilation called The Beat. The collection of hits and unreleased tracks throws a well-deserved spotlight on such key go-go acts as Trouble Funk, Back Yard, E.U., Little Benny, Rare Essence, 911 . . . and the man himself.

"I never dreamed it would get to this point," the seemingly ageless D.C. mainstay (who learned to play guitar while an inmate at a correctional institution) says with a laugh. "After getting out, I just wanted to play my guitar at house parties for some barbecue and beer. Then I went completely past that point." That's when Brown began cooking up his own musical specialty, fusing funk with disco's non-stop cadence and spicing it with Latin percussion, soul, jazz, and traditional African call-and-response chants.

Best-known for his signature No. 1 R&B hit with his group the Soul Searchers, 1978's "Bustin' Loose Part 1," Brown has made go-go a D.C. trademark. His future slate includes gospel and jazz projects and a live recording of Grover Washington Jr.'s classic "Mr. Magic." "My roots are blues, jazz, and gospel," Brown says. "I grew up in the church, which is where that go-go beat came from, and it's stayed with me. Grover was also a great inspiration to me."

Further evidence of Brown's ongoing musical experimentation lies in his collaborations with late singer Eva Cassidy (Billboard, Jan. 20). These include the duet "Blues in the Night," featured on Cassidy's 1997 album Eva by Heart. "Working with her was a dream come true for me," says Brown, who dedicated his 1998 jazz- and blues-oriented album Timeless to Cassidy. "I could feel everything she sang. She could take any tune and make it hers. I really miss her."

While go-go is still primarily associated with Brown's D.C. stamping grounds, he hopes other bands will carry on the torch: "I've been around the world with go-go. I can't do it by myself. I pray for the day to come when more bands incorporate horns and other real music ingredients again."