RIP Bernie Worrell

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    Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 22:16
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  • The founding Parliament-Funkadelic member has succumbed to lung cancer at 72.
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  • Bernie Worrell has died at the age of 72. The New Jersey native was a founding member of the funk group Parliament-Funkadelic, known for his game-changing synthesizer work. Worrell, whose instrument of choice in the George Clinton-led band was the Minimoog, showed immense promise as a child. He started learning the piano at three, wrote his first concerto at eight and performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at ten. The Asbury Park Press printed the following quote from Clinton: "He was a phenom at 14 years old, he was a phenomenal kid, he could play the organ already—(akin to organ greats) Jimmy Smith and (Jack) McDuff—he could do that stuff when he was 15, 16-years old." Worrell described the start of Parliament-Funkadelic casually, saying "we were just funking around for fun, we were glad to be on the road playing and when we weren’t on the road, we were in the studio making all those albums that are out there now." The bold synthesizer work on Parliament hits like "Flash Light," "prefigured everything from rap and hip-hop to techno and alternative," says NPR. Derrick May himself credits the group as instrumental to the invention of techno. An oft-used quote has him saying the Detroit sound was like "George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company." Over the years, Worrell worked closely with the Talking Heads, appearing in the 1984 film on the band, Stop Making Sense. He also worked with Fela Kuti, Fred Schneider and Albert King, among many others. Worrell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 alongside the other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Worrell was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in January. An NYC benefit concert held in April had Clinton and Bootsy Collins appearing in support of Worrell along with Meryl Streep and Questlove. Worrell's wife, Judie, announced his passing earlier today via Facebook.
RA