ABOUT BERNARD PURDIE:

By the age of 6 Bernard “Pretty” Purdie understood the definition of innovation. Anything that was hollow enough to create sound became a part of his drum-set until he purchased his own real set at age14. In 1970 his career set sail when he connected with Aretha Franklin who never wanted him to miss a line up. Throughout his career Bernard has laid the back-beat for artist such as B.B. King and “Sweet” Lou Donaldson. Bernard’s footprint on the music scene is huge—he’s a living legend. www.bernardpurdie.com

Berry Gordy Jr. is the true “Master of Motown.”

With a loan from his father, the young black entrepreneur invested his newfound money in the music industry and founded the fledgling Motown Records in 1959, growing it into the most successful black-owned music company in the United States.

Throughout the sixties and seventies, Gordy developed a family of artists in the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan where some of the most iconic names in the history of popular music were born – the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvelettes, Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Jackson Five and others.

“Masters of Motown,” which brings its nostalgic revue to UNM’s Popejoy Hall on Saturday, February 18th, 2012, is a 90-minute celebration of these groundbreaking artists from the heyday of Motown, their music and undeniable style.

“We’ve had the group together since 1973. We eventually put the Motown show together as a tribute to this special music that doesn’t grow old,” said John Hodgens, vocalist-bandleader of Masters of Motown, who formed the group after graduating from high school in Virginia.

“I lived pretty much through the Motown era along with the majority of the vocalists in the show…..many of us are in our early fifties, but some of the guys and ladies are only in their early thirties,” he added, noting the group fresh out of high school first served as the backup band for the Drifters on tour.

Masters of Motown features stylishly-costumed, fully-choreographed tributes to the Motown roster of artists all backed by a live four-piece band called TFC – Time for Change.

“There’s a lot of choreography and flashy outfits reminiscent of the good old days when music was really music and everyone had a good time at a concert and knew all the words to the songs,” said Hodgens.

He said audiences can expect to hear plenty of hits including “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” by the Temptations, “Stop! In the Name of Love” by the Supremes, “Dancing in the Street” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, “Neither One of Us” by Gladys Knight and the Pips and many others.

“It’s pretty much like ‘Hitsville U.S.A.’ when Berry Gordy got all his groups together, piled them into a tour bus and drove around to different venues to perform a Motown revue that would show off all his different acts. The Temptations would come on stage and do their thing, then the Supremes would come out, followed one by one by the other acts,” said Hodgens who noted his Masters of Motown show is reminiscent of those early tours.

Hitsville U.S.A. is what Gordy called the home of Motown Records located in a former photography studio on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit which he purchased in 1959 to serve as both his headquarters and recording studio.