on a tour because a member converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses.“I have many stories like that, where we were right at the cusp,” he says.“Almost there.” Master Plan Inc. slowly stabilized and, in 1975, recorded at Sound80 in Minneapolis with producer David “Z” Rivkin before landing a deal with Brunswick Records. Brunswick, sadly, was mired in scandal and on the decline. In-house producers were meddling with the group’s music so much that Shorts had enough. He knew business because his management training “put us on alert for nonsense,” he says. This situation, however, was headed to the street. It never came to blows, but Shorts realized that, at times, just knowing the business wouldn’t be enough. He enrolled in martial arts classes shortly thereafter and is now a fifth-degree black belt. Shorts chased his music dreams to Los Angeles in 1986, but ended up taking a series of odd jobs, including minor roles in television and film, while continuing to record and produce. He returned to Chicago to care for his mother in 2003 and was later working as a doorman when he befriended rapper Brian “Robust” Kuptzin, who was a labelmate of Brearley’s at indie imprint Galapagos4. Kuptzin and Brearley were hanging out one day when Kuptzin said, “You have to meet my boy Doug Shorts.” When he mentioned Shorts’s name, Bearley remembered the Doug Shorts and the Master Plan Band “How Slick Is Slick” 7-inch he had just bought. “You mean this dude right here?” he asked Kuptzin, pointing to the record. Both of their minds were blown. Brearley and Shorts linked and the Cherries seed was sown. Soon after, Master Plan Inc. recordings began to surface— some submastered by fabled engineer Ed Cody—and found homes at Jazzman and Numero Group. Through Brearley and late DJ Tony Janda, some of Shorts’s music got to Daptone/Dunham Records. Upon hearing it, Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss flew Shorts into Brooklyn in 2012 to record vocals on the modern-soul collaboration he’d been working on with producer Frank Dukes, an album that is awaiting release as Silver & Gold Featuring Doug Shorts . Also awaiting release are a steppers album and a 12-inch “Doug and Ro” project from Shorts and Kuptzin that’s reminiscent of Blueprint - era soul-sample chops. Except the samples aren’t samples. It’s the old dog Shorts. “I got my tentacles out there,” he says, still hungry after all these years. .
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