WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM THE NEW ALBUM?
Rickey Calloway says, “What I’m hoping that they feel is a new version of the Rickey Calloway funk. We’re adding a new dimension to the traditional “B9 Funk,” that funky James Brown style funk that I do. We’re taking it a notch higher…Joe Stone has been working on some new mixes and he’s an expert, and he always surprises me, and I do hope the fans will say, “Rickey you’re taking the funk to a new dimension!”
HOW DID RICKEY CALLOWAY MEET HENRY STONE?
Rickey Calloway says, “I met Henry Stone in the 1970’s, like 1973 or ’74, when I had a record out called “Get It Right.” The radio guys, the DJ’s in Ft Lauderdale were playing it and I heard from a DJ that Mr. Stone wanted to talk to me, so my manager Doctor Cool took me to meet him. At that time Henry was huge. I mean, the whole week before, I was shivering. My whole city gave me a sendoff party just for meeting him … We got into Hialeah, walked in, and I saw Betty Wright with a lot of musicians standing around her. I was like, “Man, that’s cool.” Henry was sitting in a big chair with his back to the door. He turned around and said, “I like that “Get It Right.” It has sort of a calypso, funk, R&B sound. I wanna take it to Nassau.”
WHAT IS THE LEGACY OF FLORIDA FUNK MUSIC?
Rickey Calloway says, “I think the legacy is that we are a diamond in the rough. Funk has been in Florida from the time I started my music thing. In Miami you had the disco, the r&b, and what happened is, if you moved from south to north as far as Orlando, it was r&b, soul. In Jacksonville We Had The FUNK. But I don’t think the rest of the world knew we had the funk…our funk was so close to James Brown it was crazy. We had a lot of guys from his band that used to hang out in Jacksonville and all over Florida. We are the hub of R&B, Soul, and Funk. We are it. Florida is the place.”