![]() ![]() Check out the artwork and look out for pre-orders as they drop. Zapp VII: Roger & Friends is out on 26th October via Leopard Records. “They genuinely want to make you get up and really dance and just forget about all your troubles, and it comes out through the music.” And I honestly think the secret to Zapp has always its authenticity,” says Lester Troutman Jr, who appears on the record alongside original members Lester Troutman Sr and Terry Troutman. “This group has always been about three things: hook ‘em, get ‘em dancin’ and keep ‘em dancin’. It also contains posthumous performances by Roger himself, pieced together from an early demo tape. Returning for the first time since 2001’s Zapp VI: Back by Popular Demand, new album Zapp VII: Roger & Friends features input from both Snoop Dogg and Bootsy Collins, and sets out to celebrate the legacy of Zapp frontman Roger Troutman, forty years on. The former appeared on the band’s 1980 self-titled debut, which was produced by James Brown and P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins, and has been sampled over 600 times, by hip-hop luminaries like The Notorious B.I.G., Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and Snoop Dogg.Īfter five studio albums, Zapp originally disbanded in 1999, following the deaths of Roger and Larry Troutman in a murder-suicide apparently carried out by Larry outside their Ohio studio. It spawned a litany of monster hits like ‘More Bounce To The Ounce’, ‘Dance Floor’ and quite possibly the greatest slow jam of all time, ‘Computer Love’. Built around four Troutman brothers Roger, Larry, Lester and Terry, Zapp’s trailblazing use of the talk-box was influential in the the development of electro, hip-hop and G-funk. Once I got good at it, I thought it would be an insult to leave.A tribute to Roger Troutman, featuring Bootsy Collins, Tuxedo and Snoop Dogg.įew bands captured the slick sound of late ’70s and ’80s funk quite like Zapp. I grew up here, and everybody put up with me when I was trying to learn to play and learn my craft. Troutman said he never felt any pressure to leave Dayton for the music centers of New York and LA, “because everybody knew that I was committed to this area. Sister Janet Wright is the company’s accountant. The day-to- day business of Troutman Enterprises is overseen by yet another Troutman brother, Rufus. The latter, for which sister Loretta is an electrician, refurbishes inner-city neighborhoods. The company manages the careers of Troutman, Zapp and singer Shirley Murdock and operates a recording studio, limousine service and construction company. On the home front, Troutman and his family have been at the helm of Dayton-based Troutman Enterprises since 1982. And I tried to keep some things current including a rap song and an anti-drug dance number so that young people would be encouraged to buy the album.” I tried to put some blues in it, some heritage stuff from the past for the parents. I put some jazz in the album Unlimited! for the sophisticates in the family. “I always felt that if you make an album, you should try to put something in it that everybody will like. Satisfying yet subtly trying to expand the tastes of the average record buyer is another of Troutman’s goals. He first heard the device used by Stevie Wonder and Peter Frampton. and Regina Belle.īlack/urban radio listeners were introduced to Troutman in 1981 via his debut LP, The Many Facets of Roger, and made a hit of his revved-up cover of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” His startling delivery of the familiar lyrics was facilitated by a synthesized voice box - a tube extending from the singer’s mouth, down a microphone and into a synthesizer. Troutman, whose professional handle is simply Roger, will perform at Walt Disney World’s Valentine Heartbeat party Friday and Saturday along with Tiffany, Expose, Ray Parker Jr. “It’s magic,” Troutman deadpanned, referring directly to the technique he uses to create his trademark sound and indirectly to the mystery of crossover appeal. After nearly 20 years of musicmaking, three solo albums and success on the black/urban charts, he has been discovered by the mainstream. On the wings of a sensuous groove and a distinctive electronic vocal, “I Want to Be Your Man” has swooped to the pop Top 10.Įnjoying the ride are Unlimited!, the funky, jazzy, rocking album bearing the single, and its creator, Roger Troutman.
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