James Brown , Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Bootsy Collins
JB's Reunited in Seattle - June 25th, 7pm

THE COMPLETE STORY

May 6, 2000 - The Rumour
For the Grand Opening of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, James Brown will re-unite with Maceo Parker and the JB's for a performance at the Key Arena.

Mark this date on your calendar folks --- June 25th, 7pm. Tickets are $40. They haven't gone on sale to the general public yet, but are being sold now to 'EMP Charter Members' (you can get your membership at the EMP web site: http://www.emplive.com ). Everyone else can get them starting May 13th.

Listen to the list of who's scheduled to appear in his band according to this description from the Experience Music Project site:

"The version of James Brown's backing band includes performers that have been with Brown over the course of his entire career, beginning with vocalist Bobby Byrd, who's been with Brown since the two formed a gospel group in the '50s. The rest of the lineup includes guitarists Hearlan "Cheese" Martin and Phelps "Catfish" Collins, bassists Fred Thomas and Bootsy Collins, John "Jabo" Starks and Melvin Parker on drums, "Sweet" Charles Sherrell on keyboards, vocalist Vickie Anderson, saxmen Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis (the latter of whom co-wrote "Cold Sweat" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud"), Ron Tooley on trumpet, and Fred Wesley on trombone. "

I can't help but wonder what's up with Clyde Stubblefield not being include, but with a lineup like this, who can complain? Not me. As far as I'm concerned it's a miracle this thang is scheduled to take place in my hometown.

Mike Theiss

June 7, 2000 - The Facts
There is a new music museum about to open in Seattle.  This museum will feature a hi-tech virtual reality "ride" like in an amusement park where the passes through various types of pop and R&B music ending up at a James Brown show celebrating the advent of the new milinimum.  The filming for the ride was done in January.  Most of the former James Brown musicians who are still alive, were involved in the shoot. 
YES.  Maceo Parker, Melvin Parker, Pee Wee ellis, Sweet Charles, Johnny Griggs, Jabo, Bootsy, Bobby Byrd, Al "Country" kellum who has since died, and many others.
The concert, that you refer to will, be on June 25th to open the museum.  The JBs, including Maceo and Bootsy,  Maceo's band, and James Brown's present band and show will perform. 
YES The JBs, led by me, will open with a 45 minute set, then Maceo's band, a 1 hour set and closed by The Godfather, himself doing his regular show.  Mr. Brown will do two tunes with us, The JBs, on our set and we will sit in on his set.  It should be really cool.
Bootsy will play with the JBs part of the show and we will all join James for the big finale.
We are working on some kind of internet transmission. Not settled yet.

Fred Wesley

June 25, 2000 - The Show
The JB's reunion
Review by Rikey Vincent,
author of "Funk : The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One" 

Part I - Funk Bomb (the show)
That JB's-Maceo-James Brown concert was an epic funk history event, and I just hope folks that were there, and those that presumably will see the footage will be able to appreciate it.

The set opens with the "funk guardian" from the animated EMP Funkblast introducing the JBs, then the band walks on stage, all in SUITS! 

Fred Wesley is front & center, Maceo is to his left, Pee Wee to Fred's right, and another trumpeter I can't recall that Fred introduced to Pee Wee's right. 

You had BOOTSY AND CATFISH kickin' it behind Pee Wee as the dynamic rhythm section that they is, and Jabo Starks and Melvin Parker on drums, with Johnny Griggs doin' a lot of stuff on percussion in the back, and another rhythm guitarist (fairly new I think) also holdin' it down.

Obviously, the real flava was Bootsy & Cats' groove, and their liquid body language as they head bopped to the stankin' groove. It sounded like "Gimme Some More" but I could've been mistaken.

After one stankin' opening number, Fred introduced all the band members, and mentioned players that couldn't make it or passed away: Jimmy Nolen, Cheese Martin, Country Kellum, and a couple others. It showed class and grace the way Fred Wesley is such a master performer and organizer of music. He really was the glue that made this set work.

