Robert “Dick” Knight found himself in Kinston as a young music teacher, without knowing much about the town or North Car...

Robert “Dick” Knight found himself in Kinston as a young music teacher, without knowing much about the town or North Carolina. Little did he know that Kinston was about to kick off as a funk epicenter of the 60s and 70s. While in town, the young band teacher befriended future legends Nat Jones, and Maceo and Melvin Parker. Alongside Levi Rasbury, Jones, the Parkers and Knight were all soon swept into The James Brown Orchestra, where they wrote and performed seminal works of the burgeoning genre now known as funk. The rest, as they say, is history. Back in 2021, Knight (who now styles himself “Captain,” hence the uniform) sat down with Earl L. Ijames, Curator of African American History at the North Carolina Museum of History (@ncmuseumhistory) to talk “North Carolina and the Birth of Funk Music.” Check the link in bio to watch the two’s wide-ranging discussion of the Tarheel state’s role in funk history. Image: Robert “Dick” Knight plays the trumpet Alt. text: a man in a Captain’s uniform plays the trumpet against a blue background