Motown legend to sing at UT Music Fest
Written by Vicki L. Kroll | | news@toledofreepress.comThere’ll be a heat wave sweeping across the University of Toledo’s Centennial Mall when Martha Reeves and the Vandellas take the stage for Music Fest at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 2.
The Motown trio burned up the charts during the 1960s with hits that included “Dancing in the Street,” “Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack” and “Nowhere to Run.”
“Motown made 30 superstar acts,” Reeves said. “We were all taught to have proper attire, to present ourselves to kings and queens.”
Reeves and the Vandellas are regarded as music royalty. The ladies received the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 1993. Reeves and all singers in the Vandellas became the second all-female group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. And in 2003, they were inducted to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
“I was given a hint of how our music still has an effect,” Reeves said during a phone interview from her Detroit home. “A friend was in Paris and he was walking along and they had music over a loud speaker and all of a sudden there I was with ‘Dancing in the Street.’ And he said the people were swaying and dancing, it seemed everybody got a little happier and a little friendlier at that moment, and that’s what the Motown music does.”
Martha Reeves
Growing up in the Motor City, music was a religious experience for Reeves. As a child, she and her siblings won a church talent contest. Then she saw Della Reese sing.
“[Reese] stood up and did a cappella, she sang ‘Amazing Grace’ and she shook the rafters,” Reeves recalled. “This beautiful woman with this big, beautiful voice — it touched me and made me want to be a singer, powerful like her.”
After being invited to Motown Records for an audition that didn’t happen in 1962, Reeves began working at Hitsville, USA, in the artists and repertoire department. When she and her group The Del-Phis filled in for Mary Wells during a recording session, Motown founder Berry Gordy liked what he heard — but asked them to change their name.
“I came up with Van Dyke Street, which I lived near, and Della Reese who was my idol. It turned out Vandellas,” Reeves said. “And in a month, we had a recording, and then about nine months later, we all left for our first Motown Revue. It was eight acts and a 12-piece band on a broken-down Trailways [bus] with no toilet.”
The singer credited the “genius jazz cats” who played the music.
“They learned to play together so well until they were literally referred to as the Funk Brothers,” she said.
And she mentioned the songwriters.
“We were getting songs from Holland-Dozier-Holland, ‘Come and Get These Memories’ being the first song they wrote as a writing team,” she said. “We had ‘Love Makes You Do Foolish Things,’ we had ‘Quicksand,’ ‘Live Wire,’ ‘Spellbound.’ And The Supremes told Berry they wanted songs like Martha & the Vandellas.”
Of course, it was Gordy who made it all work.
“Most of the songs were initially judged by … Berry’s friends,” Reeves said. “He would ask them, ‘Would you choose this record or would you choose a hot dog?’ ”
While serving on Detroit City Council from 2005 to 2009, Reeves had West Grand Boulevard given a second name, Berry Gordy Jr. Boulevard, to honor the music mogul and the site of Hitsville.
When Reeves travels down I-75 for the Toledo show, she’ll be accompanied by her sisters, Lois and Delphine, as the Vandellas.
“Someone asked me when was I going to retire. I can’t imagine,” Reeves said and laughed. “I’m going to sing as long as I’m able; I’m gong to dance as long as I can. And age 69 feels real good.”
University of Toledo Music Fest
Sept. 2
Centennial Mall on Main Campus
Free
• 3 p.m. — MAS FiNA
• 4:30 p.m. — Universal Xpression
• 5:30 p.m. — Pep Rally for UT Football Team
• 6 p.m. — Alexander Zonjic with Thornetta Davis and the Motor City Horns
• 7:30 p.m. — Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
• 9 p.m. — We the Kings
• 10 p.m. — Fireworks
Tags: Martha Reeves, Vicki L. Kroll