After mentioning folks that passed, he said our next song was written by him..(I didn't catch who he mentioned)..and the band broke into "Hot Pants Road". I was ripped to pieces. That horn riff, those sick rhythm licks, those kickin drums, THAT was worth the road trip to catch that right off.

DAYUM!

Then to my disappointment actually, the band kind of broke into an oldies session, really reprising the James Brown Revue. Fred brought Martha High out to belt some songs, which were cool, but they werent playing "Think", or even "Message From the Soul Sistas" a Bootsy/Catfish track.

It was kinda doo-wop era stuff, and I was getting restless. Fred then introduced Bobby Byrd, who looked sharp as all get out, and danced & sang his way through a couple rousing jams. I was quite impressed with Bobby. You know he got busy with "I Know You Got Soul!"

This was one of the few times the audience recognized the jam as well.

Maceo did a solo on the opening number then seemed to disappear. He came back of course when the band went into "Doin it to Death". Now THAT was hitting, and Bootsy cranked his bass up just a little bitty bit and got stanky. For some reason Fred's trombone was too low, although he ripped it, and Maceo came back to reprise that nasty flute solo, which just about brought the house down.

The set ended shortly after that, with no encore, just all the players exiting, and Bootsy giving big bear hugs to every player as the left the stage on his side. It was great, but way too short. I was exposed to PURE FUNK, then teased....but not really disappointed.

As much as many of us have seen Fred's show and/or Maceo's show deliver uncut funk blowouts, this set didn't seem to have a surplus of that. I was hoping for "Same Beat" or "I'm Payin Taxes What Am I Buying", but mostly soul standards filled out the set. 

--

Watching those great players exit the stage in such a joyous mood, I HAD to scam back stage and get in the mix. I spent most of Maceo's performance running around the arena, doing stoopid stuff. I had just seen Maceo in the bay area recently, and Im afraid that I didn't even see Skeet or Greg Boyer, although Davidelic told me they were onstage.

I had to use all my scamology to get back stage, but this time all that Game paid off.

When I got back there, JAMES BROWN was backstage watching Maceo's performance, and while I was working up the hype to approach him, he up and walked onstage during Maceo's show! The crowd went wild, and JB walked up to Maceo during one of Maceo's solos, and what they said wasn't quite of the sentimental variety, because James then went to the BACK of the stage, and played on the ORGAN! That was ill! James Brown in the back, playing boards for Maceo Parker! The crowd loved it, and Maceo milked it, but didnt give the stage to theGodfather, no way!

Folks backstage was trippin too! We all saw a lot of history going on there.

Other folks came on Maceo's show, like Fred Wesley & Pee Wee, and Maceo knew how to fold their stuff into his party vibe very well.

Then I left & came back during the intro set for the James Brown Band. 

James Brown brought all the glitz of his road show, with the 4 singers and 3 very kinetic dancers, and the whole band in red uniforms. He opened with a kickin version of "Get Up Offa That Thang", with the great verse of "Im Back....Im Back...Im Back!!!"

That was cool, and the dancers came out and ripped sh*t, too.

Brown went through a litany of standard soul hits, not really going into FUNK BOMBS like he should have. Most of those cuts, like "Living in America he could do without, as he comes across like Kool & the Gang with JT Taylor, ignoring their potent funk legend to try to appeal to pop fans who could care less about his cheesy hits at this point too.

Yet the show was still great fun, as more and more original JBs and Brown singers made surprise appearances on the stage, including Marva Whitney, Martha High, Fred, Maceo, Pee Wee, Sweet Charles, and some other older folks I didnt recognize.

It was a real James Brown family affair, and you couldn't help but feel the energy. 

About halfway in, James went into a 15 minute rendition of "Its a Mans World" that was really rich. He was rappin' like he does, the band was flowin', and a sentimental power just seemed to overtake the arena. Behind me backstage, Maceo Parker was playing his saxophone to the music of the stage show, serenading the older ladies sitting backstage there. It was a juicy moment.

