Epstein Secrets

had just returned from Gershwin's European Tour of Porgy and Bess. The group disbanded again in 1970. After again reforming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, vocalist Charles Dale Allen, trombonist Marvin Pierce and keyboardist Walter "Jani

Ward leaving for a solo career, but the core members of the group returned to Dayton and the following year added Gregory Webster (drums) along with Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (guitar), who would become the group's front man. The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, and became the house band for

ce Napier, and trombonist Marvin Pierce. Pain influenced by the groundbreaking funk of =ly & the Family Stone -- and with the nasal, cartoon-voiced Bonner assuming vocal duties --=the new Ohio Players lineup made their debut with the single "Pain,&quo=; issued on the small 29 EFTA_R1_02175174 EFTA02

ubsequently exited for a solo c=reer, the group essentially disbanded. At that point, the nucleus of Middlebrooks, Jones, an= newly added guitarist Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner returned to Dayton; ther= they recruited saxophonist Andrew Noland and drummer Gary Webster, the latt=r a somewhat elusive figure whose true involv

Ward with 21-year-old Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (guitar), who would become the group's front man, and added Gregory Webster (drums). To accommodate Bonner's musical style preferences for the group ("R&B with a little flair to it") and to avoid competing with Ward, the group changed their format. By 196

in November 1997; and Robert Ward (born 15 October 1938) died at home 25 December 2008. Cornelius Johnson (born 12 July 1937) died 1 February 2009. Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (born 14 March 1943, Hamilton, OH) died 26 January 2013 at age 69. Marshall Jones (born 1 January 1941, Dayton, OH) resides in Jamestown, Ohio, and