Taking on members of other groups, the band landed an ongoing gig at the Kinsman Grille. Harris got on the bandwagon in 1974 with a funk-jazz fusion band called Bell Telefunk, which played nightspots such as Cleveland's Agora. But by the early 1970s vigorous new trends in African-American music were established in Ohio, with Canton's O'Jays and Dayton's Ohio Players, among others, attaining national popularity with funk and R&B styles featuring large horn sections.
Jazz was my first love," he told Kevin C. I spent more years doing that than anything else. "In Cleveland I was more known for playing saxophone in the clubs. The moving force behind the Dazz Band was singer and saxophonist Bobby Harris, who attended Cleveland's now-defunct John Adams High School and worked for a while toward a career as a jazz instrumentalist. While they never matched the success of "Let It Whip," Dazz Band produced consistent hits for several years during the 1980s, with talents that extended beyond funk into complex jazz-tinged arrangements and other styles. The group that made "Let It Whip" a hit was the Dazz Band, a sizable Cleveland ensemble with roots in Ohio's rich tradition of funk and jazz. An experience common to almost everyone who stepped onto a dance floor in the mid-1980s was hearing an upbeat, bass-heavy number called "Let It Whip." The song's popularity extended well beyond its base among R&B listeners, and it remained a dance-hall favorite into the hip-hop era.