The real slam dunk came when James invited Maceo on stage to jam. What Maceo did that night needs to really be seen to be believed. Once again he got James Brown geeked and into doing dance steps he rarely ever does anymore. Then James made the mistake of bringing his big fat long haired white sax player up front to "play with" (battle) Maceo!

The fat guy was and is a very good sax player, and he holds down Maceo's lines on tour with James Brown adequately....but James should know better than to send a mouse to do tha job of a rat Babay!

After big guy did his solo, Mace got up there and blasted that guy with some rhythmic, flowin', funky, righteous, melodic, utterly stanky slammin soloing that made my hair stand on end! 

DAYUM!

You gonna play the Master! Maceo don't play that!

Maceo wiped the floor with this guy like a one-sided WWF wrestling match!

Then James made the mistake of letting fat guy have one more crack at it, which was a huge drop, (like when Bootsy did "Stretchin Out" on David Sanborn's TV jazz show, and Sanborn almost ruined the song with his lightweight sax solo in da middle of a FUNK BOMB! y'all remember that?)

Then Maceo came back for a second reprise, and after just a few seconds, Brown grabbed both of their hands and held them up, like it was a "tie"! Yeah right! It was a slaughter, and it was glorious!

Then Brown got into more of his upbeat numbers, got Bobby Byrd to do "Sex Machine" with him, and he brought out Marva Whitney and Martha High again to do a bunch of singing numbers. The stage got full of folks, and James Brown got his fill of old stars on stage with him once again. It was VERY cool, although I don't know if the audience saw or felt the significance (i.e. probably never again) of this reunion.

But the show was brilliant, and I had a ball hangin' with some of these all time funkmasters (the next post).

Part II - Funky People (the Backstage)

Heres a rundown of my backstage experience with the JBs reunion:

It's kinda self indulgent, but this kind sh*t don't happen every day... so bear with me.

As a Funkateer, this JBs reunion was A BAD MUTHA! It actually was worth all the bowlsheet to get to Seattle and put up with stuff to get buzy with these cats!

Going to the show, I sat in the stands for the JBs set, and that sheet was so hot, I turned on the little cassette recorder I brought just to get some of that feel on tape.

As they exited, I HAD to scam blackstage, and bs'd my way into the dressing room area.

As Maceo's show was getting ready, you had a big hallway with folks like Bobby Byrd, Jabo Starks, Fred Wesley, Catfish Collins and other folks just kickin' it, laughing and carrying on. It was a beautiful sight.

Bootsy had his own dressing room, next to James Brown's, a status none of us could argue with.

It was hard to decide what room to try first, as all would be filled with MASTER FUNKERS!

Knowing the layout of the show, and with an understanding of how cheezy the whole EMP thang would be, I took it upon myself to try and get some partying into the mix. I tried like hell to get hookup from the EMP people to be on their payroll, or at least some juice as a designated funkateer, but that never flew, so I went for it on my own.

I had some of these hecka stoopid T-shirts that said "Glory Be The Funk's On Me" in giant letters on the front, and "The History of Funk" and KPFA on the back. I was wearing one and looked hella funky in it.

First stop was Bootsy's room. I waited for a move, and opened the door, and Patty Collins answered, in a black polka dot dress. We hadn't met, but when we did, she STILL treated me like a distant stranger, with no funk-juice. I can't understand it. I sent her the book, I call her regularly to ask for interviews, to wish Bootsy happy birthday and things like that, and she never calls, or gives me the time of day. 

I get in there and Bootsy recognizes me and gives me a hug! He's laid out on a couch, in rather old sequined leather, his casual wear, and he's visibly tired. I understand he's been in Europe recording another record for that Warner Germany label or something, so that's understandable.

I give him a funky T-Shirt, and he gets a kick out of it, and I try to tell Patty that I'm planning our "14th Annual ALL BOOTSY SHOW" radio tribute and that I'd like to set up a longer interview time, and she says to me "That's not going to happen, so you better get what you can right now!"

