In 1958, a songwriter and former car worker, Berry Gordy, heard the pianist Joe Hunter playing on Detroit's east side. Gordy, who was planning to launch his own record company, hired Hunter, who has died aged 79, as a rehearsal pianist, preparing singers prior to cutting records. Soon afterwards, Hunter was promoted to session pianist, playing on early Gordy hits such as Marv Johnson's Come to Me (1959).
The number of recordings increased as the Motown phenomenon took shape. Gordy asked Hunter to recruit a team of musicians available for sessions at short notice. Among them was James Jamerson, now recognised as the most innovative electric bass player of the era. Thus did Jamerson, Hunter and others like drummer Benny Benjamin and later guitarist Joe Messina provide the dynamic, soulful backing for many of the initial Motown hits. Classics like Money (1959) by Barrett Strong, Shop Around (1960) by the Miracles, Do You Love Me? (1962) by the Contours, and Pride and Joy (1963) by Marvin Gaye were in their turn the raw material for the early 1960s British rock boom.
Powered by Hunter's boogie-woogie-based bluesy piano figures, all were favourite songs of the Beatles and many other British groups. Hunter enjoyed playing on those tracks, recalling "I had the freedom of expression to do what I wanted to do." The high point of Hunter's Funk Brothers career probably came in 1963 with the international hit Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas.
Hunter was born in Jackson, Tennessee, but, aged 11, headed north to Detroit. There his mother gave piano lessons, and Hunter quickly picked up the rudiments of the instrument, influenced equally by Sergei Rachmaninov, Nat King Cole and Art Tatum. He entered Detroit University to study law in 1949 before being drafted into the armed forces. There he played piano and clarinet in a jazz group with drummer Elvin Jones (obituary May 20, 2004) and met his future Motown colleague Earl Van Dyke. Returning to Detroit, he worked in jazz clubs weekdays and as a church organist on Sundays. He also toured with the Midnighters, the backing group of Hank Ballard, the author of The Twist. Soon after Heat Wave, he quit Motown, relinquishing his role to keyboards player Van Dyke. Hunter wanted to develop a career as a freelance arranger and musician.
During the 1960s, Hunter worked for the smaller Detroit labels Golden World and Fortune, as well as arranging songs for, and accompanying, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Edwin Starr, Jimmy Ruffin and other leading vocalists. His career took a downward turn in the 1970s and he returned to the anonymity of small clubs and hotel lounges until the resurrection of the Funk Brothers in 2002, though he published an autobiography, Musicians, Motown and Myself, in 1996.
The return of the group occurred as the result of the determination of a white Philadelphia musician and writer, Alan Slutsky. The Funk Brothers had dispersed when Berry Gordy moved Motown to Los Angeles in 1972 but, in the late 1980s, Slutsky set out to track them down for his biography of James Jamerson, who had died in 1983. Following the publication of the biography, Standing in the Shadows of Motown (1989 ), Slutsky planned a film about the Funk Brothers, which came to fruition as an award-winning documentary film of the same title, in 2002.
The film featured eight surviving members of the 15 or so Funk Brothers, including Hunter, whom Slutsky had found playing for tips at a Detroit hotel. The film's success inspired several of the Brothers to regroup for tours in the US and Europe. London concerts in 2004 were rapturously received by critics and audiences alike. The group subsequently won three Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award in 2004.
Further tours took place in 2006 and last month. But Hunter and percussionist Jack Ashford were now the only original members, and critics found the show disappointing. There were Funk Brothers performances in London and Manchester, but shortly after his return to Detroit, Hunter was found dead in his apartment. He had been diagnosed as diabetic, and it is believed this was linked to his death. He is survived by a son, daughter and three grandchildren.
· Joseph Edward Hunter, musician, born November 19 1927; died February 2 2007