Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesJames Jamerson didn’t really live long enough to enjoy the full limelight that has latterly shone on the Funk Brothers, the musicians who were the very essence of the Motown sound. Born on January 29, 1936, near Charleston, South Carolina, Jamerson moved to Detroit with his mother when he was 18 in 1954. Originally a student of the stand-up bass, he was soon playing in local clubs, and when Berry Gordy opened his Hitsville USA studio in 1959, Jamerson became a fixture. He and his fellow musicians referred to themselves as the Funk Brothers, although if they were credited at all in those days, it was as the Soul Brothers). Allan Slutsky’s 1989 book Standing In The Shadows Of Motown began the process giving the Funk Brothers their proper recognition, inspiring the 2002 documentary that truly put their name in the public eye.