DANG

What does a mug have to do to get some love from The Boot? So I get out my portable tape and ask Bootsy about EMP (thought it was awesome), the JB's (loved goin' back home), and his new recordings (didn't sound too thrilled), got a station I-D and that's it. 

Of course Zilla was great, but his 'guardian' is even better at what she does, I guess that's the only way to look at it. A few minutes later Patty goes down the hall, and I find this groupie with a camera and I make a deal with her "If I get you into Bootsy's room for a photo, will you send me one with him?"....We felt like kids playin' hooky sneakin' into Bootsy's room, getting a photo, but just as Boot & I set down, Patty walks back in the room! If she had a ruler, I woulda got spanked for this!

So we get out of there with the photos, but I've got a long road to try to get right with Patty Collins.....

That was the kind of festive funky atmosphere backstage at the JBs reunion, if you know how to play your Funk cards!

After gettin' at Boots, everythang else was cake, and I ate as much as I could.

I get into the JBs dressing room, and there is Fred Wesley, Bobby Byrd, Jabo Starks, Catfish and Pee Wee all kickin' it around a couch! So I pull out another T-Shirt and say "I need all you guys for a station I-D, and the funkayest one get this tee shirt!" They all got into the vibe, acted a fool on the station I-D, then fought over that ignorant shirt like kids!

If folks know how they talk, you can imagine Fred Wesley: "I know nobodys touchin' my shirt now!" and Jabo "That's ma shirt, no lie, that gotsta be mine!" it was a blast!

Some were actually kinda miffed that I didnt have enough shirts, although I had more back at my hotel...obviously, for the money they were gettin' paid, nobody was trippin of my stoopid sh*t, but I told folks I would bring some more before the show is over.

I kinda think the whole EMP thing was so devoid of stank that they got off on my bringing some stink on the road just for them to vibe on, and they went for it.

So I cut out, get on the monorail, get to my hotel, get the shirts, buy my own disposable camera, go back, bulshit my way backstage again, and get back before James Brown gets onstage with his own set.

Back in the JBs dressing room, Catfish is packing up his stuff, and we rap awhile, and I do an interview with him, at least until Fred comes in the room and starts clowning and the whole thang comes apart as fools was laughing on the floor....

I did get to ask Catfish about, among other things, his trip to Africa with James Brown. If folks don't know there is an awesome brand-new book about FELA KUTI, and James Brown is prominently mentioned, although there is no clear evidence Fela and James met. Catfish tells me they did meet Fela and had a great time with him.

(The book is: Fela - The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon, by Michael Veal, Temple University Press, 2000. check it)

I talked with Fred Wesley about his own book. He tells me it's finished, and he'll probably sell it over his own website, soon to be up as fredwesley.com. He also gives me some props, for tryin' to do what I'm doing for the fonk. I realized that as much as I was kickin' it with these Masters, Fred was the only one that knew me. The others were all just hangin', diggin on their EMP paychecks, and finally enjoying the 'reunion' part of the gig.

I hope Fred's book gets out, because the chapters I have from that book are some hilarious inner-circle funk nuggets that are truly entertaining and enlightening.

Around that time I found the Heinikens in the dressing rooms, and by the time I went back out to the show, I was ready to par-tay.

By the time James Brown goes onstage, the whole area backstage fills up with folks vibin' and partyin' to the music. The big arena layout gave a great deal of backstage space for folks to kick it & hang.

Since James has the singers and dancers alternating, they are always hanging around, changing outfits and generally being sassy. Dont know why but I was steppin' to them and getting all into their business.

When you see the James Brown show, you wont forget the one tall, luscious sista among the dancers. She's basically a force of nature, and it turns out her name is Heather Hayes, and she's the daughter of Isaac Hayes!

She's been on tour with JB for 6 years, and is planning her own singing career. I heard her sing at the Oakland James Brown show in May, and she's got the chops as well as the moves and the looks. I hope she takes her experience with the Godfather and takes it to the next level.

