The Original Slave Ft. Thomas Lockett and Floyd Miller

Second-generation Dayton funk stars The Original Slave formed in Ohio in 1976 around a nucleus of guitarist Mark Hicks, singer and brass man Floyd Miller, bassist Mark Adams, guitarist and singer Danny Webster, and trumpeter Steve Washington, the nephew of pioneering Ohio Players trumpeter Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks. Early on, Floyd came to a band meeting wearing a t-shirt with the word “Slave” on one side and “Master” on the other. Washington, whose family had direct ties to Frederick Douglass and the abolitionist movement, embraced a concept that transformed the term into a message of responsibility and purpose: that everyone carries a responsibility to help make the world a better place. The band’s contribution would be to uplift people through music with healing, meaning, and connection. They called their higher-plane sound not simply funk, but “Fungk” with a “g,” alluding to a spiritual, God-inspired element. The Original Slave exploded onto the scene with its 1977 debut… View Source