Post by FastNFancy on Mar 1, 2003 22:17:24 GMT -5
Mary Wilson still reigns supreme
After 43 years, the Motown diva is busy with theater, recordings and just causes
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
Mary Wilson, at 58, doesn't sit on her laurels; last week she accepted an award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
Wilson on stage What: Mary Wilson, starring in Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues."
Where: Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway Ave., Detroit.
When: Tuesday-Sunday.
Tickets: Call (313) 961-3500 or Ticketmaster at (248) 645-6666.
Wilson on TV
* What: "American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love & Soul." The series, produced by T.J. Lubinsky of Pittsburgh, presents classic artists performing their hits as they were on record, with the same arrangements and backing.
* When: 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. tonight on Detroit Public Television, WTVS (Channel 56).
* Performers: This latest program includes a larger than usual proportion of Detroit entertainers apart from Mary Wilson: Aretha Franklin, Dennis Edwards and the Temptations Revue, Edwin Starr, the Spinners, the Originals, Carl Carlton, Freda Payne, singer/producer Johnny Bristol (he sang on the Supremes' "Some Day We'll Be Together," and he and Wilson will reprise that on the show) and Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on "Cloud Nine," and other Temptations songs. Preview
If the music industry has left most artists her age on the shelf, Mary Wilson isn't wasting any time worrying about it. Last month, Wilson was in Detroit recording an album with producer Richard Davis, but she also took time out to go club-hopping with Motown stablemate Martha Reeves.
The sight of the stylish, age-defying divas had to be a jolt at the various Detroit nightspots they hit.
"I don't even know what clubs we were in, we were all over," says Wilson, 58, with a laugh. "Martha knows everybody."
The founding member of the Supremes was speaking from her cell phone at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, on her way from Los Angeles to New York, where she represented the Supremes last week as the Rhythm & Blues Foundation presented the group with its Pioneer Award. With the only other founding Supreme, Diana Ross, consumed with personal issues, much of Wilson's time is spent accepting awards for the group.
But that's just 1 percent of Wilson's schedule. Next week, the Detroit native flies back here from her current home in New York to star in "The Vagina Monologues," running at the Detroit Opera House for eight shows from Tuesday through Sunday. The singer saw the show in New York a few years ago with actress girlfriends Marla Gibbs and Jackee, but this will be the first time she's performed in it -- and the first time she has to say the word out loud, in front of everybody.
"It's about the taboos of the vagina, everything women know, but you don't say out loud," Wilson says. "I saw it twice in New York, and although it is a girl thing, there were large groups of women there, but I found that men were there too, and they totally laughed at the right times. Then you could see them squirm, and the ladies in the play would actually address that."
Seeing the show is different than appearing in it.
"I thought the show was hilarious," she says. "How I'm going to feel about doing it and actually having to say it, I don't even know. But I rarely get to work in Detroit, which is really a shame. So I had to come."
This isn't Wilson's first foray into acting; like many veteran artists she's had to diversify. When she wasn't touring as "Mary Wilson of the Supremes" she appeared in the musicals "Beehive," "Leader of the Pack -- The Hit Singles of Ellie Greenwich," and several off-Broadway plays.
Recording hasn't been a big part of her career path for some time, but the singer is hopeful about the made-in-Detroit album she's been recording for the Holland Group, Brian and Eddie Holland's company. This reunites her with two-thirds of the songwriting team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, that gave the Supremes five consecutive No. 1 hits -- more than any other female group in music history.
"Richard Davis is producing it for the Holland Group, and Brian Holland has written a song for me," Wilson says. "It's a very introspective song, very melodic. He did a great job on it. It's so great working with them again."
Producer/arranger McKinley Jackson, who worked with Marvin Gaye, has done arrangements for the album, which isn't placed with a record company yet, but will be aimed at the growing adult contemporary market.
"It's a very contemporary approach to music, not Supremes-type, but it's not hip-hop either," Wilson says. "Sort of like Sade."
Seeing Wilson, it's hard to believe that it was back on Jan. 15, 1961 that she and her friends from Detroit's Brewster Projects -- Diana Ross and Florence Ballard -- went from being the Primettes and became what Flo christened them, the Supremes. They'd finished high school and finally got Berry Gordy Jr. to sign them to Motown Records, where they'd been hanging out for several years.
Wilson was always in the background, the pretty one on the left, or right, as Ross' cooing, girlish soprano took center stage. But Wilson's smokier voice could be heard on some album cuts, and her vocals have been a pleasant surprise to many fans who only heard her in the background before.