Catfish was backstage kickin' it for awhile too. He spotted this thick white chick in a fancy dress that was dancing up a storm that called herself "Janie Galaxy" He moved on that quite efficiently. It was a trip to see a P-Funk DOG in action...

Maceo had a ball playing saxophone backstage, in time with the on-stage James Brown show, just kickin' it, scatting with Bobby Byrd, serenading the older ladies in their seats. That was beautiful.

A lot of us hangers on backstage had a ball getting photo ops with the various stars that came and went thru the area, talkin' about certain players, checkin' out the love for the ole school goin down, and just diggin' on James Brown and his antics. 

Folks came and went up on stage, laughing and partying, vibing and playing. It was an awesome mix of sentimentality (not overdone), professionalism (clean, tight music throughout), funk history (legends at every turn), and just plain fun.

James was particularly taken by Martha High and Marva Whitney. It seems he kept bringing them back for extra time on the mike. The whole 'guest cast' and former players really laid waste of the new act, but everyone knew James was gonna do it hiz way, and that had a certain nostalgia to it by itself.

The show went an hour over time, and when it ended, the vibe was just electric! Lots of shows end with folks smiling and digging each other, but this one had strength, it wasn't sappy, folks still had issues, but people knew they all did what they do best, and did it right at the right time.

For that I'm grateful for EMP, Paul Allen, his sister Jodie and all the folks with they late passes that made this Show happen, and for the most part, come off brilliantly, if not magically.

The thrill of the show made up for a lot of fucktup stuff I had to deal with around EMP and the whole "Experience", but for the most part, they did a good thing, and its good for The Funk


Oh yea, and after the show, I just hung out, dodged the security folks, made up stories about who I was with, and waited for James Brown hisself to come out. 

After about an hour, which went quite quickly, Mr. Brown comes out, and I slipped thru his guards & gave him a copy of my book. (we had done a phone interview in 1993, but he didn't know me from adam)

I had changed into a T-Shirt that had the "I'm Back" album on it, which helped my Game. I told him I play the "I'm Back" album more than any other deejay in the Bay Area, and that he needs to make "I Don't Hear No Music" his next single. (the truth, IMO)

He really checked me once I talked biz with him, and went into the other accts he's planning to put out & stuff.

He then said 'we need to get you to our radio station in Augusta' to talk more about this stuff....

So I hope to be following up on that type of stuff, you never know...The Funk is it's own reward!

Rikey Vincent

Alternate review by Mike Teiss

Related Link :

What's in the 'Artists' Journey' ride
That big blue (section? globule? cheese wedge?) part of the Experience Music
Project is the interactive "Artists' Journey" ride. It's the Experience, in
other words. The ride's first incarnation is known as "Funk Blast." Here's
what's in it:
·   "Funk Blast" cost: At least $2 million plus
·   Capacity: 38 people
·   Running time: 20 minutes
·   Filmed at: Great Western Forum, Paramount Studios
·   Number of still cameras for one five-second scene: 140
·   Number of effects shots in the 4 1/2 minute Act 2: 40
·   Hairdo James Brown had in early 1970s that Paul Allen requested he not be
given in film: The Afro
·   Number of fake legends: one

Jump back! At EMP, a digital James Brown gets down - and gets back up again
by John Zebrowski
Seattle Times staff reporter

LOS ANGELES - James Brown has got it down. How else can you explain the way he's moving, there on the screen, like the last 30 years had left no impression at all? The Hardest Working Man in Show Business he is, the Godfather of Soul. No matter what he's called, James Brown knows how to dance
and for this movie for the Experience Music Project, no one can top him. Brown is the star of "Funk Blast," a roughly 20-minute ride that mixes story with music, special effects with a 38-seat motion platform and 14-foot clamshell movie screen to create an experience its creators promise will be
far from boring. Housed in the sky blue "Artists' Journey" section of the museum, expect noise, expensive and intense effects and a feeling that you're being sucked into a wormhole, into outer space, and an encounter with the young James Brown.

