Steve Arrington is a key player behind Dayton, Ohio's status as a funk epicenter. In the late '70s and early '80s, he was with Slave, contemporaries of locally rooted heavyweights such as Ohio Players, Zapp, and Heatwave. Slave's period of greatest creative growth was powered in a substantial way by Arrington, whose drumming style pulled from fusion, progressive rock, and Latin jazz, while his high-spirited vocals and similarly positive approach to songwriting further separated the band from their peers. Away from Slave, Arrington continued to thrive in the '80s with a dozen charting singles. He stepped back to become a full-time minister, returned toward the end of the 2000s, and has since worked closely with Stones Throw, releasing Higher (2013) and Down to the Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions (2020).