Hamilton Bohannon - A Major Contributor to 1970s Disco
Hamilton Bohannon was born on March 7, 1942, in Newnan, Georgia, and died in 2020. After high school, Bohannon began playing professionally. Stevie Wonder hired him as his drummer. Then Motown Records employed him as a bandleader. His group Bohannon & The Motown Sound backed numerous label stars on tour, including Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Temptations, and Diana Ross and the Supremes.
When I was in Detroit on business in 1971, a very gracious Bohannon took me on a tour of the Motown facility. I invited him to visit La Martinique, a discotheque my group promoted in NYC. Bohannon visited our discotheques often and befriended all my partners, especially Charles "CP" Perry, who booked live acts for our Thursday night showcase.
When Motown moved to Los Angeles, Bohannon stayed in Detroit and started a solo career. He became a mainstay in the disco boom of the mid-1970s with tracks like "Let’s Start the Dance."
He was a favorite among fellow artists such as Mary J Blige, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Snoop Dogg. All sampled his tracks. He helped pioneer the “four-four” beat that powered disco and later house and techno, and the octave-jumping groove of "Me and the Gang" became the core of Paul Johnson’s house hit "Get Get Down."
Read more about Hamilton Bohannon and the colorful disco era in After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party by Noel Hankin. It's available on Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.
Listen to one of Bohannon's many hits by clicking the link below.
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