By day, Niskayuna resident Hayward Derrick Horton has been a professor of sociology at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health for nearly 30 years
But in his spare time Horton transforms into Doc Horton, a pop-soul singer who brings his Jay Street Band to Proctors on Sunday at 4 p.m. for the Motown and More Experience.
The event is a fundraiser for the nonprofit organization More Music, Less Violence, started by Albany-based DJ Hollyw8d, as well as a celebration of the release of Doc Horton’s debut solo single “Reality!”
Horton originally wrote the single, now reinterpreted, in 1977 while a senior at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he grew up.
“I am a student of Motown and in fact a child of Motown,” Horton said. “I had young parents. Mom was 19, Dad was 20 when I was born, and Motown was all I would hear,” he added, name-checking influences such as Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, the Temptations and the Jacksons.
Horton’s “Reality!” single was inspired by Marvin Gaye’s seminal “What’s Going On,” a song released in 1971 on the Motown subsidiary Tamla and motivated by a police brutality incident that singer Renaldo “Obie” Benson of the Four Tops witnessed during an antiwar protest.
“I was not thinking about Marvin when I wrote that song, but I was thinking like Marvin or, in other words, I was looking out at the world and looking at the state of the world,” Horton said.
Horton decided to revisit the song decades later, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he lost friends and relatives.
“I was becoming a little disillusioned by the fact that we as human beings weren’t treating each other like human beings,” he said. “There was such an emphasis on materialism that we didn’t seem to care about one another. And that was the reality that I saw. You saw homelessness, you saw poverty and not to mention loneliness. And you can have that type of despair even if you’re rich. You can be rich materially, and yet if you don’t have a meaningful life you can feel poor on the inside.”
“The type of despair I was seeing in 1977, ironically enough, it was like I was describing the world right now,” Horton added. “Nothing really has changed. It’s the old saying about the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Horton recorded his newly revisited version of the single with Las Vegas producer Stanley Harris, better known as Rothstein Beatz, a fellow graduate of Norfolk State. “He’s young enough to be my son but he just modernized my sound,” Horton said. “We spent a year and a half working on this song, because in a very real sense he provided a new beat.”
Horton plans to tour nationally in support of the new single, which comes out Friday on all digital streaming platforms. First up is Sunday’s Motown and More Experience show at Proctors, where he will be backed by his Jay Street Band on songs by legendary (Motown and non-Motown) artists such as Sly Stone, Billy Preston, Ray Charles, the Temptations and more.
Named after the downtown Schenectady street where the group got its start during a gig at Ambition Bistro, Jay Street Band includes Randal Martin on drums, Enoch Thompson on bass, Calvin Young on guitar, Dan Goss on keyboards, Silas Blackmon on synthesizer and Ky McClinton on guitar.
“Immediately following [the Motown show] I’m going to have a single-release party right outside the GE Theater,” Horton said. “We’ll have a reception there and I want the community to celebrate with me.”
The Proctors show will be a feel-good night for a positive cause to support the anti-violence efforts of “More Music, Less Violence” and DJ Hollyw8d, who will emcee the show.
“Motown music brings people together and it’s the type of music everybody enjoys,” Horton said. “For older persons, it takes them back. For younger persons, the music is so melodic and younger people love it. And it’s a type of music that’s about community, and that’s what I’m about.
“But let me say something else about why, at my age when many people are retiring, I’m transitioning to becoming a recording artist and getting ready to do a national tour,” he added. “I firmly believe that it’s very important for people of all ages to see that it’s never too late. You’re never too old to realize your dream.”
Visit dochortonmusic.com.
The Week Ahead
- Gilla Band, a well-regarded Irish post-punk and noise rock band from Dublin, plays at No Fun in Troy tonight. With Bambara. 8 p.m.
- After more than 20 years bassist Les Claypool reunites his band Fearless Flying Frog for the Hunt for Green October Tour, which comes to the Palace in Albany on Friday. In addition to songs from Claypool’s catalog, the group will perform Pink Floyd’s 1977 psychedelic album “Animals.” 8 p.m.
- Led by singer-songwriter Gary Louris, the Jayhawks are one of the most acclaimed alt-country bands of all time. They bring their shimmering blend of folk, roots and rock to The Egg on Saturday. Freedy Johnston opens. 8 p.m.
- Kentucky rock band My Morning Jacket brings loud and loose energy and a bombastic live show to Albany’s Palace on Wednesday. 8 p.m.
- Electric violinist Mia Asano and bagpiper/multi-instrumentalist Ally the Piper (from Schenectady), both classically trained, join forces in the duo project Mia x Ally to perform originals and covers of pop, rock and metal songs with a Celtic twist at The Egg on Wednesday. 7:30 p.m.