Kleeer was an American New York City–based

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

and

post-disco Post-disco (also called boogie, synth-funk, or electro-funk) is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–1985, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to c ...

band, which was formed in 1972 under the name The Jam Band, as a backup group to different disco bands and vocalists.

Members

* Woodrow "Woody" Cunningham (lead vocalist and drummer, died 2010) * Paul Crutchfield (percussionist and keyboardist) * Richard Lee (guitarist) * Norman Durham (bassist, died 2011)

Career

After a switch to the name Pipeline in 1975, the group also decided to switch to making

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

instead of disco. Record labels competed to sign them but, when they finally ended up at

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, their single "Gypsie Rider" did not fare well commercially. In 1976, they got the opportunity to become

The Universal Robot Band The Universal Robot Band was an American music group comprising Gregory Carmichael, Patrick Adams, Leroy Burgess, Gregory Tolbert and Woody Cunningham. The band was formed by Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael in 1976. Their debut single, "Dance ...

along with underground disco producers Patrick Adams and

Greg Carmichael Greg Carmichael (born 7 August 1953) is a British guitarist and co-founding member (along with Nick Webb) of contemporary jazz group Acoustic Alchemy. His primary instrument is the nylon-string acoustic guitar. He joined the band in 1985 as a par ...

. This project was more successful than their former projects. They made the single "

Barely Breaking Even Barely Breaking Even (BBE) is a British record label started by two DJs, Peter Adarkwah and Ben Jolly. The name BBE comes from The Universal Robot Band's 1982 track "Barely Breaking Even". It has two sublabels: Deep Funk, and Urban Theory. B ...

" alongside singer

Leroy Burgess Leroy O'Neil Jackson Jr. (born August 20, 1953), known by his stage name Leroy Burgess, is an American singer, songwriter, keyboard player, recording artist, arranger and record producer. Burgess was a member of Black Ivory and lead vocalist o ...

, and they also recorded an album. The group toured as The Universal Robot Band until 1978. After 1978, the band decided to make all their music themselves under the new name of Kleeer. Between 1979 and 1985 the group released seven albums and had several

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

in the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and in R&B

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

. The most mentionable are "Keep Your Body Workin'", "Tonight's the Night", "Winners", "Intimate Connection", and "Get Tough". The sound was now more focused on 1980s style funk, and

electronic instruments An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics, electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is pl ...

, like

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

s and synthesizers. The System lead singer

Mic Murphy Michael Austin "Mic" Murphy (born January 9, 1958) is an American musician, lead singer of the successful 1980s synth R&B duo the System. He is well known for singing the group's biggest hit, " Don't Disturb This Groove," a 1987 US #4 Pop and #1 ...

was a road manager for the band before the start of his record career. After the 1985's album ''Seeekret'', the band disappeared for unknown reasons. Most of the musicians continued working with other projects. In the 1990s, however, the group re-formed as Kleeer at some occasions.

Influence

The group's influence today is best found in many hip hop songs, where DJs have frequently

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

Kleeer, for example by

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

DJ Quik David Marvin Blake (born January 18, 1970), better known by his stage names DJ Quik or Da Quiksta, is an American rapper and producer, known for his production in the G-funk style of West Coast hip-hop. Blake has collaborated with Snoop Dogg, ...

Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971) better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, producer and former frontman of the rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. He was instrumental in the emergence of the hip hop subgenre cru ...

and others. "Keeep Your Body Workin'", which reached number 54 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Dance Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

Chart in 1979, was "reworked" into an updated recording by

Tony Moran Anthony "Tony" Moran is a DJ, record producer, remixer, singer and songwriter known for remixing popular songs. In 2007, he hit number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play chart twice with " Walk Away" featuring Kristine W and "Kee ...

featuring

Martha Wash Martha Elaine Wash (born December 28, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer. Known for her distinctive and powerful voice, Wash first achieved fame as half of the Two Tons O' Fun, who sang backing vocals for the disco si ...

, under the title "

Keep Your Body Working "Keep Your Body Working" is a single released in 2008 recorded by Tony Moran featuring Martha Wash. It is the second number one single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart from Moran's 2-disc CD collection ''The Event'', following "Walk Awa ...

". The Moran/Wash version reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in December 2007. Just Blaze sampled "She Said She Loves Me" from Kleeer's 1982 album "Get Ready" for the Intro to Jay Z's fifth studio album "The Dynasty: Roc La Familia". Recently

Larry June Larry Eugene Hendricks III (born April 8, 1991) is an American rapper from San Francisco, California. He is known for his EPs ''Larry'' and ''Orange Season'' and has toured with musicians such as Cousin Stizz, Berner, Curren$y, and Post Malone. ...

Jay Worthy LNDN DRGS ( disemvoweling of "London Drugs") is a duo made up of Jay Worthy and producer Sean House. As of 2019, they have been primarily releasing projects through their GDF Records imprint. History Jay made his debut appearance in 2016 a ...

heavily sampled the group's song "Next Time It's for Real" on their single "Maybe the Next Time" on the album ''2 P'z in a Pod''.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

Kleer biography and discography
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

.
Six Million Steps – Woody Cunningham/Kleeer Special radio show from November 2010
* * {{Authority control American dance music groups American funk musical groups American soul musical groups American boogie musicians