Stereo Embers The Podcast 0472: James Diamond Williams (The Ohio Players)

“Love Rollercoaster”

To say the Ohio Players are one of the greatest funk bands of all time kind of falls short of the mark. The Ohio Players are, quite simply, one of the greatest bands of all time. The Dayton R&B outfit got their start in 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables and their leader Robert Ward was like a funk version of Jim Morrison–brilliant but unpredictable, Ward would walk offstage mid-gig and never come back. He was punk long before there was punk and he was a wild card for sure, but charisma can carry you pretty far in art. But, to be fair, it can’t always carry you over the line and the Untouchables started swapping out personnel, Ward included, and they rebranded in the late ’60s as the Ohio Players. A false start found them skidding to a halt in 1970, but then, things started to gel. A furious blend of funk and soul, The Ohio Players started racking up hits like Love Rollercoaster, Fire and Who’d She Coo? Albums like Skin Tight, Honey and Contradiction remain indisputable classics and the band is still at it, currently in the studio cooking something up. As for James Diamond Williams, he joined the band around ’74 and he quickly asserted himself as one of the very best behind the kit. A muscular player with swagger and swing, Williams is one of those guys who makes it look easy–and if someone is great enough to make something difficult look easy, you can be assured it isn’t.

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Stereo Embers : The Podcast