Willie & the Bees buzzed for first gig in 14 years

Guitar skronks, saxophone wails and drum beats mingled in a Roseville warehouse as Willie & the Bees rehearsed for their first gig in 14 years.

"I always want our music to have everything in it," said Willie Murphy, a charter member of the Minnesota Music Academy Hall of Fame along with Bob Dylan and Prince. "I want it to be dance-y and funky. I want it to have really good vocal harmonies. I want there to be really good lyrics and jazzy horn parts."

Willie & the Bees kept Minnesotans dancing from 1971 to '84 with their compelling amalgam of blues, jazz, funk, R&B, rock and soul music. The lyrics were often provocative and political, making people think as well as party.

Over the years, there have been requests for reunion shows, but the offers weren't adequate for this large band — 10 to 12 members — and the work it takes to bring the players and music together. Murphy said when the Cabooze booker requested they perform for the West Bank bar's 40th anniversary series, the time just felt right.

Thirteen members — many from the band's beginning — will play the reunion on Friday at the Cabooze.

Rounding up the Bees wasn't easy. "We called everybody," Murphy said recently over vegetarian pho. "Three people are dead, two very valuable people can't make it. Jose James is on the road. Mark Bryn was our keyboard player and resident genius. He's a truck driver, of all things, and on the road."

So Murphy recruited Jason Craft, who plays with him at the Blues Jam on Mondays at the Richfield American Legion. "He's real hot," Murphy said. "There are leads I want him to take on synthesizer."

With only six weeks to rehearse and relearn songs, the Bees practiced intensely, quickly communicating corrections and coordination between instruments and vocals.

They selected 20 songs.

"I asked everybody to write down the songs they wanted to do. And we have hundreds," Murphy pointed out. "The songs that kept coming up the most were mostly originals. I love doing a lot of the covers, and we'll do a few," including James Brown's disco-era dance single "The Spank."

"Most of the cover songs were rearranged in my way," he said. "I just thought the quality of the originals is higher in a musical sense. If we're going to do this — this might be our last one — I want to do what we think is our most quality stuff."

Among them is "Supermarket," a 1982 would-be hit that Murphy calls "one of our anthems." To remember how songs went, the Bees listened to cassettes of old gigs.

"Some of it comes back surprisingly easily; some of it you're surprised you've forgotten totally. And I wrote them," mused Murphy.

One challenge is the complexity of the arrangements, explained Maurice Jacox, the singer/saxophonist who was an original member of the Bees and led its horn section.

"Willie writes really tricky stuff," Jacox said. "You've gotta be on it. The horn parts aren't standard, they're intricate, filigree horn parts, idiosyncratic as Willie makes everything. Trying to do that in six weeks when you haven't played this stuff in years is a daunting task for all of us. If we pull this off, this is going to be strong as hell."

Murphy admits that his arrangements are daunting.

"I always wrote really challenging-to-remember horn charts," he said. "They're very jazzy, influenced by people like Charlie Mingus and Duke Ellington."

Hairlines change but little else

The Bees were having a blast at rehearsal, flinging sharp repartee between instrument sections, grinning when they nailed it, working out disagreements affably.

Although many maintain grayer goatees, most haven't changed much over the years.

"One of the things I noticed right away is that hardly anybody has changed at all. Maurice is so much the same," Murphy said. "Joe [Demko, guitarist] has changed a lot. He was the guy with the hair down to his ass. Now he's a responsible working person. He's worked the sound for Channel 2 for 25 years. Howard [Merriweather, drummer] has always been one of the sweetest people I ever knew, and he's still that way."

Jacox continues to perform and sing with a few local bands. Saxophonist Eugene Hoffman is retired from his work as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor. Many of the Bees have day jobs, but they all are excited about performing together again — especially Murphy.

"I still sing all the time," said the frontman, 70, who has recovered from a stroke suffered a few years ago. "I don't have the range I used to. I have chronic sinus congestion. So if I get my head clear, I'm pretty good."

But the veteran guitarist/bassist/keyboardist, who produced Bonnie Raitt's 1971 debut and fronts the Angel-Headed Hipsters, is being invigorated by preparing for this reunion.

"It's a double-edged sword," he said. "It's driving me crazy, I'm getting very little sleep and yet I'm energized."

Cyn Collins is a Minneapolis writer and musician.