 Interview in person in New York City, October 1977
David Nathan raps with the funky, funky 9-man band who play some pretty arresting music..."
WITHIN the crop of supposedly 'new' groups hitting the charts during this year have been several who have been around for more than a few minutes — people who have, proverbially, paid their dues before reaching what is essentially only the entry into the ball game that the music industry offers, to whit, a recording contract. Because, in these days and times, that's just the beginning for any group or artist.
In amongst the special crop of whom we speak is a nine-member aggregation known as Cameo, who scored heavily on the charts earlier this year with "Rigor Mortis" and are repeating the success with the single, "Funk Funk", taken from their "Cardiac Arrest" album released on Casablanca's Chocolate City label during the summer.
The actual foundation for the group — who basically all hail from the metropolitan New York area — came from the concept of Mr. Larry Blackmon, producer/writer, drummer, guitarist and vocalist with the team.
He explains: "I guess I first came up with the concept for Cameo about four years ago and the idea was for a self-contained unit that wouldn't depend on just one person for its survival. In other words, I envisioned having multi-talented people within the group and that's what we have been striving for."
Aside from that consideration — in itself calling for what can only be called special people — Larry says that a major factor has been the character and personality and general outlook of the people involved.
"Finding people with whom you can relate on different levels, with common objectives, that isn't easy!" Larry assures. "So it hasn't taken us just a few minutes to get that combination together. You have to get to know people and there has to be that spiritual unification and I can't stress enough just how important that really is."
Having come up with a concept, Larry teamed up with Gregory Johnson, a gentleman responsible for Cameo's arrangements as well as keyboard and vocal chores — whom he'd known for about three years prior and the duo began working with different groups, touring the East coast and making it up to Canada too.
"The next guy we met was Tomi Jenkins, one of our lead vocalists and percussionist; and then came Natan Leftenant, our trumpeter, who was playing with Gwen McRae up in Toronto when we met. We'd already known his brother Arnet (saxophone, vocals) and he too joined us. That was around 1975 and of course, in between, we'd had different members of the group.
"In fact, in all, I guess we've been through some eight people besides the line-up we have now. Next came Eric Duram (guitar and vocals) and Wayne Cooper (vocals) and we finally added Gary Dow (bass) last year when Wayne joined. And that's Cameo!"
To Larry, the important objective whilst the group continued as a working act, playing gigs continuously was to secure a record deal.
"Our first release with Casablanca was "Fine My Way" and we'd gotten the deal through our attorney, Sandford Ross (who also happens to take care of Patti Austin, Ralph MacDonald, Miriam Makeba and Eric Gale amongst quite a few others). Well, unfortunately, that first thing didn't do too well. In fact, our line-up has changed even since then, so you could say that it really wasn't representative of what we could do.
"The company naturally seemed somewhat reluctant to do anything else with us after that and then Cecil Holmes, president of Chocolate City, came into New York and heard some of the new material we'd been working on, which was more of what we were really all about. Fortunately, he dug it and we went into the studios, here in New York to record it."
"Rigor Mortis" was the first single to come out from the sessions, in November of last year, with Larry noting "I'd written some of the songs in the summer of '76 and then additional material for completing the album when we actually finished it off."
Larry says he and the group are "satisfied with that first album because it was what the company wanted and we were under pressure. But it's the next one that we're working on now that's going to be the one to really tell people where we're coming from, what we're all about."
He says that what Cameo is all about is "good, emotional music, music that touches people. By emotional music, I mean music that sends those tingles up and down your spine. The kind of stuff that Earth, Wind & Fire, The Emotions or say Grover Washington might do. It's music that's sincere and that's what we're constantly trying to be."
Larry admits that it hasn't been easy to get to the point that Cameo are at right now. "Yes, it's been tough but we know it won't be so tough from here on in, because we know what we're looking to achieve. We've been lucky in building what we think is a good rapport with the company and that's very important.
"What we want as a group is to gain the respect of people through our music, always to enjoy what we're doing and just to be comfortable.
"One thing's for sure, we won't get caught up in that whole 'star' trip. In fact, you'll find that we're all pretty private people. That's something that I think is essential in this business: you have to be a private person, because there are just so many people trying to get in on your act.
"That's also why it took so long for us to come up with what we feel is the right line-up. The qualities we were looking for were simple: people who were pleasant, able to get along with others and basically, people who've experienced a 'group' situation before, who can handle it. It looks like we've got that and it should reflect in our music."
Mr. Blackmon reveals that the group's latest album should be finished any day now and he's feeling very positive and happy about it.
"On top of that, I'll be getting involved in other producing activities. Sure, I enjoy producing but I would say that I haven't become totally proficient in the area yet — it's something that you get from experience and I think we're getting there."
Certainly, Cameo possesses an impressive array of talent in their ranks and "Cardiac Arrest" may well be the name of their first album but the only attacks Cameo have caused have been strictly jumps for joy on the part of people who dig funky, groovin' music everywhere — and ain't nothing wrong with those kind of attacks, right?
About the Writer
David Nathan is the founder and CEO of SoulMusic.com and began his writing career in 1965; beginning in 1967, he was a regular contributor to Blues & Soul magazine in London before relocating to the U.S. in 1975 where he served as U.S. editor for the publication for several decades and began being known as 'The British Ambassador Of Soul.' From 1988 to 2004, he wrote prolifically for Billboard, has penned bios, produced and written liner notes for box sets and reissue CDs for over a thousand projects. He returned to London in 2009 where he has helped create SoulMusic.com Records as a leading reissue label.
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