"The Doctor" is the nickname of a very
hip jazz musician named Steve Kupka. He plays
baritone saxophone for an excellent
funk group called
Tower of Power. He founded the group in Oakland, Calif. with fellow saxophonist
Emilio Castillo in
1968 and has been with them ever since. They have defined funk for over thirty years with an assortment of songs such as "
What is Hip?", "
You're Still a Young Man" and "
Soul Vaccination".
What is so cool about "the Doctor", besides being the punch that makes T.O.P. so damn funky, is that his appearance is incredibly bizarre and uncool but he doesn't give a damn. He is quite tall, and lanky (skinny til he recently gained a gut) with curly red hair, clothing style from the seventies and absolutely no ability to dance. During live performances of a song titled "Squib Cakes", he proves this lack of rhythm by dancing like a praying mantis to the deafening cheers of his fans.
He proves that cool is a state of mind not just an image.