Louis A. McCall
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| LOUIS A. McCALL | ||
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 Drummer/Co-Founder of CON FUNK SHUN
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| Background information | ||
| Born | December 28, 1951 | |
| Origin | Alameda, California | |
| Died | June 25, 1997 | |
| Genre(s) | R&B, Funk | |
| Occupation(s) | Drummer, Vocalist Marketing | |
| Instrument(s) | Drums, Percussion | |
| Years active | 1973—1997 | |
| Label(s) | Freetone Mercury |
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| Former members | ||
| Michael V. Cooper, Karl Fuller, Paul Harrell, Cedric A. Martin, Louis A. McCall, Felton Pilate, Danny Thomas | ||
Louis Anthony McCall, (born December 28, 1951 in Alameda, California), was the drummer and co-founder of Mercury Records recording group, Con Funk Shun, a popular R&B and funk band in the 1970s and 1980s. The band recorded 11 albums with Mercury, five of them RIAA-certified gold albums. In addition, Louis provided the "back beat" on numerous Top 40 singles. He was murdered on June 25, 1997 during a home invasion robbery in Stone Mountain, Georgia. His wife of over 20 years and the mother of his two children is music industry consultant and songwriter Linda Lou McCall.
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[edit] Early years
Louis Anthony McCall was born in Alameda, California on December 28, 1951 to Mary Thelma McCall (née Whitlock) and Emanual K. McCall. Louis, known as "Tony" to his friends and family, was the second of five children born to the couple. His grandmother, Florise Rochon Whitlock was born in New Iberia, LA where the family, Créole farmers, still own a large sugar plantation.
While still a young child, Louis moved with his family to Vallejo, California. His father, a former merchant marine, went into law enforcement and became the first African-American deputy sheriff with the Contra Costa (CA) Sheriff's Department. As a young teenager, Louis started playing drums. He then joined forces with classmate, Michael V. Cooper, to form what would become one of the most popular R&B and funk bands of the 1970s and 1980s, Con Funk Shun.
[edit] Early career
Con Funk Shun left Vallejo in 1973 to become a studio band at the legendary Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. On weekends, the group honed its talent by performing in clubs and at colleges all over the mid-south. Their summers were spent performing in clubs in Tokyo, Japan or at home in the Bay Area.
In 1975, they came to the attention of Mercury Records A&R director, Jud Phillips who signed them to a major recording contract. In January 1976, Louis married Linda Lou Bolden (Linda Lou McCall), whom he had met when she was a publicist at Stax. Later that year, his first album, "Con Funk Shun", was released later that year. It was followed by "Secrets", the first of the group's 5 RIAA-certified gold albums. The group returned home to Vallejo in February 1978. Louis and his wife booked the bands first major tour, opening for Rose Royce and L.T.D. They performed 40 shows from November 1977 until February 1978 where they made their first major performance at the Oakland Coliseum in front of 18,000 people. It was a great homecoming for the band.
Louis recorded a total of 11 albums with the Con Funk Shun which spawned numerous Top 40 and Top Soul Singles, including the "#1 With A Bullet” Billboard Soul charts hit "Ffun". The group’s other singles included "Love’s Train", "Straight From the Heart", "Chase Me", "I'm Leaving, Baby" and "Shake & Dance With Me". In addition to adding background vocals, Louis co-wrote several songs with his wife, Linda Lou McCall, including the very popular "California 1", "Welcome Back To Love", "Honey Wild", and the Billboard Top 20 R&B Single "Bad Lady". Con Funk Shun continued touring extensively throughout the U.S. well into the 1980s, opening, supporting and headlining for such acts as the O'Jays, Commodores, Teddy Pendergrass, The Bar-Kays, Cameo, The Gap Band, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Rick James. The act also appeared on "Soul Train", "Solid Gold", and Don Kirshner's "Midnight Special". Louis honed his negotiating skills by negotiated some of the band's most lucrative performances, including standing-room only performances at the old Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, CA.
[edit] Career change
Con Funk Shun was forced to disband in 1986 after the band's two lead singers left to pursue solo careers. Always the businessman, Louis decided to explore other ventures in the music industry. He and Linda Lou formed McCall & Associates Entertainment while living in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The company specialized in artist management and development. In 1990, Louis and Linda Lou relocated their family back to Oakland when she became an executive with MC Hammer's record company, Bust It Records. While living in Fremont, California, Louis was responsible for putting together the team which designed the sound system in Hammer’s multi-million Fremont home. He also produced a 1992 benefit show at San Francisco's prestigious Fairmont Hotel for actors Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, which raised funds for Mr. Glover’s then-wife’s San Francisco art studio. He had such renowned artists as Dionne Warwick and Sinbad performing, and the guest list included actors Kevin Costner, Howard Hessman, and Gary Busey.
Photo by Amahl Lipkins
In 1994, he and Linda Lou relocated to the Atlanta, Georgia area. There, Louis became the head of the Rhyme Scene Unit, which specialized in street promotion for urban and rap artists in the Atlanta area. The company is a division of The Entertainment Qartel, Inc. (EQartel) formed by Linda Lou in 1992 after the demise of Hammer's music empire. Her streets team were instrumental in the success of the debut albums of R&B songstress Mya, the Black-Eyed Peas, and superstar rapper Eminem. Other clients included Puff Daddy, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, DMX, Ruff Ryders, Faith Evans, Eve, TLC, Usher and Mase.
