Funk music from a durable source came to the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Asheville on March 1.

The Ohio Players, a nine-piece African-American band dating back to the early 1970s, played 90 minutes of its jazz-inflected rythym-and-blues to a small-but-enthusiastic crowd.

The band — with a guitarist, bassist, two percussionists, two keyboards and horn section — began its set with “Skin Tight,” a popular chart-topper in 1974.

Several similar grooves followed, then came a slow-down, a song called “Heaven Must Be Like This,” featuring deep-blue stage lights, dry ice and tight harmony vocals.

Bassist Darwin Dark, one of the four original members of the band, then said “And now we’re going to do another of our biggest hits — “Love Rollercoaster.” It was back to up-tempo and featured soloing on sax and on trumpet. This led up to the Ohio Players’ best-known song, “Fire.” (Both “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster” were No. 1 hits for the band.)

There was an irony to “Fire” as the final selection — the show was a fund-raiser for the Asheville Area Firefighters, with proceeds going to a shelter for burned-out families and a program called “Warm Coats for Kids.”

The 7,200-seat venue was less then quarter-filled for the show,  with about half the crowd being African-American. Toward the end of the Ohio Players set, many African-Americans danced next to whites in a pocket in front of the stage.

Chris Simmons, a white blues guitarist with three white side men, opened the show. Simmons, an Alabama native, and his band churned through blues classics like “Crossroads” and then played “Halleluah Man,” a tune he co-wrote with Leon Russell.

For five years, Simmons toured with Russell and, at the U.S. Cellular Center, he held up one of his guitars, noting, “This guitar was given to me by Leon Russell,” who got it from (African-American blues icon) Freddie King.  “It’s one of my proudest possessions,” Simmons said.