Essence of Motown

When an audience comes to see a performance by “Larry Johnson’s Essence of Motown”, “Elements (an Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band),” “A Temptations Revue featuring Grammy Award Winner Barrington ‘Bo’ Henderson,” “Can’t Get Next To You” & “Theo People’s ‪Four Tops‬ Revue”, the audience will see polished, professional looking performers dressed in sequined jackets and rhinestone shoes, and experience the witnessing of the actual authentic choreography that the “Temptations” actually performed on stage (which is what I believe is one of our biggest selling points), taught to Larry Johnson by Ollie Wilson and Richard Street who were actual former members of the “Temptations”, which was in turn taught by Larry Johnson himself to myself and all other members of Larry Johnson’s Essence of Motown which consists of Michael White (myself), Greg Woods and Garry Samms. The group also periodically features Didi McFadden, Stephanie Grace and Candy Rivers, the female members of the group. When we all perform together as a group, the crowd goes wild, starts dancing in the isles and even in their seats, gives us standing ovations, calls us back on the stage for an encore and we always get called back to do multiple shows frequently. We all love what we do and we do our very best to make it show!

The Musical Biography of Michael White

Michael White was born in November of 1968 in the Bronx, New York from the parents of Mr. & Mrs. George and Sharon White. Michael grew up with his younger brother Troy, whom is also quite well known in his own right in New York as a professional entertainer. In the early 70’s, Michael and his family moved to Fredrick Douglas Housing, a government project located in uptown Manhattan on the outskirts of Harlem. As Michael was growing up, he and his brother benefited from being in a line of very musically talented relatives who passed on their musical knowledge from generation to generation. Michael received his musical education as he listened to and learned from his very talented mother, Sharon White, whom has a very impressive musical resume as well, including cutting a record when she was only 16 years of age (Sharon Robbins at the time) called, “The Rio” and “Good Gracious Baby” on the flip side, which both happened to feature background vocals by “‪The Romantics‬” of the singing group, “Ruby & ‪the Romantics‬” and produced by none other than world renowned famous musical producer, Mr. ‪Quincy Jones‬. Michael’s grandfather, Clarence “Earl” Robbins, was also a recording artist in the mid 50’s and had many singles on the charts in Billboard Magazine. In Michael’s adolescent years, he and his brother pursued a musical career as they joined a young R&B singing group called, “Impact” which was managed by Mr. Jerry Roebuck who later became president of “Black Expo” in New York City. In the mid 80’s, Impact landed a record deal with world famous, “Motown Records” which unfortunately fell through due to contractual disagreements. The members of Impact eventually went their separate ways, but shortly after decided to form another group still containing some of the same members and also adding some new ones and called themselves, “Prestige.” At one point during their venture to land a record deal, Prestige was managed by Vaughn Harper, a DJ from WBLS, 107.5 FM in New York City, who was the host of his own radio show called, “The Quiet Storm.”  Prestige received a lot of interest from major record companies including MCA, Mercury, Polydor and others and worked with well-known recording artists and producers including Mtume (written and produced hit songs for famous recording artist like Donnie Hathaway, ‪Roberta Flack‬, ‪Stephanie Mills‬ & Tawatha), Ted Mills (the lead singer of Blue Magic), Mark Stevens (Chaka Kahn’s brother), Cuba Gooding from the Main Ingredient (who was the father of the famous actor, Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Bobby Robbinson (who worked worked with ‪Gladys Knight‬ & the Pips at the beginning of their career), Jessie D. from the Force MD’s and many others. Prestige also caught the interest of Dianna Ross, who was starting her own record company at the time but unfortunately she was very hard to get a hold of due to her very hectic schedule. Prestige eventually went their separate ways for a brief period of time and later formed another group with a couple of new members and called themselves, “O.D. Square.” O.D. Square was managed by, “Kadar Productions”, which also managed such artists as, “Ericka Badu” and, “D’Angelo.” In 1995, Michael’s employer, Mutual of America, relocated him to Boca Raton, Florida. While in Florida, Michael became popular on the South Florida Doo-Wop circuit as a result of joining Doo-Wop groups by the names of: “The New York Connection,” “Four of a Kind” and “Joey Dale & the Gigolos,” and performed in shows with legendary Doo-Wop groups such as, “‪The Coasters‬,” a member of, “The Platters” and became good friends with Bobby Rush, a former member of “‪Sha-Na-Na‬.” For a brief short period of time, Michael left the secular entertainment world and decided that it was time to start singing for God and joined his church choir at the Church of All Nations in Boca Raton, Florida. Shortly after joining the choir, Michael made the praise team, and was asked to perform a few solos as well. It was in the choir where Michael met Rodney Murphy, who was one of the musicians for the choir. A friendship formed between them and as a result, Rodney offered Michael a contract to record a Christian CD titled, “You Are Love” for his independent Christian record company called, “7 Days Records, Inc.” Infortunately, due to ‪the record company‬ not wanting any of their Christian artists singing in bars, which Michael was doing on a regular basis with Joey & the Gigolos at the time, Michael was eventually released from his contract. Michael eventually became a member of “Motown in Motion featuring Larry Johnson (a Joey Dale Production),” “Larry Johnson’s Essence of Motown,” “Elements (an Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band),” “A Temptations Revue featuring Grammy Award Winner Barrington ‘Bo’ Henderson,” “Can’t Get Next To You” & “Theo People’s ‪Four Tops‬ Revue.”

Larry Johnson can answer this question better than I can. I will provide his contact information if you’d like.