She took center stage at New York's Apollo Theater in November, tawny braids flying, to sing the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" with cool confidence in front of the Funk Brothers band, and it was as if she'd always sung lead.
One of Wilson's pet causes is Friends Against Musical Exploitation (FAME), a Boston-based organization that campaigns against singing groups that have no original members.
Wilson was there when the Supremes were founded; she stayed on when Florence Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong and then Diana Ross left the group in 1970, and she was the one constant during the '70s, when several women rotated through the other two slots.
Because of that, the singer believes that only she and Diana Ross have the right to the name "Supremes," although several groups tour, one with Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, who used to tour with Wilson, as "Former Ladies of the Supremes," the other as "The Sound of the Supremes."
"I wish they'd go out and get their own name," Wilson says.
"I'm kind of broke now because I've been putting money out, trying to stop these groups. Now 'The Sound of the Supremes' are trying to get me to pay their legal costs. And Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence's group stopped my application for a trademark in the U.K. They can do it because they've been using the name there.
Wilson puts her money where her mouth is: She has it written in her contract rider that she will not appear with any "impostor groups" billing themselves under a famous group name with no members who were recording and performing members of the group "during its era of prominence."
Told that the East Coast, thirtysomething Marvelettes, with no original members, played the Woodward Dream Cruise last year, Wilson lets out a sigh.
"I need everyone in Detroit to help with this war," she says.
"I need someone to spearhead this campaign. It's ridiculous. The Tempts and the Marvelettes, there's no reason why we shouldn't have the names of our groups."
As for a real Supremes reunion, don't count it out. While Wilson couldn't come to terms with Ross a few years ago, balking at the lack of control and money she was offered, she speaks fondly of her longtime friend and colleague, and won't let her fans disparage Diana.
Wilson was pleased that Ross' daughter, Rhonda, was set to represent her mother at the Rhythm & Blues awards. It seems to be a hint that Ross is reaching out again to her Supreme legacy, and colleague.
Wilson also made sure that Florence Ballard's daughters, Lisa, Michelle and Nicole, were there, just as they attended last summer's Girl Group Stamp ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
"I got them all involved," Wilson says. "Whenever there's something about the Supremes, I always make sure that people are aware that the girls are available to be there."
After 43 years, the Motown diva is busy with theater, recordings and just causes
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
Mary Wilson, at 58, doesn't sit on her laurels; last week she accepted an award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
Wilson on stage What: Mary Wilson, starring in Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues."
Where: Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway Ave., Detroit.
When: Tuesday-Sunday.
Tickets: Call (313) 961-3500 or Ticketmaster at (248) 645-6666.
Wilson on TV
* What: "American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love & Soul." The series, produced by T.J. Lubinsky of Pittsburgh, presents classic artists performing their hits as they were on record, with the same arrangements and backing.
* When: 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. tonight on Detroit Public Television, WTVS (Channel 56).
* Performers: This latest program includes a larger than usual proportion of Detroit entertainers apart from Mary Wilson: Aretha Franklin, Dennis Edwards and the Temptations Revue, Edwin Starr, the Spinners, the Originals, Carl Carlton, Freda Payne, singer/producer Johnny Bristol (he sang on the Supremes' "Some Day We'll Be Together," and he and Wilson will reprise that on the show) and Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on "Cloud Nine," and other Temptations songs. Preview
If the music industry has left most artists her age on the shelf, Mary Wilson isn't wasting any time worrying about it. Last month, Wilson was in Detroit recording an album with producer Richard Davis, but she also took time out to go club-hopping with Motown stablemate Martha Reeves.
The sight of the stylish, age-defying divas had to be a jolt at the various Detroit nightspots they hit.
"I don't even know what clubs we were in, we were all over," says Wilson, 58, with a laugh. "Martha knows everybody."
The founding member of the Supremes was speaking from her cell phone at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, on her way from Los Angeles to New York, where she represented the Supremes last week as the Rhythm & Blues Foundation presented the group with its Pioneer Award. With the only other founding Supreme, Diana Ross, consumed with personal issues, much of Wilson's time is spent accepting awards for the group.
But that's just 1 percent of Wilson's schedule. Next week, the Detroit native flies back here from her current home in New York to star in "The Vagina Monologues," running at the Detroit Opera House for eight shows from Tuesday through Sunday. The singer saw the show in New York a few years ago with actress girlfriends Marla Gibbs and Jackee, but this will be the first time she's performed in it -- and the first time she has to say the word out loud, in front of everybody.
