93Seven visited the WYSO studios for a live session on Kaleidoscope and talked to music director Juliet Fromholt about their musical history, upcoming releases and more.
The roots of 93Seven go back to the early 1980s and an all-woman band called Hot Number that was eventually honored by the Funk Music Hall of Fame in Dayton.
"[Hot Number] never recorded. We only did cover songs, but we were very, very popular and we traveled all over. So we probably were on the road more then we played here in Dayton. But that's how Donna [Wilborn] and I met," said keyboard player and vocalist Co-Co Matthews.
Matthews, Wilborn and their Hot Number bandmates continue to perform together over the years. Eventually Matthews and Wilborn were joined by Claude Coatie on guitar and bassist Robyn Hackett for an outdoor gig in Dayton.
"Jeremy Mix heard us. He was running the sound, actually, and he said, 'How would you all like to do a recording?' And so he gave us this awesome producer named Ronald 'Pnut' Frost. We put six songs together, and we had some awesome singers on this project Felicia Bibbs, Felicia Jefferson and Shea Butter," said Matthews.
That recording session resulted in 93Seven's current single, "Makin' You Move," a celebration of Dayton's funk heritage and its future. The future of the genre is also alive and well in 93 Seven's latest additions, vocalists Melanie Williams and Ashley Hollingsworth and bass and viola player Anastasia White.
"We're just humbled to be able to still doing this right at our age," said Matthews. "And to be able to share what we know with these young people is definitely a great pleasure."
