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This weekend: Brother Phil and The Black Honkeys

Bill DeYoung

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The Black Honkeys onstage at a recent Floridian Social Club show. Photo: Adam Turkel

Back in the ‘hood, the other kids had a nickname for Phil Esposito: The Black Honkey.

This was the 1970s, when such slang was common, and Esposito was one of the only white kids living in his South Clearwater district. “It was a culturally diverse neighborhood,” he recalls. “My mom’s Puerto Rican. We blended in really nice. In our little gang, we had Puerto Rican Mike, we had Phil the Black Honkey, and everybody else had their nicknames and such.”

Phil Esposito in a screen grab from the band’s “Pumpin'” video.

Since 2000, Esposito has been “Brother Phil,” the singing, dancing, Energizer Bunny frontman of Pinellas County’s smoking-est soul and funk band, a 10-headed musical monster known as (wait for it) The Black Honkeys.

“It’s funny, oftentimes I’m singing a song that just flashes me back,” Esposito says, “because we were out on Saturday mornings and afternoons playing sandlot football, with the boom box blasting 90 percent of the stuff we cover now.”

The Black Honkeys headline Pride on the Plaza, a free Pride Month concert event tonight and Saturday on Mahaffey Plaza, between the Mahaffey Theater and the Dali Museum.

Along with a strong catalogue of original songs, the band plays familiar hits by the likes of the Spinners, Four Tops, Tyrone Davis, Sly & the Family Stone, Temptations, James Brown, Ohio Players, P-Funk, KC & the Sunshine Band and more. “I never thought I’d be singing those songs,” Esposito says.

That’s because his entrée into music performance was … well, non-linear. Esposito was in his early 20s when he started singing, in surf punk bands (“Where you only had to play two chords and scream”), then glam, and then grunge. While he dreamed of playing rhythm and blues funk music, he just couldn’t see it fitting into the musical vernacular of the era.

“It was a weird thing,” he explains. “I was planning on being a commercial artist, and I got caught up in that whole excitement of MTV, music and concerts. And I was always trying to be the life of the party anyway. Being in a band was a great way to be the life of the party – by playing the party.”

His “lightbulb moment” arrived when he heard Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose blend of rock and funk was seamless, and exciting.

Bassist Wil Harris and drummer Steven Tanner have been part of the band since the beginning. The lineup includes guitarists Greg Czinke and Billy Summer, second vocalist Nicole “Miss Groovalicious” Simone, keyboard wizard John Dash Dixon, and the mighty Black Honkeys horn section: Terry Clark (trumpet) and Scott Myers (trombone)

Rounding things for the past four years has been internationally acclaimed percussionist Gumbi Ortiz (“Somehow we were able to fool him into thinking we knew what we were doing,” Esposito laughs).

This is a band that’s all about getting the crowd on its feet. “It’s just feel-good music,” says Brother Phil, “and it’s timeless – I know that’s a worn-out statement, but the music the Black Honkey band leans on, aside from pushing our own original music, is just timeless.

“And if you can present it appropriately, and honorably, and pay homage … humbly, it’s just my opinion, but I think this is the best music in the history of all music.”

The pandemic, as it did with all live performers, did a number on the Black Honkeys’ performance schedule. Pre-Covid, the band – entirely managed and booked by Esposito – was averaging 15 or 16 shows every month. Right now, it’s at five or six.

Even as things loosen up, the bossman thinks he might slow it down a tad. “It was really hard managing a 10-piece band and all the logistical things, and behind the scenes, from merch to crew,” he says. “And maintaining vehicles. I’m not being lazy, just more selective. I don’t think I’m going to go back to playing 16 gigs a month. By my own choice.”

The Mahaffey Plaza shows, in fact, represent something of an anomaly – the Honkeys very rarely play two consecutive nights in the same place.

However, Esposito explains, “Bill Edwards wanted to do something for the community this weekend. And this just seemed like the perfect fit.”

The band. Photo provided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

 

 

 

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