It's 1969, maybe 1970, and James Brown is a sex machine. He's singing it, he's shaking it, clearly he's feeling it. He spins the way he has for decades, he falls into a split. He dances and jumps. He soars. His face, with that prominent, jutting jaw line, ripples with emotions. He is alive. But then, it stops. The screen goes blank and reality returns. The show isover and there is work to do. Brown's face looked off kilter, like an ill-fitting mask. The problem is with his chin. He may be Soul Brother No. 1, but for the moment, the important numeral is two. As in the number of chins Brown has. One of them has to go.

With a few keystrokes and a couple of mouse clicks, Joshua Kolden performs the necessary nip and tuck. We're in the "bunker" at Digital Domain, one of Hollywood's biggest special-effects studios. This is the place that launches ocean liners, makes rocket ships soar and dinosaurs roar. For today, it's
just a little surgery. Like that - click - James Brown's face fits. A little better, at least.
"Spooky, isn't it?" Kolden says. Yes, it is.

When Paul Allen's Experience Music Project opens on June 23, conversations will likely shift from the Frank Gehry's melted-candy design to what's inside. And there's a lot to talk about, from all that Jimi Hendrix memorabilia to the world-class collection of guitars, to reams and reams of stuff on Grunge. But as a museum built by a founder of Microsoft, EMP is ultimately about technology. And this wiggly, sweaty legend of a singer may end up being the biggest technological leap EMP spurs.
James Brown? Yeah - and here's why. He may be a senior citizen now, but inside, he's 35 years old, he's funky and he's fake. That man on the screen, he's half body double, half computer creation, a hybrid designed to interact with a fully live cast.

Americans are used to all kinds of digital creations on their movie screens. Dinosaurs devour real SUVs, imaginary armies appear out of the ether, space ships orbit the Earth without ever leaving the studio. But these are fantasy. Who's to say what dinosaurs really looked like and how they really moved?

James Brown is different. He's human. He's well-known. It's a titanic challenge to give birth to a digital person so real people need to be told it's not. Until now, it hasn't been done. "This is an enormous hurdle," says Andre Bustanoby, the visual-effects supervisor. "It has to be perfect. We want people not to notice it's special effects. If it stands out, we didn't do our job."
And come on. Do you really think the James Brown of today can still do a flip that lands in a split, all without missing a beat? "As much as Mr. Brown wanted to do that," says Digital Domain's spokesman, Bob Hoffman, "we wanted to save him the agony." Understanding "The Funk" How to explain this thing? "Funk Blast" is really just a fairy tale, another "once upon a time" kind of thing, set to funky music with a whole lot of TV screens. Viewers walk first into the "Artists' Journey" lobby, where interviews with Herbie Hancock, Maceo Parker and Bootsie Collins play on several monitors. Next comes a room with six screens and performances by Chaka Khan and Rufus, the Gap Band and Dr. John. Then all 38 of us move into the final chamber, strap ourselves in and cruise toward James Brown Land.

But this doesn't explain any of it, does it? We need to know the story behind all this. We need to understand "The Funk." The journey to "The Funk" begins with two teenagers (they're real) who want
to be great musicians. So the Archangel of Funk (real) comes along and gives them a tour of "The Funk." He takes them to see the legends play, which is all fun and inspiring, but the boys still don't get it. Then a wormhole opens in the middle of the stage, things like guitars and keyboards get sucked in and the archangel and boys follow (as do we, strapped into seats on a motion platform). Into space we fly, through a multicolored wonderland of planet rings and rainbow stalagmites, before landing on a Paramount back lot where a gigantic James Brown billboard comes alive and
starts grinding. And lest we forget, the James Brown we're seeing isn't real. To do that, the Digital Domain crew flew to Brown's Georgia home to learn every move he had and to transfer them into a computer where a new Brown could be built. They filmed him singing, they filmed him dancing. They
attached white dots to his face and painted a digital image of him on a screen. They broke down 70 years of show business into a series of ones and zeros and then they took it all home.

