When They Was Fab(ulous)
The  Moira / Cotillion / Westbound Recordings of the

L-R Jim White, Andrew Gibson, Leroy Emanuel, Mose Davis, Demo Cates, Raoul Keith Mangrum

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The story of the Fabulous Counts is a fairly typical one. Discovered in their native Detroit, they went on to record four singles (for Moira and Westbound) and one LP (for Cotillion), before evolving into the slightly slicker ‘Counts’ who would record LP’s for Westbound and Aware.

Formed in 1968 by Mose Davis (organ), Leroy Emanuel (guitar), Demo Cates (alto sax), Andrew Gibson (drums), Jim White (tenor sax)  and Raoul Keith Mangrum (percussion), the Fabulous Counts played around Detroit on their own and as a backing band for touring artists.

They recorded their first single for Detroit based Moira records in 1968. ‘Jan Jan’  b/w ‘The Girl From Kenya’ (produced by Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie) is a classic. The single contains all of the trademarks that would make up the bands sound – Davis’s wailing Hammond, the two saxes blaring in unison, Leroy Emanuel’s funky, slightly off-center guitar and the drums hammering underneath. ‘Jan Jan’ is a floor-shaker. It was later covered by Grant Green (with organist Shelton Laster) on his “Live at the Lighthouse’ LP. ‘Jan Jan’ hit #42 on the R&B charts in January of 1969 and stayed on the charts for 5 weeks. ‘The Girl From Kenya’ features one of the few vocals by the band prior to their becoming the Counts. It tells the tale of a fine sister with that ‘natural look, so much rhythm, so much style’. Unfortunately, the LP version of the song drops the vocal track completely making it a far less interesting tune.

The second 45, ‘Dirty Red’ b/w ‘Scrambled Eggs’ is their rarest. ‘Dirty Red’ follows the same template as ‘Jan Jan’ with the horns taking a slightly more prominent place in the mix (White has an especially hot solo in the first half of the song).  ‘Scrambled Eggs’ is more of an organ feature, with Davis (who wrote or co-wrote most of the group’s original material) taking an extended solo.
Their last Moira 45, ‘Get Down People’ b/w ‘Lunar Funk’ is the only of the three Moira 45’s with tracks that do not appear in any form on their Cotillion LP.

 ‘Get Down People’ also contains another rare vocal (though the lyrics never really stray from ‘get down with it’ and ‘show me the way to get down’). It starts out with a weird, high-pitched guitar and sax unison line and breaks into a slow, funky groove. It also features a fiery guitar solo by Emanuel. The tune was also their biggest hit reaching #32 (and riding the charts for 9 weeks) in April of 1970. ‘Lunar Funk’ is a faster moving tune with lots of wah-wah guitar and echo effects in the break.

It's interesting to note that unlike many of their contemporaries, the Fabulous Counts manage to stay away from the influence of the Meters, the premier instrumental funk band of the day. Their sound has a harder, 'city' edge to it and a much more conventional (and often less interesting) approach to funk than the Meters.

The group’s 1969 ‘Jan Jan’ LP for Cotillion (produced by Ollie McLaughlin) contained three of their first four 45 tracks in their original form, as well as the altered version of ‘The Girl From Kenya’.

The rest of the LP is largely composed of covers, including James Brown’s ‘It’s a Mans Mans Mans World’ (which is a great feature for Davis), Sly & The Family Stone’s ‘Sing a Simple Song’ (in a funky but less than inspired version, especially compared to contemporary  - much more powerful - covers by Charles Earland and the Noble Knights) , Young Holt Unlimited’s ‘Soulful Strut’, Johnny Taylor’s ‘Who’s Making Love’ and an interesting take on ‘Hey Jude’. Of the two new originals on the LP, ‘The Bite’ and ‘The Other Thing’, both are fairly formulaic and not up to the quality of ‘Jan Jan’.

They left Cotillion in 1970, and moved to their hometown label Westbound. Their last official act as the ‘Fabulous Counts’ was the killer 45, ‘Rhythm Changes’ b/w ‘Pack of Lies’. ‘Rhythm Changes’ is a funky vocal that is as good as anything in their Moira catalogue. ‘Pack of Lies’ is a Hammond tour de force for Davis. The band sounds as tight as ever, and their sound is more sophisticated.

Sometime between the release of that 45, and their first album on Westbound ‘What’s Up Front That Counts’, they dropped the ‘Fabulous’ from their name and became the Counts. As the years went on, many of the band’s original members left, and the band moved to Atlanta, ending up on Aware records for their last LP, ‘Funk Pump’.

Today, Mose Davis currently plays jazz piano around Atlanta with the Mose Davis Trio.  Leroy Emanuel plays in a funk band called the LMT Connection (jn Canada)  and Demo Cates operates out of Canada as an actor/singer and has appeared as an actor in TV and movies.

The band's Cotillion LP has been reissued, and the first Westbound LP is also in print as a CD. Most of the 45's are fairly easy to find (with the noted exception of 'Dirty Red' / 'Scrambled Eggs') in the $10-$15 range.