It is with great sadness that I learned yesterday of the passing of Junie Morrison. First I didn't believe it, there were some messages on social media, because he wasn't old at all. Only 62 years old, way too soon.. Finally, I saw a message of hs daughter Akasha Morrison on Junie's Facebook Page confirming the news, and a press release on Okayplayer. Below I collected some songs of his to create a little tribute to him, ending with the remix he did for me last year.
This is the first song which bcame famous when he was only 18 years old; later sampled by many hiphop artists.
Walter "Junie" Morrison was a musician and producer born in Dayton, Ohio. Morrison was a producer, writer, keyboardist and vocalist for the funk band Ohio Players in the early 1970s, where he wrote and produced their first major hits, "Pain", "Pleasure", "Ecstasy" and "Funky Worm". In 1977 Morrison joined George Clinton's P-Funk (Parliament-Funkadelic) where he became musical director. In particular, he made prominent contributions to the platinum-selling Funkadelic album "One Nation Under a Groove", the single "(Not Just) Knee Deep", the gold-selling Parliament albums "Motor Booty Affair" and "Gloryhallastoopid". Morrison is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. In total he recorded six solo albums so far and is also known for his recent collaboration with Dam-Funk ("Invite The Light"). Solange dedicated a song to him, "Junie". May he rest in peace and once he rested enough, join the great jam session in music heaven.. Go to Junie's website
Junie throughout the years: 1974:
1979:
1984
1996:
2004:
I had some nice e-mail conversations with him throughout the last years. He was very kind, supportive and encouraging. It resulted in a remix he did for me: The Harder We Fight (The Sweeter The Love)" just has been released in october 2016. I am proud to have worked with this legendary musician.
This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - It is with great sadness that I learned yesterday of the passing of Junie Morrison. First I didn't believe it, there were some messages on social media, because he wasn't old at all. Only 62 years old, way too soon.. Finally, I saw a message of hs daughter Akasha Morrison on Junie's Facebook Page confirming the news, and a press release on Okayplayer.Below I collected some songs of his to create a little tribute to him, ending with the remix he did for me last year.This is the first song which bcame famous when he was only 18 years old; later sampled by many hiphop artists.Walter Junie Morrison was a musician and producer born in Dayton, Ohio. Morrison was a producer, writer, keyboardist and vocalist for the funk band Ohio Players in the early 1970s, where he wrote and produced their first major hits, Pain, Pleasure, Ecstasy and Funky Worm.In 1977 Morrison joined George Clinton's P-Funk (Parliament-Funkadelic) where he became musical director. In particular, he made prominent contributions to the platinum-selling Funkadelic album One Nation Under a Groove, the single (Not Just) Knee Deep, the gold-selling Parliament albums Motor Booty Affair and Gloryhallastoopid. Morrison is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. In total he recorded six solo albums so far and is also known for his recent collaboration with Dam-Funk (Invite The Light). Solange dedicated a song to him, Junie.May he rest in peace and once he rested enough, join the great jam session in music heaven..Go to Junie's websiteJunie throughout the years:1974:1979:19841996:2004:I had some nice e-mail conversations with him throughout the last years. He was very kind, supportive and encouraging. It resulted in a remix he did for me: The Harder We Fight (The Sweeter The Love) just has been released in october 2016. I am proud to have worked with this legendary musician.
