R.I.P. P-Funk and Parlet singer Debbie Wright

R.I.P. P-Funk and Parlet singer Debbie Wright

(October 15, 2017) They were in the center of the music world for over a decade, and they inspired, amused and even confused music fans with their irreverent brand of funk music. Of course, we’re talking about the P-Funk ensemble. And we are sad to inform SoulTrackers of the death at age 66 of a key member of the P-world, Debbie Wright. Wright was a key background singer on many of the biggest albums of the era, as well as a founding member of the P-Funk related female vocal group Parlet.

Originally consisting  of Wright along with fellow Parliament-Funkadelic background singers Mallia Franklin and Jeannette Washington, Parlet was formed by P-Funk leader George Clinton as a female contrast to his original vocal group The Parliaments; a wilder and more aggressive act than his Brides of Funkenstein. The group came out of the box strongly in 1978 with the album Pleasure Principle, but the album surprisingly didn’t sell well, and Wright became ill and left before the follow-up album, the cleverly titled Invasion of the Booty Snatchers.

The diminutive Wright was a Detroit native and the daughter of a former background singer for Mahalia Jackson. She joined the P-Funk the collective as they were recording Mothership Connection performed on more than a dozen albums over the next decade.

Debbie Wright was a talented singer and part of the emergence of some of the most creative funk music of all time. She will be missed.