In America during 1966, James Brown, a seminal creator of funk music, was coming off an incredible three-year run of hits, including Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You (I Feel Good) and It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World. Which is exactly when new backup singer Martha High joined the band.
Now a sharp, delightful 81-year-old, High has been performing for six decades and will be at Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Saturday, Sept. 26, with her band, Martha High’s Funky Divas, backed by Brown’s trombonist Fred Wesley and The New JBs.
“I joined Mr. Brown in 1966 and he was at his peak at that time,” says High from her home in the Netherlands.
“I was mesmerized for at least five years when I first joined him. I couldn’t believe that this man danced across the stage like lightning. I had no idea where all of this energy came about. But I knew one thing and I have always said that if I could just have the energy that he had, that I could last. And thank God, I do. I feel like I got it all from him.”
In 1966, while the war in Vietnam escalated, with more than 6,000 American service members killed that year, back in the United States, another kind of war was going on.
The Civil Rights Movement was leading the way, highlighting the inequality and brutality against Black people that had persisted in America for centuries.
Meanwhile, James Brown was on an exhaustive tour of the Deep South, temporarily easing racial tensions through the power of funk. It was around that time Brown gave High some new responsibilities in the band beyond singing.
“I remember when he started hiring more ladies to work with me in the group. Mr. Brown would tell me, ‘This is how you teach them the steps. You teach them the songs and I don’t want to have anything to do with it. You take care of this. And if they want to talk to me, you just tell them that you’re Mr. Brown.’ So that’s what I did. I don’t think they really cared too much for that. They said, ‘I want to talk to Mr. Brown.’ And I said, ‘Okay, we’re talking to him. What’s the deal?’” says High.
Currently, High has curated a strong, funky batch of singers for the Funky Divas.
“Kelly Jarrell and I were on the James Brown show. And Darliene Parker often sang together with Maceo Parker,” says High.
The Funky Divas aren’t a nostalgic retrospective, but a living, breathing funk machine.
“We’re paying homage. We’re not a tribute band. Marva Whitney, Lyn Collins and Vicki Anderson were the Original Funky Divas and I worked with all three of them during the time that I was with Mr. Brown. When they all left, we still got together and we formed a group called the King’s Queens. We went on tour with Bobby Byrd [a key father of funk] in the early ’90s. We became sisters. We were sisters,” says High.
Being constantly on tour, you might think that it’s difficult to find love, but for High there was something afoot.
“Thirty years ago, I met this Dutch gentleman. We got really tight for the first 10 years after we met. Then we kept in contact with each other. He was always at the shows when I was with James Brown and Maceo Parker and he would come to see the show multiple times. He and his family had taken me out to dinner to eat and things like that. We kept in contact even when he got his divorce. When my relationships went bad he was there to talk to and I think I was there for him as well,” says High.
Thirty years later, High was performing in Switzerland when her old friend called.
“He started telling me that he’s been caring for me for a long time. He told me that he was in love with me.
“I had made a decision that I was moving to Europe to live after my mother had passed away a few years ago. That was where I wanted to live. I talked to him about it and I told him that I was going to move to France. He said that he didn’t want me to move to France. He said, ‘I want you to come here to the Netherlands to be with me because I’m in love with you. And I want to ask you to marry me,’” says High.
Life has given High so many amazing opportunities, and being married in the Netherlands is a dream come true.
“I had prayed to God to put a good man in my life. Someone that I can trust, someone that I know, and someone that’s a real man. To have a real meaning in my life, and it meant so much to me to have somebody who loves Jesus Christ as much as I do.”
Martha High’s Funky Divas with Fred Wesley & The New JBs perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Tickets are $48–$63; kuumbwajazz.org.