In spite of his accomplishments in the decade after the break-up of Con Funk Shun, he and most of the original band were blindsided by a move of former lead singer/guitarist Michael Cooper in 1993. Cooper had left the band in 1986 in pursuit of a solo career, declaring that he wanted "to put Con Funk Shun behind him". However, in the subsequent seven years, Cooper managed only a few solo moderately successful singles with Warner Bros. Records, unable to match his prior hitmaking skills as part of Con Funk Shun. Fans who came to his shows demanded that his band perform his Mercury Records hits like "Ffun" and "Love's Train". By 1993 he figured out that he could market himself better if he performed as Con Funk Shun. Soliciting Felton Pilate, who had achieved great success in the early '90s with rap megastar M.C. Hammer, Cooper put together a group of young fresh musicians and booked gigs with the Con Funk Shun moniker. Co-founder Louis and band members Cedric Martin, Danny Thomas, Paul Harrell and Karl Fuller were stunned by Cooper's treachery. Hadn't he abandoned Con Funk Shun to go out on his own - now he was back, in need of the legacy which he claimed he could do without. With his reconstituted band of unknowns, he could finally be a controlling "monarch", something he was unable to do to the members of Con Funk Shun. In 1996, Cooper and his crew appeared in at a small club right around the corner from the McCall's home in Stone Mountain, Georgia and didn't bother to give them a call. His wife states that Louis was devastated. "Even though he had made the successful transition into event planning and hip-hop, while Cooper was still doing "old school", Louis probably would have remained with that band forever, preferably in management."
[edit] His murder and ongoing investigation
Louis and Linda Lou had moved to the South from Los Angeles in search of a safer place to raise their two children. However, in a tragic and ironic twist of fate, Linda Lou got a call shortly before midnight on June 25, 1997 stating that Louis may have been shot during robbery at the Stone Mountain apartment of an acquaintance. Frantic and not knowing what else to do, Linda Lou contacted her friend Amahl Lipkins, a DeKalb County Senior Crime Scene Investigator, for help. Lipkins went down to the Dekalb County Police Department to find out what he could. An hour later he called her from the morgue. He had made the official identification for her, so that she could use all the strength she could muster to tell their children about the loss of their father. It was just 13 days after Louis' daughter graduated from high school.
Louis' murder remained unsolved for almost 10 years. During that time, Linda Lou has been diligent in her efforts to get the case to trial. She had the case reopened three times, one time after she contacted the Georgia Governor's office complaining about the need for a cold case unit in the states second largest county. DeKalb County has had several major law enforcement agency management upheavals in the years since Louis' death, due in part to still ongoing allegations of corruption which came to national attention following the murder of a newly elected sheriff Derwin Brown orchestrated by his predecessor, Sidney Dorsey in December 2000. For nearly a decade, Linda Lou complained that the only communication she had from DeKalb County in her husband's death was a sympathy card from Dorsey, now serving a life sentence plus 23 years for murder, racketeering and violation of oath of office. However, a new District Attorney, Gwen Keyes Fleming, sworn into office in 2004, believed that the case could be solved based on the dedicated investigation of DeKalb County police detective Lt. Brian Harris, who has worked on the case since 1999.
Finally, on January 18, 2007, a Dekalb County grand jury indicted 28 year-old Marques Clair in the murder. He had been a suspect every since McCall's murder. Unfortunately days after the indictment, Clair held in New Jersey on other charges, escaped from custody. The DeKalb County DA's office claims that it was assured by Essex County, NJ that the suspected killer would be held there until he was extradited back to Georgia. However, DeKalb County never served Clair with the murder arrest warrant so he apparently was released by Essex County on electronic monitoring. It is believed that he found out about the murder indictment from relatives living in the Atlanta area following news clips which aired on January 22, 2007. He promptly cut off the device and fled. DeKalb County did not know that Clair was on the run for almost 3 weeks. He remains at large and the family has been given no other information on the matter. His wife was assured by personal contacts that the U.S. Marshalls and the F.B.I. are now looking for Clair.
[edit] His Legacy
The songs of Con Funk Shun and those written by Louis are still being played today. In addition to recent "Greatest Hits" and "Best of Con Funk Shun" releases, Louis' songs are being sampled by many contemporary artists. Several Con Funk Shun standards have been featured in such full-length movies as "Gone In 60 Seconds" (2000), "Next Friday", and "American Pimp" (1999) which, ironically, featured his childhood best friend John "Rosebudd" Dickson.
His most lasting legacy are his two children with Linda Lou. Only in their teens when their father was taken so violently from them, the are now grown up. In spite of their parents' professions, neither chose to go into the entertainment field. Intensely private and guarded, both his son and his daughter are very successful, articulate, and well-adjusted young people. They look forward to the resolution of their father's murder.
Linda Lou continues in her attempts to preserve the legacy of their children. In addition to writing her autobiography which will give unique insight into this band, she is also writing a book about the band with the group's bass player, Cedric A. Martin.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Organized Con Funk Shun (1973)
- Con Funk Shun (1976)
- Secrets (1977)
- Loveshine (1978)
- Candy (1979)
- Spirit of Love (1980)
- Touch (1980)
- 7 (1981)
- To the Max (1983)
- Fever (1984)
- Electric Lady (1985)
- Burning Love (1988)
[edit] Compilations
- The Best of Con Funk Shun (1993)
- FFUN (1994)
- The Best Of Con Funk Shun, Vol. 2 - (1996)
- Con Funk Shun - Greatest Hits (1998)
- Con Funk Shun - The Ballads Collection (1998)
- The Best of Con Funk Shun - The Millenneum Collection (2002)
- Con Funk Shun - The Collection (2002)
- Con Funk Shun - The Definitive (1996)
