O Jays

It was a special night at the sold-out Shubert Theater last night. Especially familial, especially romantic, especially sappy and especially soulful. The occasion was the first of six "Family Affair" shows this weekend by the father and son R & B acts, the O'Jays and LeVert. Eddie LeVert, lead singer of classic soulsters the O'Jays, is proud papa of Gerald and Sean, two- thirds of LeVert, a slick pop group that walks a commercially effective line between lush, "Quiet Storm" ballads and credibly funky urban dance tracks.

Who's backstabbing who? Last week, the O'Jays, the R&B group whose 1970s signature hits included "For the Love of Money," "Back Stabbers," and "I Love Music," sued Philadelphia International Records and its owners, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, accusing them of theft, larceny and misappropriation of royalties. Yesterday, Gamble and Huff said that they're the ones who are, in effect, being stabbed in the back. In a statement released by their public relations firm, Gamble and Huff responded to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, in which O'Jays founders Eddie Levert Sr. and Walter Williams claim that the record company failed to comply with a 2006 court-ordered agreement to pay them royalties.

The O'Jays are singing a new tune in federal court, claiming that the fathers of the Philly Sound are "Back Stabbers. " In a suit filed Friday, the O'Jays, who scored massive R&B hits in the mid-1970s with "For the Love of Money," "Used to Be My Girl," and "Love Train," accuse Philadelphia International Records, producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and others of theft, larceny, and misappropriation of royalties. The suit demands $3 million for back payments and punitive damages.

Philly Soul pioneers the O'Jays have lost a battle on their home turf. On April 2, O'Jays founding members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams filed a suit to stop their former label, Philadelphia International Records, from distributing a new album of unreleased tracks the group recorded in the early 1980s. They said they didn't want the label to cash in on songs that were "stale and artistically inferior. " But U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick has lifted the injunction, saying a contract the group signed in 1979 gave the label the right to release Together We Are One. The company had distributed 54,000 copies of Together when the singers sued.

JO-JO TYNES would go into a nightclub, toss back a Mistic fruit drink or just plain water and hit the dance floor. "He loved to have fun," said his fiancee, Kim Oliver. "Everybody loved him. He'd go into a club and people would say, 'Here's Jo-Jo!' He loved people. He loved to dance. " Joseph Tynes, known to everybody as Jo-Jo, worked with a number of musicians and musical groups as stage manager and general factotum, including Teddy Pendergrass, the O'Jays and the Three Degrees, traveling around the country and overseas.

When the O'Jays signed with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's new Philadelphia International Records label in 1972, their goal was to hit the big time. As it turned out, the trio went far beyond their gold records to enrich the rhythm-and-blues landscape by helping create a legacy - the Sound of Philadelphia. And now, three decades after singing such classics as "Back Stabbers" and "Love Train" - and after four years of falling short in voting by fellow performers - the O'Jays will become the first Philly International artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Father and son Eddie and Gerald Levert performed an energetic and highly entertaining show Wednesday evening at the Valley Forge Music Fair. In the first of a two-night stand, the duo converted the stage into a pulpit and performed as high priests of good old-fashioned R&B and soul. The best rhythm and blues contains elements of sexual innuendo and old-time gospel and a whopping dose of boogie fever, and this was no exception. Touring to promote Father & Son, their first album of duets, the Leverts kept the audience on its feet and the women rushing the stage every time Gerald gyrated his hips.

There are no fisticuffs between aging members of a famous Motown vocal group in The Fighting Temptations, although several of the original O'Jays do show up to belt a few rousing gospel numbers. A woefully thin and pointless musical comedy boasting the no-chemistry coupling of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonc? Knowles, The Fighting Temptations is about a church choir in the small-town South making its way to a national gospel music competition under the questionable leadership of a jive, fast-talkin' former native son. That would be Gooding's character, Darrin Hill, who loses his job as a midlevel executive at a New York advertising agency and returns home to Monte Carlo, Ga., to claim his inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.

Philly music will never lose its soul, but the R&B community carries a heavy heart after recording artist and composer Gene McFadden lost his battle with lung and liver cancer yesterday. Best known for the 1979 hit "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," which became a Philadelphia sports anthem, Mr. McFadden, 56, died in his Mount Airy home of 15 years at 3:30 a.m. A graduate of Addison High School in North Philadelphia, Mr. McFadden was half of the hit-making duo McFadden and Whitehead.

Eddie Levert steps onto the stage. O?Jays front man . . . a gospel growl that makes Michael Bolton sound like Shirley Temple . . . Those sweaty parties in the basement . . . "Start a love train, love train. " His son, Gerald Levert, joins him. Wish these women would stop shrieking . . . he is thick and sexy, like a soulful teddy bear . . . Sounds just like his dad . . . Oh, no, he didn?t just roll across the stage! If you?re of a certain age and a faithful disciple of soul music, then all of these intergenerational, intermingling thoughts swirl through your mind as you watch Eddie and Gerald Levert perform together in their Father and Son tour.

