It’s one of the most recognizable instrumentals: The opening strains of the guitar, the tambourine and cymbal action are a nine-second prelude to when the drums kick in, the bass thumps and the horns blare. It’s “Pick Up the Pieces,” the Average White Band’s funky favorite from 1974.

“We were surprised by what a big hit ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ became because we never would have thought that an instrumental would be the single,” said Alan Gorrie, bassist, guitarist, vocalist and founding member of the Scottish band. “It wasn’t a throw-away track, but it was our little bit of self-indulgence on the album, just paying tribute to James Brown and the JBs and having a bit of fun in the studio with it.

Average White Band

“And, of course, you know, there’s a great saying: If it’s in the grooves, you can’t stop it being a hit, and if you’re having fun, then, of course, it’s in the groove, and that tune did embody that; it was a groove tune.”

Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre, guitarist, vocalist and founding AWB member, are still groovin’ with Klyde Jones, keyboards, bass and vocals, Fred Vigdor, saxophones, keyboards and vocals, and Rocky Bryant, drums.

The Average White Band will play at Centennial Terrace July 16. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 and $25. Sharing the spotlight will be War.

AWB’s latest release is “Times Squared: Live From New York Vol. 2.” The 2009 disc is a follow-up to “Soul & The City” from 2006.

“[The new disc is] a combination of tunes [people] probably haven’t heard before,” Gorrie said during a phone interview from his New England home. “When you get some hits, all people want to hear are those hits and you have to play them every, every night, and it doesn’t leave room for such a big selection of things that weren’t necessarily hits but which were also really great quality tunes.”

Sound quality was a must on the new disc, he added.

“We took it to the ‘nth’ degree with all the possible quality you could expect; we used the old-style Atlantic Records quality throughout from the recording to the mastering and everything, because we’re just sick of hearing MP3-quality music, which obviously satisfies some people, but we’re still audiophiles and we expect that our fans are as well,” Gorrie said.

AWB’s fan base continues to grow; the group’s music has been sampled by P. Diddy, the Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson and Fatboy Slim, to name a few.

“I have a wall of samples, literally; I’m just looking at it right now in my studio,” Gorrie said. “I think we got up to somewhere like 200 samples throughout the ’90s and the early 2000s.”

He believes that longevity comes from the quality of the music.

“Great pains were taken to write good tunes and not just funky grooves, but some good and meaningful lyrics,” Gorrie said. “That’s what has sustained us over the years, that and self-determination to keep going and keep playing this music to an ever-changing and a new audience.”

For more about the band, visit www.averagewhiteband.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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