I like to send a warm tribute to Jimmy Castor RIP 1941-2012. He was an educated frontman musician, bandleader, multi instrumentalist and vocalist and one of the original Latin Funk pioneers. If you grew up in the hood in the late 60s/70’s his music was a part of your culture. I got to play keys with him for a couple years. This was one of my favorite gigs…We had a kick *ss band with Super talented and diverse musicians. Bandleader and frontman Jimmy was mega talented, always holding it down and ALWAYS funny as isht! I had to learn to keep up…but I did and ended up fitting right in as the keyboardist.
We had a great jazz pianist too (right in front of me in photo)! He was the son of a big-time Jazz Artist, but I forget who.
Fun Fact: Jimmy started out singing with the doo-wop group “The Teenagers. Do you remember any of his songs? Here are some:
Potential, Troglodites, Bertha Butt Boogie, It’s Just Begun, Space Age King Kong and the song that totally plagued my life as a child…Hey Leroy, Yo mama, she callin you man!
Dang! I got teased and tormented so much over that title it replaced ‘Hello’. Whenever I saw someone I knew, I’d hear Hey Leroy, Yo mama, she callin you man! I had to shorten my name to Lee! Never dreamed that years later I’d be on stage with him and we’d be playing sold out venues. Jimmy nicknamed me the Funkdoctor which I really liked. God Bless you and RIP Jimmy Castor! You were a huge influence on me!