JO-JO TYNES would go into a nightclub, toss back a Mistic fruit drink or just plain water and hit the dance floor. "He loved to have fun," said his fiancee, Kim Oliver. "Everybody loved him. He'd go into a club and people would say, 'Here's Jo-Jo!' He loved people. He loved to dance. " Joseph Tynes, known to everybody as Jo-Jo, worked with a number of musicians and musical groups as stage manager and general factotum, including Teddy Pendergrass, the O'Jays and the Three Degrees, traveling around the country and overseas.

Ever hear Barbra Streisand's cover of the O'Jays hit "Love Train"? About 4,000 people did Saturday when Philadelphia International Records execs Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff got honorary doctor of music degrees at Berklee College of Music's commencement. Streisand was seated in the front row. Husband James Brolin's daughter, Molly , was a graduate. Gamble, urging the grads to be "ambassadors of love" through their music, led an a cappella sing-along on the anthem, and Streisand clapped and participated.

A petite blonde with a mammoth voice, Kellie Pickler has often cited Dolly Parton as an inspiration, and she did so again on the stage of the Susquehanna Bank Center Saturday night. Invoking Parton's dirt-poor childhood in the Tennessee mountains - as well as, by implication, her own troubled family history - she drew a parallel between their hardscrabble origins and the authenticity of their music. "That's what I love about country music," she said. "It's real. " That the pronouncement was delivered by a singer who came to prominence on American Idol, and whose name, when it appears in the songwriting credits at all, is inevitably accompanied by a flotilla of hit doctors, speaks volumes about the state of country.

No matter how you look at it, Philadelphia saxophonist/psychologist Michael Pedicin has an amazing pedigree; a musician whose father is one of rock-and-roll's unsung heroes; a tenor man whose tone, spirit and muscularity has long had Coltrane as its guiding light; a session cat who brightened Sigma Sound Studio recordings by the O'Jays and David Bowie as well as Pat Martino and Dave Brubeck. Yet, by calling his seventh recording Everything Starts Now, the 60-year-old sax man has revitalized his outlook with its most visceral sounds and depth-diving songs.

Who's backstabbing who? Last week, the O'Jays, the R&B group whose 1970s signature hits included "For the Love of Money," "Back Stabbers," and "I Love Music," sued Philadelphia International Records and its owners, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, accusing them of theft, larceny and misappropriation of royalties. Yesterday, Gamble and Huff said that they're the ones who are, in effect, being stabbed in the back. In a statement released by their public relations firm, Gamble and Huff responded to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, in which O'Jays founders Eddie Levert Sr. and Walter Williams claim that the record company failed to comply with a 2006 court-ordered agreement to pay them royalties.

The O'Jays are singing a new tune in federal court, claiming that the fathers of the Philly Sound are "Back Stabbers. " In a suit filed Friday, the O'Jays, who scored massive R&B hits in the mid-1970s with "For the Love of Money," "Used to Be My Girl," and "Love Train," accuse Philadelphia International Records, producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and others of theft, larceny, and misappropriation of royalties. The suit demands $3 million for back payments and punitive damages.

One day in 1963, a hustling young songwriter from South Philadelphia ran into a piano player from Camden coming out of the elevator in the Shubert Building on South Broad Street. Right away, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff hit it off, and the seeds of the Sound of Philadelphia were planted. "We were the only blacks going in and out of that building in those days," says Kenny Gamble, remembering a time when most of Philadelphia's music business offices were housed in the Shubert (now the Merriam Theater)

One day in 1963, a hustling young songwriter from South Philadelphia ran into a piano player from Camden coming out of the elevator in the Shubert Building on South Broad Street. Right away, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff hit it off, and the seeds of the Sound of Philadelphia were planted. "We were the only blacks going in and out of that building in those days," says Kenny Gamble, remembering a time when most of Philadelphia's music business offices were housed in the Shubert (now the Merriam Theater)

Philly music will never lose its soul, but the R&B community carries a heavy heart after recording artist and composer Gene McFadden lost his battle with lung and liver cancer yesterday. Best known for the 1979 hit "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," which became a Philadelphia sports anthem, Mr. McFadden, 56, died in his Mount Airy home of 15 years at 3:30 a.m. A graduate of Addison High School in North Philadelphia, Mr. McFadden was half of the hit-making duo McFadden and Whitehead.

About 50 people crowded the sidewalk of the 1900 block of Dallas Road yesterday to celebrate the life of Philadelphia music legend John Whitehead, who was gunned down one year ago outside his West Oak Lane home in a slaying that remains unsolved. "Sometimes in my mind, it doesn't seem appropriate to use that word" celebrate, Elnor Whitehead said. "What happened to my husband was a tragedy, and we're here to turn a tragedy into a positive thing. " Family and friends wore black T-shirts with a Whitehead's picture on the front.