Stephen Kupka
Stephen Mackenzie "Doc" Kupka (a.k.a. "The Funky Doctor") (born 25 March c.1946, in Berkeley, California) is a baritone saxophone player and composer, and is a founding member of the band.
In 1968, Kupka met Emilio Castillo and joined his soul music cover band, The Motowns, which was based in Oakland, California. Kupka convinced Castillo to start performing original songs, and they changed the band's name to Tower of Power. Kupka has been with Tower of Power ever since, and is also responsible for co-writing (with Castillo) a majority of the band's songs.
"Doc" plays a Yamaha YBS-62 baritone saxophone, Berg Larsen 130 facing metal mouthpiece, and Rico Plasticover 1.5 strength reeds. Kupka has also recorded with numerous other artists, including The B-52's, Chicago, Dan Fogelberg, Heart, Elton John, Huey Lewis and the News, Little Feat, Elkie Brooks, and Bonnie Raitt.
In 1998, Kupka founded Strokeland Records along with Andy Ebon, CEO of Soul, as a platform for his own songwriting. Strokeland Records has since grown to include numerous other soul, jazz, and funk artists.
In 2006, Steve Finch took over as director of operations for Strokeland Records as Kupka began work on two new releases: Doc Goes Hollywood (a collection of his songs written in the Great American Songbook style) and Bumped Up To First Class (a new collection of Kupka's classic soul songs in the early Tower of Power style).
Read more about this topic: Tower Of Power, Band Members
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—Griffin Jay, and Harold Young. Stephen Banning (Dick Foran)