his neighborhood playing in talent shows and any other
place they could play. Now in high school, Curt and his
band started playing in nightclubs going up and down
the east coast including New York, New Jersey, Virginia,
and other states. Curt, along with his friend Brian
Stevens (percussions), Craig Dobson (guitarist), and
other friends that lived down the street from him
formed a band called The Midnight Movement. The
band also consisted of Johnny on drums and Jones and
Brian mostly sang lead. They created a small buzz by
doing talent shows. However, it didn’t take long for the
group to find themselves having creative differences.
Curt and some members started another group called
Symphonic Express. They were an all-male group at
first, then they added a couple of female vocalists.
Jones recalled his aunt Penny who was a member of the
Davenport sisters checking them out and began to work
with the group. She helped develop them as all around
entertainers. The band was very grateful. One of the
girls dropped out so his Aunt Penny let Curt know that
she had a conversation with one of her co-workers who
told her that she had a younger sister who could sing.
Curt relayed a message through his aunt for the young
girl to come audition for the group.
The young lady arrived to audition and sang
“Inseparable” by the late Natalie Cole. The members
were impressed by her voice. The young singer was
Starleana Young who was gorgeous and also worked
with Curt for years to come (I will elaborate later on).
Two years after working together, his Aunt met Stevie
Washington who was a trumpeter and had him come
down to one of their rehearsals. Stevie, who had years
of knowledge in the business as he was already in an up
and coming group called Slave was impressed and
offered to work with the group. In the process, Slave
had a record deal they were trying to finalize.
Stevie let Curt know about Slave and their origin which
was Dayton, Ohio. Also, Stevie’s uncle played in the
legendary funk and r & b band The Ohio Players.
Stevie’s uncle was in a bad automobile accident that
knocked out his teeth and couldn’t play the trumpet so
he substituted for his uncle as trumpeter. At one of
Symphonic Express’ rehearsals, Stevie let them know
that Slave’s contract was finalized and had to leave
immediately to go mix and master the songs for their
debut album on Cotillion Records. A few days later,
Stevie came to visit the group, asked Curt to come
upstairs, and played their first released single, “Slide”.
Curt was thoroughly impressed. Slave blew up and
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became one of the most popular funk bands in history.
When Stevie wasn’t on the road with Slave, he would still
stop by to help out Curt and his band by coming to their
shows and using Slave’s band equipment to show their
audience that he was behind them. The group changed
their name to Starchild for about a year until their bass
player left, so the group disbanded. Washington had
asked Starleana and her sister prior to do some vocal
work with Slave. Although Curt was asked to join as well,
he turned Stevie down as Starchild was his priority.
One day while at work, Curt received a call from Stevie
who invited him to his house and gave him an offer yet
again to join Slave. Curt didn’t turn him down this time.
Also, in this meeting Stevie let Curt know that his desire
was to obtain multiple record deals for the talented
artists he had been working with, including him,
Starleana, and Steve Arrington (drummer/percussionst).
Jones and Young only wrote and recorded with the group
not signing contracts so they could have the freedom to
sign their own deals with different labels.
They went on to record, “Just a Touch of Love” that was
released in 1979, which was a Top Ten hit and one of
Slave’s biggest hit songs. The duo also wrote and
recorded on Slave’s 1980 hit album, “Stone Jam” which
spawned Top Ten hits “Watching You” and “Snap Shot”.
With the success of the album, Slave along with Jones
went on the road for nine months doings countless
shows. Curt got to make production decisions with the
legendary Hitmaker, Jimmy Douglass who worked with
Atlantic Records for many years making hits for Aretha
Franklin, Chaka Khan, Foreigner, Timbaland & Missy
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