Amp Fiddler Dead At 65
Amp Fiddler, the Detroit funk futurist whose work spans many generations, has died. The Detroit Metro Times reports that Fiddler died yesterday after suffering from an unspecified illness. (A GoFundMe campaign for Fiddler’s recovery went up last year.) Fiddler was 65.
Joseph Anthony Fiddler grew up in Detroit and steeped himself in the city’s musical history. In the early ’80s, Fiddler started working with the Detroit soul act Enchantment. Detroit legend George Clinton took Fiddler under his wing, and he joined Clinton’s band and played keyboard on the 1986 hit “Do Fries Go With That Shake?”
Fiddler went on to play on more George Clinton records and on records from people like Prince, Warren Zevon, Primal Scream, the Brand New Heavies, Poe, Too Short, and Maxwell. He played on Seal’s massive hit “Kiss From A Rose.” In 1990, Amp and his brother Bubz Fiddler released an album under the name Mr. Fiddler on Elektra. Fiddler also got involved in Detroit’s house scene, working with producers like Theo Parrish, Moodymann, and Carl Craig, and famously taught a young J Dilla how to use an MPC. That’s a bit like being the first person to hand Jimi Hendrix a guitar.
Amp Fiddler started releasing electro-funk solo records in the early ’00s, and he had a long run as a singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Fiddler’s solo records featured collaborations with people like George Clinton, J Dilla, Raphael Saadiq, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Sly And Robbie. Fiddler’s most recent album, the Will Sessions collaboration The One, came out in 2018.
Below, check out some of Amp Fiddler’s work.