Seems like a lot of trouble when they could have used an old tape of the real James Brown doing exactly what they wanted. But Hoffman said that archival footage wouldn't look credible to people. It wouldn't look real. Here's what the man himself said when told what Digital Domain had in mind: "You're trying to clone me." Caleb Owens sees what James Brown sees. This isn't some kind of metaphor. He and James Brown are not kindred spirits, they are not soul mates. But still,
they are seeing the same thing. Owens, a programming supervisor at Digital Domain, has rotated a digital rendering of James Brown on his Silicon Graphics computer until we are looking through the back of his face. It feels like a violation of privacy, even though there's nothing real here to be invading.
After three months straight working on the project, Owens hasn't completely moved beyond the strangeness of building a virtual version of the Godfather.

"It's kind of odd," he says, as he types in code and moves bars on the screen to change Brown's expression. Owens fiddles and the mouth opens and the eyebrows raise, the eyes widen and the nostrils flare. "Heah," Owens says, mimicking Brown's stage cry, which sounds like a jab in the stomach. On the wall of his cubicle are pictures of the real Brown, his hair pulled back and white dots on his face. Brown is singing, making all kinds of faces.

Owens tweaks some more, distorting the virtual Brown's face. "It's the ultimate voodoo doll," he says.
This isn't Digital Domain's first attempt at creating life out of data. The company has made news with its work since its metallic, changing villain in the movie "Terminator 2," directed by the company's co-founder James Cameron. Since then, it has competed with a handful of other digital studios to take
exploding computer technology to the point where an image is indistinguishable from the real thing.
It's not there yet. Even the company's best work, from the massive Titanic to the miniature Stuart Little, still stands out as being digital. But the gap is closing. Think back to last year's "Star Wars: Episode 1." In it, the comic-relief character Jar Jar Binks is completely digital, created by George
Lucas' company Industrial Light and Magic. The character never exists outside a computer. It was a breakthrough in cinema - but the audience could tell it wasn't real.
Digital Domain needs to avoid this problem, which is compounded by the fact that most know what James Brown really looks like. When the team returned from Georgia, with reams of information, photographs, films, archival footage, even a sculpture of the look they wanted, people set about creating software that would give the digital Brown all the physical nuances of the real thing.
Bo Cameron, a programmer with a medical background, built the superstructure of Brown's face, an intricate network of bones and muscle with human complexity. Others stepped in to add controls for the muscles, making it possible for a bottom eyelid to wrinkle when the eyes look from one way to
another, for the tongue to shift and roll with the words. Skin was added and shaded and lighted to fit into the context of the film.
But the face still didn't fit right. Stick it onto the body and things looked weird. There were too many chins.
Enter Tony Wilson
That's not James Brown's body. It's too young. Brown was born either in 1928 or 1933 and time has taken his youthful body. To create a realistic young James Brown, one who can interact with the scores of people at his real block party, Digital Domain needed a body double. The company went back 30 years in time by heading to Las Vegas. Tony Wilson is a James Brown impersonator. He's got the moves down. But he can't do James Brown's head. And he has an overbite. Slap the digital face onto his body and you get two chins. In the artificial darkness of the Digital Domain's "2D Building," Dave Stern oversees a team that is making James Brown fit together again. They remove
chins, add shadows and light, smooth edges until things look just about right. They work in near darkness so they can see the details of an image better than a movie audience will. This is done in small cubicles with drapes across their openings. Pull one back and an employee will blink at you, eyes straining to adjust to seeing real people.

It is in this permanent twilight that the young James Brown truly comes alive. On the screen, he's singing "Sex Machine" and he's jumping and spinning as if all the troubles of his long life hadn't touched by him. He does the flip followed by the split, grimacing the way he does when he's lost
in his music. And like that, James Brown's there. Stern looks at the screen, smiles and folds his arms. "It would have been hard to do this three years ago," he says. "It's hard to do this now.
"In a way, we have cloned him."