Ronnie Wilson, co-founder of legendary R&B-funk group The Gap Band, died yesterday at age 73. A fantastically talented artist, Wilson wrote music, sang, played flugelhorn and trumpet, and keyboards for the group.
From Rolling Stone:
Ronnie was the oldest of the three Wilson brothers — Ronnie, Charlie, and Robert — with the siblings forming the Gap Band in the mid-Seventies; their band name was an acronym for Greenwood, Archer, and Pine streets, site of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and the section of the Oklahoma city where the brothers grew up.
After releasing a pair of albums in the mid-Seventies on Leon Russell's indie label, the Gap Band signed with Mercury Records in 1979 and soon after found success with singles like "I Don't Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops!), "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)," and most notably 1982's Gap Band IV, which featured the hits "Early in the Morning," "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," and the oft-sampled "Outstanding."
