For a young musician in New Orleans, the home base for funk legends like The Meters and the Neville Brothers, standing out from the crowd can’t be easy, even for someone as big as Sammie Williams.
Yet somehow, at age 18, Williams, who left the basketball court for his middle-school marching band, found his way into the ranks of another seminal Big Easy outfit, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
“Once I got into the music scene, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was definitely my main influence,” he said. “The Dirty Dozen was my band, and I wanted to play like them.”
During his four years as a trombonist with the Dozen, Williams, 28, simultaneously was developing his own brand of “urban funk” that became a side project, Funky Nation. In 2004, he broke away from the Dozen to focus full-time on his own music.
Unlike his peers, many of whom emulated the sound of classic New Orleans funk, Willilams said he honored the genre’s roots while adding his own spin.
“I … made sure I showed myself and what I saw myself as,” he said. “It’s cool to be inspired by (those artists), but you don’t need to copy them beat for beat, word for word, note for note.”
This new take, along with Williams’ engaging personality as frontman, pushed Funky Nation to the forefront of the N’awlins music scene, eventually earning it a Big Easy Music Award for Best Funk Band in 2008.
Tonight, Big Sam and Funky Nation will kick off the first night of this year’s Nightfall Concert Series at Miller Plaza.
Even in the unlikely event that no one shows up, Williams, the self-proclaimed “king of the party,” said he’ll show the Scenic City a good time.
“I do what I feel coming from New Orleans, and luckily that’s all I need to do,” he said. “It just so happens that, when we start playing, people feel this vibe that they can’t resist, and they start dancing.”
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.bigsamsfunkynation.com
IF YOU GO
* What: Big Sam’s Funky Nation at Nightfall.
* When: 8 p.m. tonight; The Micks open at 7.
* Where: Miller Plaza, corner of M.L. King Boulevard, Market and Cherry streets.
* Admission: Free.
* Phone: 265-0771.
* Venue website: www.nightfallchattanooga.com.
* Related links at fyi.timesfreepress.com.
OPENING ACT
The Micks are a Chattanooga party band that plays shag, funk, R&B and rock from the 1950s to the present, “anything that gets everybody moving,” says their website, themicks.net. Members are Joe Logan (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Derrick Couch (bass, guitar, vocals), Dennis Brown (guitar and vocals) and Rob Waters (drums and percussion).
QUOTE
“I still do jams with them whenever they play around town. We’re like a family. It’s like (Dirty Dozen founding member) Roger Lewis told me, ‘Once you’re a Dozen, you’re always a Dozen.’ ” — Sammie “Big Sam” Williams, on his relationship with his former bandmates in the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
AWARDS
* 2009: Big Easy Music Award: Best Funk Band of 2008
* 2009: Where Y’at Magazine’s Best of the Big Easy’s Reader’s Pick: Best R&B Band
* 2009: Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship
DISCOGRAPHY
2010: “King of the Party”
2008: “Peace, Love and Understanding”
2006: “Take Me Back”
2003: “Birth of a Nation”