Nick Berard
Joey Banks, who’s performed professionally since he was 16, keeps an impressive — some might say impossible — schedule of playing in nine different bands, including funk/rock hybrid the Big Payback and cover band Steely Dane.
The 51-year-old drummer also gives private lessons to almost 30 students, manages a handful of artists and is the director of the youth performance group Black Star Drum Line, which performs during Milwaukee Bucks games. Banks has been nominated twice for Grammy Awards.
Despite the hectic juggling of obligations, including plenty of late nights and travel, he wouldn’t change a thing.
“I’m probably playing the best I’ve ever played in my life right now,” Banks says. “People are still calling me and I’m still turning them away, so I’ve got to be doing something right.”
After getting his first drum set when he was 6, his interest in drumming truly began to take hold when he was 9 and his grandmother enrolled him in the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. “The drums make everybody move,” he says. “We’re the only ones who can get everybody on the dance floor. The drummer has everybody clapping and has everybody synced up — it’s power.”
Banks says one encounter with a drumming idol early on in his career let him know he was on the right path.
“The very first time Clyde Stubblefield saw me play, he told me, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing; it sounds good,’” Banks recalls of the time he met Stubblefield some 35 years ago at what was then the dark and smoky Club de Wash. Banks’ relationship with Stubblefield blossomed after that initial encounter: “He’s been a mentor, a father figure.”
Clyde Stubblefield (left) and Joey Banks first met at the Club de Wash 35 years ago.
Stubblefield — aka the Funky Drummer — played for James Brown during the 1960s, creating the grooves on many of Brown’s biggest hits and laying the foundation for modern funk drumming. He’s best known for the beat on tracks like “Cold Sweat,”, “I Got The Feelin’,” “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “Ain’t It Funky Now” and “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” and the album Sex Machine.
Stubblefield also created the rhythm pattern — which earned him his nickname — on Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” one of the most-sampled beats ever. It’s been used dozens of times by rap artists including Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., N.W.A, Raekwon, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys as well as artists in other genres, including Prince.
Banks has learned a lot from studying Stubblefield’s techniques. “I’ve been fortunate to observe him up close and share the stage with him. I have a very unique view of his playing style and technique,” says Banks. “I take what I’ve learned from watching him over the years and translate that into educational models that I can use to teach my students.”
Over the years, Banks has repaid Stubblefield’s influence and encouragement in a number of ways, including organizing the Coalition for Recognition of Clyde Stubblefield, which has created a youth scholarship in Stubblefield’s name with the Madison Area Music Awards. The group is also campaigning to get the legendary drummer inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and is planning a number of recognition shows, including one coming up in May, to promote Stubblefield’s contributions to music.
“For everything he’s done for drumming, for the industry, he deserves that and more,” says Banks. “I owe it to him.”
Banks also directs the Clyde Stubblefield All-Star Band, a group of regionally and nationally known musicians who come together monthly for “Funky Monday” at the High Noon Saloon to jam and raise money for the Stubblefield scholarship. The All-Stars have recently released a CD from a live taping of a show that will also benefit the scholarship.
During the All-Star gigs, the two men play in tandem, and “[Stubblefield] tells me all the time that this is the most fun he’s had playing with another drummer,” says Banks. “That’s probably the highest compliment I could get.”
At 73, Stubblefield has experienced some serious health issues, including bladder cancer that required chemotherapy (Prince helped pay off his medical bills). He also lost a thumb after burning it during a cooking accident. For the past few years, he’s received dialysis treatment three times a week for kidney failure.
He’s become a man of few words, but has just a few choice ones to share about Banks.
“I haven’t taught him anything — he taught himself,” says Stubblefield. “He’s a great drummer. That’s all I know.”
Banks feels differently. “Without his encouragement early in my career I might not have worked as hard as I did,” he says, adding that Stubblefield’s compliments keep coming. “When something like that comes from him, I don’t really care what anyone else says.” n
The next “Funky Monday” show is a special Fat Tuesday edition featuring Clyde Stubblefield All-Star Band, Feb. 27, 6 pm, at the High Noon Saloon.
