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

(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 the New York based Compass Records for Vocalist Helena Ferguson Kilpatrick in 1967 who had just returned from Gershwi

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

as = founding Untouchable, others even as the band's early leader. In =ny case, by 1967, with the subsequent addition of singers Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, the newly rechriste=ed Ohio Players were signed as the house band for the New York-based Compass Records, backing singer Helena Ferguson on her lon

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

-perceptions as musicians and as ladies' men. liPage of 5 EFTA_R1_02175191 EFTA02719170 The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, and became the house band for the New York-based Compass Records. In 1967, they added vocalist Helena Ferguson Kilpatrick, who had just returned f