With the untimely passing of Prince, the world lost one of the true geniuses of music. While his death has left a major void, see the Superbowl halftime show a month ago, it also sparked the reunion of one of the Purple One’s most formidable backing bands. The Revolution will be appearing at Joy Theater Thursday night with DJ Soul Sister opening.
While Prince was known for writing the songs, producing the music, and playing most of the instruments on a majority of his albums, he had some strong collaborators throughout his career. Most prominent among them are Revolution band members Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, Bobby Z, BrownMark, and Dr. Fink.
These are the musicians who performed with Prince on some of his best works including Purple Rain, Around the World In a Day, and Parade. Some of the musicians also played on 1999, Controversy, Dirty Mind, and Sign O’ The Times.
The Revolution formed in 1979 with Prince, drummer Bobby Z, and keyboardist Matt Fink. Over the next four years, several formations would emerge until Prince finally found the band he felt could master the challenging musicality of his vision.
The celebrated final line-up included Coleman on keyboards/piano, Melvoin on guitar, and BrownMark on bass. Together, they earned multiple #1 hits, two Grammy awards and an Oscar when Purple Rain won Best Original Song Score in 1985.
Besides recording with Prince, the Revolution also performed live and based on reviews of the first phase of their reunion tour are still a rock solid band. The Washington Post reported, “…these were faithful renditions of Prince’s greatest compositions, lovingly delivered by the very hands that helped make us all believers in the first place. He’s lucky to have these five acting as his custodians, and so are we.”
Tickets are available here.
The REVOLUTION PHOTO: RON HARRIS | PRINCE: HERB RITTS
