Buffalo’s trail-Blazers By Bruce Eaton Arlester “Dyke” Christian could well be the most influential musician to come out of Buffalo in the past half century. Who? You know … Dyke? Dyke and the Blazers? They had a run of R&B hits in the ’60s. Never heard of them … Okay then, how about the song “Funky Broadway”? Didn’t Wilson Pickett record that? Well, yeah, but he was covering Dyke’s version … Mention the band Dyke and the Blazers around Buffalo and you’ll likely get a blank look. But mention the band to any one of the legion of funk aficionados all over the world and they’ll light up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and for good reason: James Brown may have introduced the musical tenets of funk with “Out of Sight,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” and “Cold Sweat,” but it was Dyke’s “Funky Broadway”—the first pop hit with the word “funk” in the title—that not only gave the burgeoning musical phenomenon a moniker that stuck, but solidified funk as the rhythm of the inner city. Dyke was to James Brown what John Lee Hooker and Howling Wolf were to B. B. King, and he stands out as a pivotal and tragically overlooked figure in the development of popular music. He’s not even a member of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. Born in Buffalo in 1943, Arlester Christian’s teen years were spent attending Burgard High School, cruising the streets of the Fruit Belt, and learning how to play bass and guitar from his friend Alvester “Pig” Jacobs. After the duo joined local band Carl LaRue and the Crew, the legendary deejay Eddie O’Jay encouraged the group to relocate to Phoenix. Early gigs backing the singing group O’Jay managed—the creatively named O’Jays—held promise, but with O’Jay’s attention focused on his namesakes’ growing popularity, the Crew struggled along until most of the band returned to Buffalo. Dyke (his nickname was a reference to his affinity for dice games) and Jacobs stayed, recruited some local Phoenix musicians and began to translate his affinity and gut feel for urban street life into low-down extended grooves that jammed the local dance floors. Never one to over-intellectualize, Dyke often improvised lyrics until a catch-phrase matched up with a riff and then worked on it until it became a song. Thus was born “Funky Broadway,” a tribute to the main drag in cities across the country, but rooted in Buffalo’s East Side “Funky Broadway” laid down the template for Dyke’s quintessential funk—a loping bass line with the drums just a shade behind the beat that hits you in the hips rather than the toes or fingertips. Released in the fall of 1966 on a local Phoenix label, the single generated an immediate buzz, and Dyke and the Blazers were quickly signed to Art Laboe’s Original Sound label in Los Angeles. Before long, the success of “Funky Broadway” stretched coast to coast. (The follow-up single “So Sharp” was later covered by the J. Geils Band, who dedicated their The Morning After album to Dyke.) In June 1967, the then still-ascendant Dyke and the Blazers played two weeks at New York’s famed Apollo Theater. Halfway through the engagement (which saw James Brown nervously checking out his competition), the Blazers mutinied over pay and Dyke had to hastily bring in replacements from his old Buffalo neighborhood to finish the run. Despite a growing drug habit and Wilson Pickett co-opting “Funky Broadway,” Dyke still continued touring and recording with various groups of current Blazers and Los Angeles studio musicians—hitting the R&B charts with “Uhh,” “Broadway Combination,” “Runaway People,” and, oddly enough, a cover of “You Are My Sunshine.” Back in Phoenix on March 13, 1971, a street argument turned into tragedy when Dyke was gunned down by a petty criminal who later successfully pleaded self-defense. Dyke was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, less than a mile from the corner of Jefferson and Ferry Streets that he had once immortalized in song as being the place where everyone did “The Funky Walk.” His modest grave marker makes no mention of his musical legacy, standing in mute contrast to the nearby flamboyant tombstone of Rick James—one of the countless artists who built their careers on the funky foundation laid down by Dyke. Thanks to a series of reissues, including the phemomenal 2-CD set We Got More Soul (Ace) released in England in 2007, Dyke and the Blazers continue to be heard, especially among younger fans. Jeffrey Schaller, an avid funk collector and drummer for the band Here Come the Comets, sums it up well: “They had this great rawness and energy to their sound that was so infectious … it’s quintessential funk at its finest. Their time together was short but their legacy runs deep forty years later.” Bruce Eaton programs the Art of Jazz series at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top