Nadir -

Born: 1968 in Fort Knox, Ky.

Sound: Funk with jazz and rock overtones. "Think mid-'70s Isley Brothers turned up to 10, or Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis in a funk band together," he says.

Influences: Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Gil Scot-Heron, Prince, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, the Roots.

Day job: Nadir is part of the technology team at the Metropolitan Life insurance company in Southfield.

What's in a name?: Born Curtis McFarlin, he changed his name to Jonah Nadir Omowale for what he calls "cultural reasons. I don't really identify very much with my Irish heritage. As I was studying and reading a little bit more about my culture, I decided to take on this name." For performing he goes simply by Nadir, which is Arabic for "rare and unique." "Nadir just seems to be a little easier than Nadir Omowale or Jonah Nadir Omowale. I figured it would be easier for people to catch on - and they still mispronounce it." (It's nay-DEER.)

So you wanna be a star: Nadir was living and making music in Nashville until 1999, when he and his wife decided to move to the Detroit area. "Nashville is a great music town ... but it's still difficult to get noticed if you're doing something other than country. Around (1999), Eminem and Kid Rock were hitting and I knew A&R people were going to start looking at Detroit. And, of course, I grew up on P-Funk and Motown and jazz; all those musicians are here, and they're just amazing players. It was a good choice, I thought."

Who knew?: Nadir had a previous Michigan connection while in Nashville; in the early '90s he played bass for Me Phi Me, a rapper who was raised in Flint and moved near Nashville to start his career.

Favorite gig: While in a local cover band after he first moved to Detroit, Nadir found himself playing at a motorcycle rally in Hell, Mich. "As the bikers rode through, we were playing 'Born to Be Wild,' " he recalls. "That was pretty interesting; I definitely wasn't in Nashville anymore. But I gotta tell you, in that cover band, I played more country in Michigan than I ever did in Nashville."

What's next: "Ultimately," he says, "we would like to get wide acceptance of what I do and the music that I create. We really want to go hard after Europe. My music doesn't neatly fit into any of the current categories on radio or the marketing categories of major labels. Our focus has been to concentrate on doing as much as we can independently, and we'll see what happens as we build up our own sales."

Hear him: "Distorted Soul 2.0," a revised and improved version of Nadir's 2003 album, comes out Tuesday on his own Eclipse America Productions label.

See him: Nadir performs 6:30 p.m. July 5 on the Pure Detroit Stage at the Comerica TasteFest in Detroit's New Center area. Call (313) 340-3680 or visit www.tastefest. com.

Surf him: www.distorted soul.com.

The Oakland Press will regularly feature a different band or musician in The UpBeat. To be included, send background information, a black-and-white nonreturnable photo, daytime phone number and current CD to: Gary Graff, The Daily Oakland Press, P.O. Box 436009, Pontiac 48343.