Remember Steve Martin's first movie, "The Jerk"?  For those of you who haven't seen the 1979 hit, it's about a man, Navin Johnson, who is being raised by an African-American family who thinks he'll turn black as he gets older.  One of the scenes early in the movie shows Navin trying to dance with the same grace and rhythm as his family.  The out of rhythm, staccato-like, spasmodic moves that he called dancing fell woefully short of the mark. 

Have that image indelibly burned into your mind and you'll have a pretty good idea of how I would've looked like on the high school dance floor as a teen.  Well, okay, I dance the same way today but that's not the point of the story.

The point of the story is that there was a HUGE hit on the airwaves in 1976 that fooled us ungifted white-boy dancers into thinking we could actually dance.  The song?  Wild Cherry's, "Play That Funky Music".

Now, admit it.  When I told you the name of the song, didn't you feel a little spasm in your butt and a tingle in your feet, making you almost want to jump up and dance?  I know that you did so don't deny it. 

Well, do I ever have a treat for you!  The voice behind that smash hit, as well as the founding member of, and guitarist for, Wild Cherry, Rob Parissi, was gracious enough to take the time to answer some questions for Boomerocity.com.  Imagine my excitement that the man who played the mean guitar solo in the middle of "Funky" (and gave me many pleasurable hours playing air guitar along with) was going to take the time to chat with me from his home in the beautiful state of Florida.  It was a laugh-filled blast.

Since the fun filled, funky days of the seventies, Parissi has made the move over into the genre of Smooth Jazz/Adult Contemporary.  I asked him what influenced him to take the leap from Funk/Rock to Smooth Jazz.  Reflectively, he says, "I knew music was going to be my life before I was 5 years old.  However, when I was 10 or 11, and taking a serious interest in being a musician, it was the initial influence of Mozart, Henry Mancini, Cal Tjader, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, artists like that who inspired me to learn.  I think I was fascinated by the sophisticated chord changes, which I could hear and play by ear, but I didn't understand.