ESG, the iconic 1970s punk-funk band from the South Bronx, created one of hip-hop’s most sampled records. And this Saturday, the band will play a sold-out show in Brooklyn and screen a self-produced documentary.
Lead singer Renee Scroggins, 65, said in a phone interview that more concerts are coming, and she hopes to get wider distribution for the film, which is called “Are You Serious? The ESG Story?”
She said the film, which will screen at ESG’s live shows for now, tells the band’s real story for the first time.
The sold-out show at the East Williamsburg club Elsewhere is a credit to the band’s enduring and unique sound, which blends Latin percussion, minimal bass lines and high-pitched guitar riffs that resonate across generations.
“I’m loving coming out and making new fans,” Scroggins said. “I’ve been doing this 46 years, and these fans are younger than my children.”
The original band consisted of Scroggins and her three sisters from the South Bronx. The show on Saturday is still a family affair, and will include her sister Marie, as well as Scroggins’ son Nicholas and daughter Nicole.
Scroggins traces ESG’s origins to her mother, a clerk for the city’s health department who pushed her daughters to learn instruments. She bought them a guitar, bass and drums and made them practice every Friday after school. Scroggins’ father worked on a General Motors assembly line in Tarrytown.
Initially the sisters tried covering the Motown music they loved, but they realized it was harder than they thought. When they started incorporating the Latin percussion sounds of the neighborhood with James Brown-style drum breaks and funky grooves, they knew they were on to something.
“We started playing our own music only because we sound so bad with covers,” Scroggins said.
In the early 1970s, her mother brought the sisters to talent shows around housing projects in the Bronx. Eventually the sisters started winning. They even played a Jerry Lewis Telethon one year.
The…
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