Deep in Hitsville USA, Paul Riser sweetened some of the most famous songs music ever made. His work as the in-house arranger and session trombonist at Motown during the mid-’60s to mid-’70s golden era adorns golden classics like The Temptations’ "My Girl" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", and Marvin Gaye’s "Heard It Through The Grapevine". With his classical background and strict religious upbringing, Riser was something of a fish out of water as part of the street-smart musical group The Funk Brothers, but his abilities in the studio kept him in demand long after Motown decamped to Los Angeles in the mid-’70s. Staying busy well into the '00s, Riser worked with more contemporary R&B artists like Ashford & Simpson, R. Kelly, Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder.
