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Though Tchukon cut only one disc in its day, Slim Williams has since discovered old recordings that never got released. He and group members are considering creating a website for them.
Photograph by: Peter McCabe , The Gazette
MONTREAL ? The problem with getting stuck with a nickname when you?re young is that it rarely applies decades later. Take Slim Williams.
While in excellent shape as a result of playing tennis and constantly jumping around stages all these years, the Montreal singer/producer is hardly the beanpole he was when he first got tagged with the moniker.
?They call me ?slim? no more,? jokes Williams, 57, over lunch at Brasserie Centrale.
But no point in changing the name now. To many, Slim Williams is synonymous with one of the best funk/jazz quintets ever to emerge from this city and, indeed, country: Tchukon. Before disbanding in 1990, the ensemble was not only an integral part of the city night scene here with a slew of hits and TV appearances, but it also won Rock Wars for best musical group in Canada and Star Search for best musical group in North America in the mid-1980s. Tchukon ? consisting of Williams, Harold Fisher, Kat Dyson, Eric Roberts and Ingrid Stitt ? also played with everyone from Boule Noir to Bo Diddley, Nanette Workman to Big Mama Thornton.
To help celebrate Black History Month, Williams has reunited Tchukon for the first time in 23 years to perform one night only, Feb. 9, at the Phi Centre. Though Williams has been busying himself in the ensuing years both performing with the likes of the Neville Brothers and Smokey Robinson and as musical director for such projects as the Salute to the Athletes for the ?96 Olympic Games in Atlanta as well as numerous Just for Laughs galas, he was constantly being inundated with requests to bring back Tchukon.
No small task, either, since its members are spread out all over the planet. Dyson, now living in California, has been touring with everyone from Prince to Natalie Cole to C?line Dion. Roberts the drummer resides in Dubai when not working with Salome Bey, The Temptations and The Stylistics. Stitt is teaching in Vancouver. And Fisher, when not touring the world, put down roots in Cincinnati.
?We are going to rehearse four days in the Laurentians,? says Williams, in reference to his Ste-Adele studio. ?It?s only fitting that we rehearse there, since we started not far from there in Val David in 1978 before hitting all those classic Old Montreal nightspots: Nuit Magique, L?Air du Temps et Le Bijou. Those days were so special.?
Though Tchukon cut only one disc in its day, Williams has since discovered all these old recordings that never got released. He and group members are now contemplating creating a website for them.
?We have several albums worth of material, so Tchukon will finally join the digital age, and folks can discover us again.?
In addition to the Tchukon concert, Williams will be performing with the vibe-collective Kalmunity in the show Blaxploitation Remix, Saturday at the Phi Centre, also in conjunction with Black History Month. They will be singing and playing the music from such vintage flicks as Cleopatra Jones, The Mack, Super Fly and Shaft, with images from the films playing on screen in the background.
?The reason I chose Kalmunity is because they are a loud, organic improvisational group,? Williams says. ?It?s going to be a wild tribute.?
Williams?s connection to Phi Centre is not accidental. His wife, Phoebe Greenberg, is the founder and director of the venue and requested that he curate something special for Black History Month.
?I had some wild ideas, but once I found out that the other members of Tchukon were available ? because they had never been available before ? I jumped at the opportunity to get back together for a night. We were family,? says Williams, a father of two who divides his time between residences in Ste-Adele and Old Montreal. ?I only had to work out something with the school Ingrid teaches in and get Eric in from Dubai.?
As Williams puts it, it was a series of ?unforeseen circumstances and chance encounters? that brought him to these parts. He grew up in Rocky Mountain, N.C. ? a segregated community, even in 1970 when he and his family moved. His father was a minister there. His brother, Marlon, was an All-American football star who went on to play with the Atlanta Falcons. His sister was an opera singer.
?Honestly, I didn?t see the racism there growing up,? he recalls. ?But I never went back for 40 years. But someone from there found me on MySpace. They knew me not as Slim, but as Pony when I was a kid. Nobody it seems ever knew me or called me by my given name, Warren.?
Turns out that his dad?s nickname was also Slim. So Slim stuck.
When Williams made his return to Rocky Mountain two years back, he was inducted into the town?s Hall of Fame. It?s an honour that Williams claims he cherishes as much as winning Star Search or sharing a Gemini Award with Oscar Peterson for best original musical score for the latter?s biopic In the Key of Oscar.
Williams also has a burgeoning career creating film scores. In addition to In the Key of Oscar and others, he also scored his wife?s stunning short Next Floor ? which has won 45 awards (including one for his music) and counting. Plus, he produces the discs of an array of musicians.
And when time permits, Williams occasionally performs at Le Piano Rouge in Old Montreal. ?Which happens to be the old Nuit Magique,? he says. ?Plus ?a change ??
Blaxploitation Remix, with Slim Williams and Kalmunity, takes place Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Phi Centre, 407 St. Pierre St. Tchukon performs Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Phi Centre. For more details and reservations: 514-225-0525 or .info@phi-centre.com
bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @billbrownstein
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