Morris Day & the Time at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center -- September 22.
Friday, September 22, 8 p.m.
Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
Having carved out a sizable cult following over the past four decades as purveyors of catchy, contagious, multilayered funk, Morris Day & the Time bring their national tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on September 22, the famed funksters deliver an 'in the flesh' flavor that keeps generations of fans flapping their limbs to "The Bird" and grooving to "Girl."
Founded in Minneapolis in 1981, Morris Day & the Time contributed to the development of the Minneapolis sound -- an eclectic fusion of funk, R&B, new wave, synth-pop, and dance. Led by singer/songwriter Day, the band members are known for having been close associates of musician Prince, and are arguably the most successful artists who ever worked with the artist, achieving success with singles such as "Get It Up," "Cool," "777-9311," "Jungle Love," and "Jerk Out." The Time was assembled under a clause in Prince's contract with Warner Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other talents for the label. Inspired by 1980's The Idolmaker, a Golden Globe-winning musical drama about a rock promoter, Prince decided to put together a pop-funk group that would serve as an outlet for material in the vein of his own early albums, while he explored other genres and styles in his own career.
By 1981, Prince had built The Time out of the existing Minneapolis funk/R&B unit Flyte Tyme, which featured Cynthia Johnson on lead vocals and sax, Anton (Tony) Johnson on guitar, David Eiland on saxophone, Jellybean Johnson on drums, Jimmy Jam and Monte Moir on keyboards, and Terry Lewis on bass. To the last four were added Jesse Johnson on guitar and a lead singer and childhood friend named Morris Day, who would later garner additional acclaim for providing the inspiration for the Viz comic strip character "Morris Day, Sexual Pervert", as well as Jerome Benton, who was a promoter drawn from another local band called Enterprise, and who became Day's comic foil.
The band went on to release five funk albums, generally light and humorous in tone, that were strongly influenced by Funkadelic, Parliament, James Brown, and Sly Stone. Among their biggest successes are 1982's What Time Is It? (featuring the hits "777-9311," "Wild and Loose," "Walk," and "Gigolos Get Lonely, Too") and 1984's Ice Cream Castle (which includes the hit "Jungle Love"). But all five of Morris Day & the Time's studio albums landed on the top 10 of Billboard's U.S. R&B chart, with 1990's Pandemonium also a smash in the United Kingdom that boasted the U.S. Billboard chart-topper "Jerk Out."
Morris Day & the Time play Davenport's Event Center engagement on September 22, admission to the 8 p.m. concert event is $35-65, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)328-8000 and visiting RhythmCityCasino.com.
