Tower of Power are the funk/soul ensemble from California. In addition to their success in the early Seventies they have been a support band popular with rock and pops biggest names.
Ex-Motowns sax player Emilio Castillo got together with Stephen ‘The Funky Doctor’ Kupka and Mic Gillette in Oakland in the late 60s and started writing soul/funk tunes. Gathering other musicians around them, they took the name Tower of Power and started playing the Bay Area clubs, eventually securing a contract with San Francisco Records.
After a somewhat uneven debut, where the band were still trying to find their sound, their second album Bump City began to get them noticed, and the track “You’re Still a Young Man” made the Top 30 of the Billboard 100. This began a purple patch of critically acclaimed albums, with one of their signature tunes “What is Hip?” coming from their self-titled third album, which has between their most commercially successful.
After Urban Renewal vocalist Lenny Williams moved on and the band were having increasing difficulty producing chart-bound singles. Even the move towards disco on the Back on the Streets album failed to reverse the trend. Subsequent releases failed to set the charts alight, though the critics got behind the hard funk of 1993’s T.O.P. album. Despite a decline in popularity for their self-penned material, the band were in-demand for backing duties from artists including Santana, Elton John and Rod Stewart. Tower of Power still tour, in their own right, today.
