I Want to Take You Higher_ The Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone - Jeff Kaliss [18]
"Freddie loved me," reflects Greg. "He was totally confident, he didn't look at color, he didn't look at age, none of that." Greg himself is modest about assessing his early worth, other than to say, "I did have very good ears, and I was musical as a drummer." His older brother, Mario Errico, who later became one of Sly's trusted lieutenants, is more forthcoming about what the brothers Stewart must have liked about Greg: "It was the way he played, for a white boy. He was funky, and he had this backbeat. They used to call him `Hands-and-Feet: I was proud as hell that my brother could play."
Greg and Mario's parents, Italian Americans who'd raised their sons to respect financial security and their imported 78-rpm recordings of Italian opera and popular music, were skeptical about their younger son's ambitions. "I said to Greg, `I don't understand this,"' remembers Jo Errico, now in her mid-eighties. "And he said, `Mom, you just wait. One day, you're gonna hear things I've played on, on the radio, and you're gonna maybe see me on television. And we did! You had to give it to him; he pursued his dream."
Back in '66, the dream meant a booking with Freddie and the Stone Souls at Little Bo Peep's in the Excelsior, uniformed in slacks, shirts, and vests, backing such visiting acts as the Coasters when not performing covers of Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, and other pop-oriented soul material. Freddie was developing a tight rhythmic finesse, chopping out a crisp sixteenth-note chord style in the manner of James Brown band member Jimmy Nolen. Freddie's lead forays, though brief and economical, were executed with precision and taste on a variety of classy guitars, including the Fender Jazzmaster, Telecaster, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul, andunusual for the time-a semi-acoustic (hollow body) Gibson Byrdland. He'd never attain the status of a Clapton or Hendrix, but forty years later, Freddie was remembered by fans and rock writers as one of the Bay Area's influential guitar greats.
Back in April of '66, Freddie's group had earned a booking by former San Francisco Mime Troupe manager Bill Graham (the soon-to-be heavy-hitting rock impresario and godfather of the San Francisco sound) at a hall he'd been using, the Fillmore Auditorium, just west of San Francisco's Civic Center.
Meanwhile, Sly, after working with groups like the Continentals and the Mojo Men, formed the Stoners. (By this time, he'd adopted the surname "Stone" on-air). This group included Cynthia Robinson, a high-powered female trumpeter with a spunky stage presence, whom Sly had encountered on visits to Sacramento. Years later, Sly credited Jerry Martini with inspiring his formation of the Family Stone, an attribution which Jerry still cherishes. What's clear is that Jerry, on those visits to KSOL, began urging his musical friend to get off the air and on to a career with a new band. Sly was reportedly less than satisfied with his old group and wanted to form a new ensemble, while bandmate Cynthia just quit the Stoners in frustration. Looking ahead together, Sly and Cynthia checked out Larry Graham, a keyboardist and guitarist who had taken up the bass.
Like Sly, Larry was originally from Texas but had relocated as a toddler to Oakland, California, with his family. He'd drummed in his school band and had begun his musical career per se playing guitar, inspired by bluesmen like Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and had even sat in with a visiting Ike and Tina Turner. When Sly first heard him, Larry was gigging with his mother, Dell, a singer and pianist. That act had shrunk from a trio to a duo, requiring Larry to man both the organ and the guitar. When the organ broke down and the act still needed low registers, the resourceful Larry rented a St. George electric bass guitar to fill in. "I wasn't interested in learning the so-called correct overhand style of playing bass, because in my head I was going back to