Love Train Leads ​“Black Beethoven” To Lay Down Local Roots

Back in the day, Dunn Pearson Jr. played ​“Love Train” on the keyboard with the O’Jays before 20,000 fans at Madison Square Garden.

This past Sunday, he was at the keyboards at Hamden Plains United Methodist Church playing ​“Cry Me a River” at worship services.

The venues, the gigs differed. Pearson saw a link.

“It’s the same,” he suggested during an appearance Wednesday on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven”: ​“You’re still trying to make a connection with your audience.”

The classically-trained Pearson, who is 66, has been connecting with audiences for five decades, since he toured as a back-up musician with a teen-sensation group called The Ponderosa Twins. He started touring as a keyboardist and arranger for the smash-hit O’Jays at 20 years old. He went on to earn 26 gold and platinum awards as a composer, producer and arranger for artists ranging from Mary J. Blige and Melba Moore to Teddy Pendergrass. He released 14 albums of his own. He segued to a scoring on Broadway and in movies, then producing commercials for McDonald’s, United Airlines, Wendy’s. He launched his own marketing firm, All Dunn Advertising.

Along the way, he earned the nickname ​“The Black Beethoven.”

This past year, the love train brought Pearson to Hamden. He entered a relationship with Central Connecticut State University Professor Shelly M. Jones (author of Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians) and moved here to live with her. He joined the Hamden Plains church band; this past Sunday he played his first service. And he made local connections for his marketing work — including an event planned for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Sunday in New Haven’s DeGale Field Park aimed at introducing Black kids to horse-riding and ​“horses to humans” trauma healing.

Dunn spoke all about that — the past, the future — during his appearance on ​“Dateline.” Click on the video to watch him recall touring the world, jamming with Sting in a Memphis hotel, how he earned his nickname, and why it’s so challenging to sing along with the chorus of ​“Love Train” (when the C chord shifts to D).