Back in 1967, when funky trumpeter Cynthia Robinson joined forces with musical visionary Sly Stone, most “girls” in band units wore pretty dresses and harmonized in the background. “I never thought for one second I’d be able to play with a real band,” Robinson recalls via telephone from her home in the Bay Area. “When I was in high school, I went through a lot of bad treatment and was called a lot of names by boys, because I wanted to play. Sly was different.”

Fusing his gospel roots with hippie rock, Sly crafted a soul sound that made them one of the most innovative groups in the country. Whether in the studio or on-stage, for nine years and six albums, Sly & the Family Stone, whose hits include “Dance to the Music,” “Family Affair” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” went above and beyond the competition. Along with bassist Larry Graham, drummer Gregg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, keyboardist Rose Stone, they would go on to fame and infamy.

Sly and the Family Stone would influence other greats including Miles Davis, Prince and D’Angelo as well as being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. However, with the exception of their glorious moments at Woodstock and various television appearances on the Dick Cavett Show,Soul Train and Mike Douglass (all which can be seen on YouTube) there hasn’t been many outlets to hear that amazing band in all its boogie down energy until the recent release of Live at the Fillmore East.

Recorded in 1968 at the famed Fillmore East, where Sly and the Family Stone had previously opened for Jimi Hendrix, the group’s majestic music inspired writer David Henderson to say in Crawdaddy magazine, “Sly plays a Beulah Baptist organ. His white Gabriel cape gleams like the full moon. He riffs Egyptian chromatics with the ease of a jacklegged preacher. You begin to think he can heal people right onstage.”

In the same story, Henderson described Cynthia Robison as, “a saucy tomato from Sacramento with thick red hair and a sensual bougaloo. She blows a hot lip trumpet (the only female player of trumpet I’ve seen in any group) and comes forth with a sensual gutsy blues wail as well.”

Forty-seven later, Cynthia Robinson, who still tours the world playing with the Family Stone, remembers her back in the day life on the road with the musicians she calls, the greatest band in the world.”

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