"It's about the taboos of the vagina, everything women know, but you don't say out loud," Wilson says. "I saw it twice in New York, and although it is a girl thing, there were large groups of women there, but I found that men were there too, and they totally laughed at the right times. Then you could see them squirm, and the ladies in the play would actually address that."
Seeing the show is different than appearing in it.
"I thought the show was hilarious," she says. "How I'm going to feel about doing it and actually having to say it, I don't even know. But I rarely get to work in Detroit, which is really a shame. So I had to come."
This isn't Wilson's first foray into acting; like many veteran artists she's had to diversify. When she wasn't touring as "Mary Wilson of the Supremes" she appeared in the musicals "Beehive," "Leader of the Pack -- The Hit Singles of Ellie Greenwich," and several off-Broadway plays.
Recording hasn't been a big part of her career path for some time, but the singer is hopeful about the made-in-Detroit album she's been recording for the Holland Group, Brian and Eddie Holland's company. This reunites her with two-thirds of the songwriting team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, that gave the Supremes five consecutive No. 1 hits -- more than any other female group in music history.
"Richard Davis is producing it for the Holland Group, and Brian Holland has written a song for me," Wilson says. "It's a very introspective song, very melodic. He did a great job on it. It's so great working with them again."
Producer/arranger McKinley Jackson, who worked with Marvin Gaye, has done arrangements for the album, which isn't placed with a record company yet, but will be aimed at the growing adult contemporary market.
"It's a very contemporary approach to music, not Supremes-type, but it's not hip-hop either," Wilson says. "Sort of like Sade."
Seeing Wilson, it's hard to believe that it was back on Jan. 15, 1961 that she and her friends from Detroit's Brewster Projects -- Diana Ross and Florence Ballard -- went from being the Primettes and became what Flo christened them, the Supremes. They'd finished high school and finally got Berry Gordy Jr. to sign them to Motown Records, where they'd been hanging out for several years.
Wilson was always in the background, the pretty one on the left, or right, as Ross' cooing, girlish soprano took center stage. But Wilson's smokier voice could be heard on some album cuts, and her vocals have been a pleasant surprise to many fans who only heard her in the background before.
She took center stage at New York's Apollo Theater in November, tawny braids flying, to sing the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" with cool confidence in front of the Funk Brothers band, and it was as if she'd always sung lead.
One of Wilson's pet causes is Friends Against Musical Exploitation (FAME), a Boston-based organization that campaigns against singing groups that have no original members.
Wilson was there when the Supremes were founded; she stayed on when Florence Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong and then Diana Ross left the group in 1970, and she was the one constant during the '70s, when several women rotated through the other two slots.
Because of that, the singer believes that only she and Diana Ross have the right to the name "Supremes," although several groups tour, one with Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, who used to tour with Wilson, as "Former Ladies of the Supremes," the other as "The Sound of the Supremes."
"I wish they'd go out and get their own name," Wilson says.
"I'm kind of broke now because I've been putting money out, trying to stop these groups. Now 'The Sound of the Supremes' are trying to get me to pay their legal costs. And Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence's group stopped my application for a trademark in the U.K. They can do it because they've been using the name there.
Wilson puts her money where her mouth is: She has it written in her contract rider that she will not appear with any "impostor groups" billing themselves under a famous group name with no members who were recording and performing members of the group "during its era of prominence."
Told that the East Coast, thirtysomething Marvelettes, with no original members, played the Woodward Dream Cruise last year, Wilson lets out a sigh.
"I need everyone in Detroit to help with this war," she says.
"I need someone to spearhead this campaign. It's ridiculous. The Tempts and the Marvelettes, there's no reason why we shouldn't have the names of our groups."
As for a real Supremes reunion, don't count it out. While Wilson couldn't come to terms with Ross a few years ago, balking at the lack of control and money she was offered, she speaks fondly of her longtime friend and colleague, and won't let her fans disparage Diana.
Wilson was pleased that Ross' daughter, Rhonda, was set to represent her mother at the Rhythm & Blues awards. It seems to be a hint that Ross is reaching out again to her Supreme legacy, and colleague.
Wilson also made sure that Florence Ballard's daughters, Lisa, Michelle and Nicole, were there, just as they attended last summer's Girl Group Stamp ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
"I got them all involved," Wilson says. "Whenever there's something about the Supremes, I always make sure that people are aware that the girls are available to be there."
