NEW YORK, NY.- Amp Fiddler, a former keyboardist with Parliament-Funkadelic who became a fixture of Detroit’s soul, funk and electronic music scenes, and whose tutelage of rapper J Dilla helped alter the trajectory of hip-hop, died Dec. 18 in Detroit. He was 65.
His death, in a hospital after a long battle with cancer, was announced by his wife, Tombi Stewart.
Fiddler was a versatile keyboardist, equally adept at playing warm Fender Rhodes grooves or squiggly synthesizer arpeggios, skills honed during his decade with P-Funk, from 1986 to 1996. He was also a prolific session player, working with artists like Seal, Maxwell and Raphael Saadiq.
“The thing that I was always keen on as an artist was to leave my ego at home,” Fiddler said in a 2003 Red Bull Music Academy lecture. “I think that humility, having that sense of just being there for people and giving, is what got me more into getting more.”
Fiddler had a striking, stylish presence — he favored flamboyantly psychedelic attire and wore his hair either in an expansive Afro or sculpted vertically into a Mohawk — that could make him seem even larger than his 6-foot-2 frame. In the early 2000s, he began recording under his own name on neo-soul albums like “Waltz of a Ghetto Fly” and “Afro Strut,” showcasing his raspy but soothing voice. He also played keyboards for numerous electronic music producers in Detroit, including Moodymann, Theo Parrish and Carl Craig.
But Fiddler’s most crucial role may have been as a bridge between generations of Detroit musicians — first as a wide-eyed wunderkind among veteran P-Funk players, then as a beloved mentor to the hip-hop and electronic music aspirants of the 1990s and 2000s. “It’s just so rare, especially in the entertainment business, to see figures who give without the expectation of getting something back,” Dan Charnas, the author of the 2022 book “Dilla Time,” said in an interview. “A generation of folks were blessed by Amp’s generosity.”
The most notable of these disciples was James Dewitt Yancey, better known as J Dilla. Fiddler lived near the high school attended by several members of a fledgling rap collective, one of whom — drawn by the music booming out of his basement studio window — knocked on the door to inquire whether Fiddler could help produce a demo tape.
Fiddler agreed, and the next day, seven teenagers arrived, including Yancey. Fiddler introduced him to the Akai MPC60 sampling drum machine and left him alone to learn by experimenting. Soon, Yancey was skipping school to study in the gear-packed basement studio Fiddler called “Camp Amp.”
“I would teach him something different just about every day until he got it,” Fiddler said in a 2015 interview with Sam Beaubien, a friend and collaborator. “I knew he was talented. He heard things in a different way.”
A few years later, in July 1994, when Fiddler was on the Lollapalooza tour with the P-Funk All Stars, he introduced Yancey to Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, which was also on the tour. Yancey slipped Q-Tip a demo tape, beginning the chain of events that ultimately catapulted him into the hip-hop pantheon as a major innovator. (Yancey died at 32 in 2006.) “My happiness about the introduction,” Fiddler told Beaubien, “was for him to become successful and put Detroit on the map as once again a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.”
Fiddler himself was a protege of Parliament-Funkadelic impresario George Clinton. In the mid-1980s, Clinton heard one of Fiddler’s demo recordings and offered him the keyboard chair in P-Funk once held by Bernie Worrell. Fiddler “helped me do amazing things,” Clinton wrote in his 2014 memoir, “Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?” “Amp was a jazz musician, and he helped create some of these extended pieces.”
Joseph Anthony Fiddler, the youngest of five siblings, was born in Detroit on May 16, 1958, to Cleophas and Christine (Young) Fiddler. The nickname “Amp,” which he used throughout his career, was a playground variant on his middle name. His father, a mill operator for the U.S. Rubber Co., was originally from the Caribbean island St. Vincent; his mother, who was from Virginia, worked as a salesperson at the J.L. Hudson department store.
Amp Fiddler began playing music on the family baby grand piano in his late teens. Pianist Harold McKinney, a founder of the Detroit jazz collective Tribe, lived down the street, and the young Fiddler began studying with him. After brief stints at two colleges, he started playing with Detroit-based touring acts, including Enchantment, RJ’s Latest Arrival and Was (Not Was).
Was (Not Was) brought Fiddler to Europe for the first time, but the globe-trotting never stopped. Among the experiences he cherished most, he told Beaubien, were playing at the Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria, with Afrobeat percussionist Tony Allen and recording at Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare’s studio in Jamaica (for the three men’s 2008 joint project, “Inspiration Information”).
He shared a passion for music with his brother Thomas. In the late 1980s, they formed a group named Mr. Fiddler, conceived as a cross between Cab Calloway’s 1940s swing band and 1980s new jack swing. They signed a deal with Elektra Records; their 1990 album, “With Respect,” wasn’t a commercial success, but Amp Fiddler used his $10,000 advance to build a state-of-the-art home studio.
Fiddler is survived by Stewart, whom he married this year after a 16-year on-and-off relationship. His siblings all died before him, as did a son, Dorian, from a relationship with Stacey Willoughby.
Despite his illness, Fiddler gigged regularly in Detroit until last year, with up-and-coming groups like Will Sessions, Duality/Detroit and Dames Brown (a female vocal trio whose debut album, for which Fiddler was executive producer, will be released in 2024).
“He was always teaching you stuff,” said Beaubien, the founder of the band Will Sessions. “Sometimes people don’t want to share their secrets, the things that they’ve learned, but Amp was never afraid to share his lessons. Saying that he taught me a lot is an understatement. I’m forever grateful.”
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
