Concert Preview: Where did the love go?

Concert Preview: Where did the love go?

Mary Wilson

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
4/13/2007

Mary Wilson still reigns supreme among fans

The Supremes are never far from cultural memory, either the group's influences on modern music or in the memories of people who grew up to their music.

Mary Wilson, one-third of the Motown classic, has used her years in the group to gain stints in musicals, mount a platform to become a political advocate, become a community activism leader and to travel as a much sought lecturer.

All her other ventures were topped off in 2000 with publication of her best-selling autobiography, "Dreamgirls and Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme."

You'd think that after that and the recent successful film loosely based on the Supremes, "Dreamgirls," Wilson would be taking it easy. As concertgoers will see Saturday at the Osage Event Center, Wilson still performs on weekends and, between taking care of her numerous grandchildren, she'll be releasing in mid-summer a live album of jazz standards from a concert she did in San Francisco's Plush Room.

About the only thing that isn't happening is a Supremes reunion tour, something Wilson said she would welcome. A reunion of the Supremes with Diana Ross (Florence Ballard died in 1976) fell apart in 2000 after negotiations between Ross and Wilson's camps fell through.

"It's really fashionable right now. I do hope that Diana and I can do that. It really could happen and I hope that it happens," said Wilson, who lives in a home next to a Las Vegas golf course.

In the Supremes, Wilson was the smoky and bluesy-voiced counterpart to Ross, who was known instead for her vocal range. The group got together in 1959 as the Primettes. They changed the group's name and signed with Motown, putting out a string of hits that included "Stop in the Name of Love," "Back in My Arms Again" and "Baby Love."

By 1970, Ross had taken off on her solo career and Ballard also had left the group. Wilson later reformed the group under the name "New Supremes" with singers Jean Terrell and Cindy Birdsong. The string of hits continued with "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Stoned Love," but in 1977 Wilson kickstarted her solo career, which lasted into the 1980s.

Wilson has been in the business long enough to have seen the changes wrought by the Civil Rights Movement as well as the changes in the way women are viewed, especially black women.

"Women earlier on did not have as much freedom as women have today. I mean women today kind of rule the world," she said. "Socially in America, black was not beautiful when we were teenagers. We have a voice now."

These days, the portrayals of black women in popular culture, especially in music, aren't the kinds of things she'd want her grandchildren to see. But she balances her concerns against what her elders told her about rock 'n' roll when she was a kid.

"I know when we were coming up, they said that rock 'n' roll wouldn't last. 'And turn that music down. It's loud. It's vulgar. It's this. It's that,' " she said. "So yeah, there are a lot of things that are being shown in terms of women, it's not the best and hopefully the artists will very soon understand that as they themselves start having children."

Wilson also has been taking up the fight against phony music groups marketing themselves as the originals. If that isn't confusing enough, imagine how Wilson felt when she first heard someone was claiming to be her and performing concerts.

"There are at least five or more groups that I know of that I've actually taken to court," Wilson said.

Wilson is an artist adviser for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation, which recently began lobbying for bills in state legislatures to fight the practice. The "Truth in Music Bill" has been passed in nine states, requiring that groups carrying the name of a famous recording group must have at least one original member on stage.

The bill makes special allowances for tribute groups, since they do not mislead consumers into thinking they're seeing the actual group.

Saturday, she'll bring in her band of four musicians and two singers to the Osage Event Center, performing mostly songs she sang while in the Supremes, she said.

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MARY WILSON OF THE SUPREMES

When: 7 p.m., Saturday

Where: Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino, 951 W. 36th St. North

Tickets: $17.50 to $162.50, available www.gettix.netand (866) 443-8849

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer