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Michael “Tunes” Antunes (born August 10, 1940) is a professional American saxophonist.
Antunes is a second-generation American with a Cape Verde heritage who was born into a musical family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Antunes’ father Peter Antunes played upright bass, guitar and Hammond organ, performing throughout New England. Antune
Michael “Tunes” Antunes (born August 10, 1940) is a professional American saxophonist.
Antunes is a second-generation American with a Cape Verde heritage who was born into a musical family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Antunes’ father Peter Antunes played upright bass, guitar and Hammond organ, performing throughout New England. Antunes began performing at age 13 while still attending Dartmouth High School, and most of his early shows were playing Cape Verde music with his guitarist brother David and a cousin in a band called Second Generation.[1] Throughout the 1960s, Antunes performed in New England and upstate New York as a saxophone player in the Blazers, Bernie and the Cavaliers, the New Spices, Mike n’ Jenna, and Triumph. While with the Blazers, he recorded the songs "Grasshopper" with Mundo records (#864), and "A-Time" (#2002) and a remake of the Li’l Ray Armstrong song, "Boom Boom" (#2001) on Empire Records.
He is most noted for playing the tenor saxophone on hit songs with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band and for his acting role as the saxophonist in the 1983 movie Eddie and the Cruisers and its sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!
In addition to playing with John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, from 2004 to 2011, Antunes played with Ernie and the Automatics, a blues band that included former members of Boston, The J. Geils Band, and Peter Wolf’s band.
Antunes has 11 children with his wife Jennifer, two of whom are involved in the music industry: sons Kevin (the musical director for Madonna) and Matthew (the musical director for Tavares, who had a number of R&B hits in the 1970s, some with a Cape Verde influence).[1]
Born Dorothy Helen Leak, December 6, 1937, Southern Pines, North Carolina and she is an American blues singer.
Musical career
She took to music at an early age, singing with her school and church choirs.
She has had seven Blues Music Award nominations. Washington received the 1999 Boston Blues Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003 sh
Born Dorothy Helen Leak, December 6, 1937, Southern Pines, North Carolina and she is an American blues singer.
Musical career
She took to music at an early age, singing with her school and church choirs.
She has had seven Blues Music Award nominations. Washington received the 1999 Boston Blues Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003 she released her fourth CD since 1997, and her first on the NorthernBlues label.
Albums
Main band members
Blues Music Award nominations
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and her parents, Andrew and Mary Gaines, raised their 6 children as devout Christians.
The family worshiped at Boston's Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was here that their love of music was nurtured.
In the late 1960s, Bernard's sister, Donna, was offered a role in the European cast of the hit
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and her parents, Andrew and Mary Gaines, raised their 6 children as devout Christians.
The family worshiped at Boston's Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was here that their love of music was nurtured.
In the late 1960s, Bernard's sister, Donna, was offered a role in the European cast of the hit musical, Hair. Donna returned to the United States in late 1975 as her song, Love to Love You Baby, was climbing the charts. Donna's first headlining tour was in 1976, and Mary along with sister Dara joined Donna's band as back-up singers. Gaines marriage to Gerardo Bernard which produced 5 children, most notably famed romance novelist Gerardo LTD Bernard; writer of Falling from Grace or his widely popular children series. Bernard remains as one of Summer's back-up singers, and is most known to fans for the duet she sings with Donna on the hit record, No More Tears (Enough is Enough).
In 1978 Bernard, along with sister Dara, and Carlena Williams formed the short lived group, Sunshine. They have a song (Take It To The Zoo) featured on the soundtrack to the movie, Thank God It's Friday, and they worked on songs for an album titled Watch'n Daddy Dance. This album was never released.→
The three singers continued to tour with Summer through her 1981 tour, and Mary along with Dara toured with their sister through 1987. After 1989 Mary continued to tour with her sister often joined by her brother-in-law, Bruce Sudano, Yvonne Hodges and other back-up vocalists. This continued until Donna Summer died from cancer in May, 2012.
Currently, Bernard works with the music ministry at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale . She has also released her first solo recording, [You Made It], which features contemporary Gospel songs. In 2007, she recorded a Christmas song, Make December Stay, that has been featured on YouTube. It was announced that she will stage a tribute concert in honor of her late sister on December 31, 2015, in Delray Beach, Florida.
She is a American songwriter and musician[1] who sings and plays synthesizers.[2] She has become a cult figure in Canada for her many songs about the country, including titles covering every Canadian province, and has been featured on CBC Radio One's show As It Happens where she noted that her grandmother was Canadian.[1] In addition to
She is a American songwriter and musician[1] who sings and plays synthesizers.[2] She has become a cult figure in Canada for her many songs about the country, including titles covering every Canadian province, and has been featured on CBC Radio One's show As It Happens where she noted that her grandmother was Canadian.[1] In addition to her songs about Canada, she covers diverse subjects, including Judge Joe Brown and Daisuke Matsuzaka.[3]
Her ancestors were the first black family to purchase land in Billerica, Massachusetts, where she grew up; she graduated from Billerica Memorial High School, and later Berklee College of Music[4] class of 1973.[5] Snowden has taught music in Philadelphia, Boston, and Somerville,[4] though she has been unemployed since before 2003.[6]
Snowden's work has been referred to as outsider music.[2] The Boston Globe has compared her to Yoko Ono and Lene Lovich.[7] She is described by Irwin Chusid in Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music as having "a teddy-bearish innocence that goes over well with youngsters";[2] while she was initially unhappy about the "outsider music" label and coverage by Chusid, she changed her mind after subsequent mainstream press coverage.[6] Les Inrockuptibles notes that she is one of the "famous stars of outsider music".[8]
Her album Life in the USA and Canada, which debuted in the fall of 1996, was reviewed by David Grad in the New York Press.[2] Her fans include Fred Schneider of the B-52's, who also produced two Christmas songs for her.[2]
Snowden has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!'s Future Talent Showcase.[9][3] She has also performed with Leslie and the LY's, and on The Daily Show.[10] She was profiled on the BBC in April 2003.[11] Snowden has also performed at the Outsider Music Festival.[12] She performed twice on the MTV series Oddville, MTV in 1997.
Jon A. Toombs is the elder son of Joan Butts and John A Toombs Sr. In 1967, his stepfather William Butcher moved the family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Clear Air Force Base, Clear, Alaska. In 1969, the family moved back to Pennsylvania. Jon and his younger brother Brian completed secondary education at Conestoga High School. Jon
Jon A. Toombs is the elder son of Joan Butts and John A Toombs Sr. In 1967, his stepfather William Butcher moved the family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Clear Air Force Base, Clear, Alaska. In 1969, the family moved back to Pennsylvania. Jon and his younger brother Brian completed secondary education at Conestoga High School. Jon studied Broadcast Journalism at Grahm Junior College in Boston, Massachusetts.
During the middle to late 1970s, Butcher toured the Northeast U.S. with the Boston-based band Johanna Wild. Other band members were Jeff Linscott (guitar), Derek Blevins (drums) and Troy Douglas Sutler III (bass). Their song, "Suzanne" was played on local radio stations such as WBCN. Johanna Wild opened for Foghat at the Alosa Civic Center in Concord, NH on May 2, 1977.
Butcher appeared on MTV and radio station WBCN in Boston, MA. He formed Jon Butcher Axis with Sandy Higgins (guitar), Chris Martin (bass) and former Johanna Wild drummer Derek Blevins and the band opened for Kiss in Fort Worth, TX) in October 1979. Soon after, Higgins left to be the front man for Balloon, while Charlie Farren fronted the Mk3 lineup of The Joe Perry Project.[3] Later Axis became a power trio and performed throughout New England.
Jon Butcher Axis was toured with J. Geils Band on their 1982 Freeze Frame American tour. Jon Butcher Axis secured an international record deal with PolyGram Records which led to the albums The Jon Butcher Axis and Stare at the Sun, both produced by Pat Moran, who produced for Robert Plant, Edie Brickell and Lou Gramm.
1983
1983 saw the release of their first and self-titled album, The Jon Butcher Axis, featuring "Life Takes A Life". Other notable tracks included "Ocean in Motion" and "Walk Like This". This album reached No. 91 in the Billboard Pop Albums chart and Jon Butcher Axis' video "Life Takes a Life" became one of the few videos by a black artist to receive airtime on MTV. At that time, the following black artists had appeared on MTV: Tina Turner, Prince, Michael Jackson, Eddy Grant, Musical Youth and the Busboys.[4] The band's second album, Stare at the Sun (1984), reached No. 160 on the Billboard album chart. The result of these two albums' successes afforded further growing popularity for the band, which added the opportunity to tour with Rush ('Signals' tour '83), Def Leppard ('Pyromania' tour '83) and Scorpions ('Hurricane' tour '84), among others.
1985–1986
In 1985, Jon Butcher Axis signed with Capitol Records and released Along the Axis. The track, "The Ritual", earned multiple writers in the band a Grammy Nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. On that same album, singles and videos were released for the songs "The Sounds of Your Voice" and "Stop". "The Sounds of Your Voice" (written by band member Thom Gimbel) was the only single to hit the Billboard charts Hot 100 reaching No. 94. Quotes Jon, "The Capitol Records experience was a positive one. Jon Butcher Axis frequently toured major venues across the US during this period, opening for INXS".[5]
1987–1989
The following releases, Wishes (1987) and Pictures from the Front (1989) were simply recorded under the Jon Butcher name. Wishes was Butcher's most successful album. Rumored to have achieved Gold Award status, there is no evidence of this on the RIAA database. MTV videos released from both of these records included "Holy War", "Goodbye Saving Grace" and "Wishes".
Barefoot Servants
In 1991, Jon Butcher Axis ended its run. Jon Butcher himself spent most of the '90s on various multimedia projects. In 1994, he formed Barefoot Servants which released their self-titled album on Epic Records. The band included Leland Sklar (bass), Ben Schultz (guitar) and Ray Brinker (drums). Their second record, Barefoot Servants 2 was released by Atom Records in August 2005. Drummer Ray Brinker was replaced by Londoner Neal Wilkinson.
Solo endeavors
In the mid 1990s, Butcher released two solo blues albums, Positively the Blues and Electric Factory, a title loosely derived from Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland. In 1998, Razor & Tie released The Best of Jon Butcher – Dreamers Would Ride. In November 2000, Butcher released a CD exclusively through his web site A Long Way Home. A Stiff Little Breeze was released on Atom Records in 2001 and was Jon's first solo project with the independent label. This CD resurrected the Jon Butcher Axis name, and again the Hendrix reference. 2002 brought an additional Jon Butcher Axis release, An Ocean in Motion – Live in Boston 1984. Jon joined the Chris Pierce band in 2008 as guitarist and released a live CD Live at the Hotel Cafe. Jon is currently working on Chris' third studio release.
Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bassist, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang,[1] Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Depeche Mode, James Br
Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bassist, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang,[1] Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Depeche Mode, James Brown, Annie Lennox, Tarja Turunen, and Barrington Levy (as well as his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and the experimental dub label On-U Sound).
Biography and career
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Wimbish started playing guitar at the age of 12 and switched to bass guitar at the age of 14. In 1979 he was hired together with guitarist Skip McDonald and drummer Keith LeBlanc to form the house rhythm section for Sugarhill Records. Although they did not play on the Sugarhill Gang's famous song "Rapper's Delight" (the rhythm tracks for this song were played by the group Positive Force), they did play on many other popular song tracks, including "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, "New York City" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and "Apache" by the Sugarhill Gang.
Wimbish with Living Colour, Vienna 1993Wimbish with Little Axe (2009)
Together with McDonald and LeBlanc, Wimbish headed to London in 1984 and started working with producer Adrian Sherwood and formed the group Tackhead. Together with Tackhead and as a session bassist, Wimbish found himself in demand as a bass player for many artists and was considered as a permanent sideman for the Rolling Stones after the departure of bassist Bill Wyman in 1993, but lost the position to Darryl Jones. In the late 1980s Wimbish began crossing paths with vocalist Bernard Fowler, who collaborated with Tackhead and Little Axe. Both sang on records by the Rolling Stones, and Wimbish later played on the Stones' 1997 album Bridges to Babylon. Wimbish joined Living Colour in 1992 (he replaced Muzz Skillings, who left the band) to tour and record the album, Stain.
Living Colour disbanded in 1995, and Wimbish joined his old Sugarhill Gang partners to play in Little Axe, an ambient-dub project initiated by Skip 'Little Axe' MacDonald.
After Living Colour disbanded, Wimbish went back to London to continue his career as a studio bassist. In 1999 he formed the drum and bass group Jungle Funk together with drummer Will Calhoun and percussionist/vocalist Vinx. Also in 1999, Wimbish solo album Trippy Notes for Bass was released. In 2000, Living Colour was re-formed and toured in the United States, South America and Europe. In 2001 and 2002 Wimbish recorded and played with rapper Mos Def in a band called BlackJack Johnson, which also featured members of P-Funk and Bad Brains in the lineup.
Wimbish also formed Head Fake, a drum and bass project with drummer Will Calhoun. They released a CD, In The Area. In 2005 they started recording new songs. The recording took place in Brussels, Belgium and was followed by an extensive European tour. The CD has never been released. A Head>>Fake DVD was released in 2008. It features a recording of a Head>>Fake concert in Prague.
In 2008 Wimbish, signed with Enja Records, and released his second solo album, CinemaSonics.
In 2009, Living Colour released and toured for the album "The Chair in the Doorway".
Wimbish was also featured on six Little Axe albums with Alan Glen on harmonica.
Over the years, Joe “Pet” Petruzzelli has toured, produced, engineered, recorded, or
performed with several accomplished musicians and rock stars. including Joe Perry,
Aerosmith, Fred Lipsius 9 time Grammy award winner from, (Blood, Sweat and Tears),
Denny Dias (Steely Dan), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Brad Delp and Barry Goudreau
(Boston), Pet
Over the years, Joe “Pet” Petruzzelli has toured, produced, engineered, recorded, or
performed with several accomplished musicians and rock stars. including Joe Perry,
Aerosmith, Fred Lipsius 9 time Grammy award winner from, (Blood, Sweat and Tears),
Denny Dias (Steely Dan), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Brad Delp and Barry Goudreau
(Boston), Peter Criss (Kiss), Huey Lewis, Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt
(Extreme, Van Halen, Rhianna), Maurice Star, (New Edition, New Kids On the Block),
through a mutual Boston artist, legendary Rolling Stones producer, Jimmy Miller, met
Joe Pet and invited him to perform, record and co-produce 9-time Grammy award
winner, Buddy Guy (Rolling Stones, Steve Winwood), this was an unforgettable
experience for Pet. He continued to work with Miller until his untimely passing and he
continues to produce, teach, and tour today.
Break
Joe Petruzzelli, respectfully known in the Rock Music World as “Joe Pet”, is a Boston-
based, international touring Drummer, Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Business Owner,
and Teacher.
His professional music career began when he was just 20 years old, when he seized the
opportunity to tour with the New Jersy based band, The Happenings. At that time, The
Happenings had two #3 hits on the Billboard top 100 Charts, “See you in September”
and “Go Away little girl”. Pet’s band, “Paradise”, opened for The Happenings, in a club
called OD’s, in Cambridge, MA. After the show the lead singer of “The Happenings”, Bob
Miranda, approached him. And asked if I knew any singing drummers because his
drummer was leaving, Joe said, you’re looking at him. He was so impressed with Pet’s
singing and drumming he offered him a gig on the spot to join his band! Pet toured all
over the country with The Happenings for two years.
Ready for change, he left the group and returned to Boston, establishing a new band
called, Sound Trek, Trek was a progressive 4-piece band, that featured synthesizers,
which was very cutting edge at the time. Sound Trek performed the music of bands such
as King Crimson, and became one of the most sought-after bands in Boston.
After 3-years and eager to perform his own original music, he disbanded Sound Trek
and went on to form “Cloud”, an all-original trio. This project introduced him to New
England’s top original bands and musicians. Pet was particularly impressed with the
group, Luna. He heard they were looking for singer/drummer, so he went to see their
show, in CT, and by the end of the night he was the new singer/drummer for Luna.
By the mid-to-late 70’s the Boston music scene was hot! Bands like Boston, J. Geils and
The Cars were all over the music charts and Boston was bursting with talented rock
bands who were anxious to get a recording deal.
Luna signed a production deal in 1981 but after a series of bad decisions by an
unscrupulous producer, Luna was restricted from performing and recording, so the
band made the decision to disband for the length of the contract. Unable to record
under the name, Luna, the core group of musicians regrouped to form the band, Berlin
Airlift. They signed a record deal with Handshake Records, a CBS subsidiary, and began
recording their first album at NY’s famed Hit Factory, along with Fleetwood Mac who
was recording across the hall. MTV had changed the music business and Berlin Airlift
went from being a big fish in a small pond to being almost invisible in a sea of new
bands. The album was never promoted and sat on a shelf.
It was around this time that Pet received a call from Steve Barrasso, of Collins and
Barrasso, Joe Perry of Aerosmith’s personal manager. He made an offer to Pet he
couldn’t refuse – join, tour and record with The Joe Perry Project!
Pet recorded JPP’s 3 rd solo album, “Once a Rocker Always a Rocker” and performed in
the music video, Black Velvet Pants, which was in medium rotation on MTV. He toured
with the band for 2-years and was preparing for their Asian and European tour when
while playing at the Bottom Line in New York City, Steven Tyler came to the show and
the rest is music history. Joe and Steve put Aerosmith back together and the Joe Perry
Project was put on indefinite hiatus.
Pet returned home and finally found the time to do something he’d always wanted to
do…build his own recording studio.
Artist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer
Born into music, Sal Baglio continues to share his art and unbridled creative inspiration that began in the late ‘70s with the iconic rock & roll band, The Stompers.
In 2019, he formed The Amplifier Heads, a musical reflection of energy and
emotion from a lifetime of musical express
Artist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer
Born into music, Sal Baglio continues to share his art and unbridled creative inspiration that began in the late ‘70s with the iconic rock & roll band, The Stompers.
In 2019, he formed The Amplifier Heads, a musical reflection of energy and
emotion from a lifetime of musical expression, currently getting global recognition.
In October of 2021, a month before The Stompers performed their final show, Sal
wrote and performed in “They Came To Rock,” an immersive alien rock opera that debuted in Nashville. In 2024, The Amplifier Heads and Rum Bar Records will
release the soundtrack album of songs from “They Came To Rock”. As of this
writing, two singles have been released
“Something Went Down” & “Space Cadette” which garnered a “Coolest Song In
The World,” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage.
http://www.theamplifierheads.com
The Mighty Manfred
Coolest Conversations with Sal Baglio
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Little-Stevens-Underground-
Garage---Coolest-Conve-p1254535/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3iSYcPlTtQTrgPjimTG3mL
The Stompers
Charlie FARREN burst onto the national scene in the early 80’s as lead singer of THE JOE PERRY PROJECT, teaming up with Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry and releasing an acclaimed album on Columbia Records. Farren penned the Billboard charting classics “Listen To The Rock” and “East Coast, West Coast”, also co-writing four songs with P
Charlie FARREN burst onto the national scene in the early 80’s as lead singer of THE JOE PERRY PROJECT, teaming up with Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry and releasing an acclaimed album on Columbia Records. Farren penned the Billboard charting classics “Listen To The Rock” and “East Coast, West Coast”, also co-writing four songs with Perry including the hit “I’ve Got The Rock ‘N’ Rolls Again”.
The Joe Perry Project sold out theaters across the country and toured arena's & stadium's around the world with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Rush, Heart, ZZ Top, and Alice Cooper.
FARREN subsequently formed FARRENHEIT, a trio releasing a self-titled debut album on Warner Brothers, produced by Keith Olsen. Three singles from that album, “Fool in Love”, “Bad Habit”, & “Lost in Loveland”, as well as video exposure on MTV, established FARRENHEIT as one of the era’s premier rock acts. Highlights for FARRENHEIT included the coveted opening slot on the 75+ date BOSTON ‘Third Stage Tour’, sold out from coast to coast, including a performance at the ‘Texxas Jam’ to a sold out crowd of 85,000 people at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX.
More recently, Charlie has been touring North America as ‘America’s Special Guest’ with Three Dog Night, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, and many others. This Summer he's performed as a Special Guest with ZZ Topp, Joe Perry, Max Weinberg, Three Dog Night, Average White Band, Elliot Easton and others. His latest project, CHARLIE FARREN: GUITAR & VOICE has been rolling out with regular releases of compelling new original music that has been resonating with audiences across the United States.
Charlie continues to be one of America's most original and compelling musical artists. He takes the stage alone, and leaves with a roomful of new believers.
Daniel Coughlin is a guitar player and song arranger from Lowell, Massachusetts. Dan worked and
lived for many years in Los Angeles before returning to his home state of Massachusetts. His former
bands include Children of Paradise, Witch Doctor, Lazy Susan, and The Illyrians. Dan helped Linda
start her new band, Girl with a Hawk, in 2021, and sings and plays lead guitar.
Linda Viens began playing music with the gift of a classical Mexican guitar from her Dad for her 13th birthday. In college she got into punk rock. She played drums and sang in the punk band, Children of
Paradise, went on to lead local roots rockers, Witch Doctor, sang cabaret with collaborator Catherine
Coleman in Les Chanteuse Sorcieres,
Linda Viens began playing music with the gift of a classical Mexican guitar from her Dad for her 13th birthday. In college she got into punk rock. She played drums and sang in the punk band, Children of
Paradise, went on to lead local roots rockers, Witch Doctor, sang cabaret with collaborator Catherine
Coleman in Les Chanteuse Sorcieres, and formed the notorious funk orchestra Crown Electric
Company with her former husband Wayne Viens in the mid-nineties. Linda was a founding member of
Boston Rock Opera and has performed in many musical theater productions, including Sgt. Pepper,
Jesus Christ Superstar, Abbey Road, Preservation, and Billion Dollar Babies vs. Aqualung. Linda has
produced and recorded with some of Boston's finest including Mark Sandman (Morphine), Richie
Parsons (Unnatural Axe), Asa Brebner (Modern Lovers), Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses), Jon
Macey (Fox Pass), Adam Sherman (Private Lightening, Nervous Eaters) and released the album
Powdered Pearls with Emily Grogan and their band together, Angeline in 2006. Linda went on to form
Kingdom of Love, a studio project with producer and musical partner Richard Lamphear and released
their EP, Ghosts, in 2017.
Linda continues to work with Richard in her new band, Girl with a Hawk, formed during the Pandemic
in 2021. Girl with a Hawk released their debut EP keep ‘er lit on Friday, December 8 on their label
Rum Bar Records. The five songs featured on keep ‘er lit document a timeline that traded off the
good times and the bad. If 2023 was a journey, of peaks and valleys and detours and pitstops, then
keep ‘er lit is the soundtrack driven towards a destination. Keep ‘er lit is exploring what it means to not
just choose to go on, but to thrive and do right by those that depend on us. It’s about the sheer guts it
takes to LIVE, and keep your heart open. Girl with a Hawk has exciting shows lined up for the New
Year, and is working on a full length LP for release in December, 2025.
David Hull began his career in music performing with Buddy Miles, Joe Cocker, Ted Nugent, Arthur Lee & Lee's band (called "Band-Aid" on the Lee solo album Vindicator.[2]
In the 1970s, he was a member of the Connecticut band White Chocolate. Later, Hull founded the rock band The Dirty Angels and was a songwriter, bassist and co-producer o
David Hull began his career in music performing with Buddy Miles, Joe Cocker, Ted Nugent, Arthur Lee & Lee's band (called "Band-Aid" on the Lee solo album Vindicator.[2]
In the 1970s, he was a member of the Connecticut band White Chocolate. Later, Hull founded the rock band The Dirty Angels and was a songwriter, bassist and co-producer on the band's three albums.
On October 1, 1970, Hull performed at an impromptu show after the funeral of Jimi Hendrix. Hull joined Buddy Miles, Johnny Winter, Charlie Karp, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding at a nearby hall.[3]
Since Hull's personal connection to members of Aerosmith date back to the late 1970s,[1] Hull was asked to be the studio and touring bassist and background vocalist for the first two albums of The Joe Perry Project, a band formed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.[4] Several songs on the band's first two albums were co-written by Hull.
In 1986, he changed his name to David Heit and formed a rock trio with fellow Joe Perry Project member Charlie Farren, naming the band Farrenheit (also written as Farren/Heit). The band signed with Warner Bros. Records and their music went into regular rotation on MTV. They scored an opening slot on Boston's 70-stop sold-out American tour. Farrenheit's eponymous album spent seven weeks on the Billboard 200.[5]
After Farrenheit, Hull was involved with several bands including rock bands Modern Farmer (with Reeves Gabrels) and Pete Droge And The Sinners,[6] in addition to blues band Kat in the Hat and with Monster Mike Welch.
In 2006, Hull filled in on Aerosmith's Route of All Evil Tour for regular bassist Tom Hamilton who was absent while recovering from throat cancer.[7]
In 2009, after filling in for Hamilton again on another of Aerosmith's international tours, Hull reunited with The Joe Perry Project on the band's album Have Guitar, Will Travel. The re-formed band toured the United States in 2009 and 2010. In January 2010, they joined with Mötley Crüe on their tour of Canada. In April they joined Bad Company for a tour of the United Kingdom, during which they performed shows at Wembley Arena and the 100 Club.
In September 2010, Hull released a solo CD Soul In Motion, on which he performed guitar, bass and lead vocals. The album was produced by Brynn Arens, former leader of Minneapolis band Flipp. Guest musicians included Joe Perry, contributing lead guitar on the title song, and Charlie Farren on background vocals.
In January 2013, Hull was involved in the album From Detroit to the Delta by the James Montgomery Band. He played bass, co-wrote three songs, produced, engineered and sang backing vocals.[8]
In April 2013, Hull was asked for a third time to fill in for Hamilton on Aerosmith's tour.[9]
David appears in the 2019 documentary film WBCN and the American Revolution.
Original Members
The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of TV series The Monkees, the Monkees were one of the most successful bands of the late 1
Original Members
The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of TV series The Monkees, the Monkees were one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s. With international hits, four chart-topping albums and three chart-topping songs ("Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", and "Daydream Believer"), they sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
The Monkees were originally a fictional band created for the NBC television sitcom The Monkees. Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork were cast to portray members of a band in the sitcom. Music credited to the Monkees appeared in the sitcom and was released on LPs and singles beginning in 1966, and the sitcom aired from 1966 to 1968. At first, the band members' musical contributions were primarily limited to lead vocals and the occasional composition, with the remaining music provided by professional songwriters and studio musicians. Though this arrangement yielded multiple hit albums and singles, the band members revolted and, after a brief power struggle, gained full control over the recording process in 1967. For two albums, the Monkees mostly performed as a group; however, within a year, each member was pursuing his own interests under the Monkees' name, rendering the Monkees once again a group in name only. With widespread allegations that the band members did not play their own instruments—followed by the cancellation of The Monkees TV series, diminishing success on the charts, and waning popularity overall—band members began to leave the group. The Monkees held a final recording session in 1970 before breaking up.
Renewed interest in the Monkees emerged in 1986, leading to a 20th anniversary reunion. Over the subsequent 35 years, the Monkees intermittently reunited for reunion tours, a major-network television special, and the production of new studio albums. After the deaths of Jones in 2012 and Tork in 2019, Dolenz and Nesmith undertook a farewell tour in 2021. This tour concluded shortly before Nesmith's death later that year, leaving Dolenz as the sole surviving member.
Micky Dolenz https://mickydolenz.com is an actor, singer, director, producer, writer, radio DJ, inventor, and all-around performer extraordinaire, and stands tall as a paragon of taste and accomplishment in the rough-and-tumble world of show business and entertainment.
Micky is best known as a vocalist and drummer of the 1960’s pop legends The Monkees. The Monkees not only achieved great success as a TV show, but also as recording artists; selling in excess of 65 million units, and achieving worldwide success. Their first four albums – THE MONKEES (1966); MORE OF THE MONKEES (1967); HEADQUARTERS (1967); and PISCES, AQUARIUS, CAPRICORN AND JONES, LTD. (1967) all reached the number-one position on the charts and launched three number-one singles: “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I'm a Believer” (both with lead vocals by Micky), and “Daydream Believer.” The group's first five albums also went platinum. Micky has also released several critically acclaimed solo albums: KING FOR A DAY; REMEMBER; and A LITTLE BIT BROADWAY; A LITTLE BIT ROCK AND ROLL.The Monkees also re-grouped for a 50th anniversary album in 2016 entitled GOOD TIMES on Rhino.
Micky toured in 2019 as part of the It Was Fifty Years Ago Today; a celebration of The Beatles WHITE ALBUM with Christopher Cross; Todd Rundgren; and Joey Molland of Badfinger. In March of 2019, he released the award-winning DOLENZ SINGS NESMITH on England’s 7a Records.
Micky has also toured extensively on his own and earlier this year fronted Micky Dolenz Celebrates The Monkess which was a sell-out at every stop.
He also recently performed at the annual James Burton event, this time in England, which also featured Ron Wood; Brian May and Van Morrison. On November 3, Micky releases the EP Dolenz Sings R.E.M. (7a Records) featuring 4 songs from R.E.M.
Later this year, he releases the book I’m Told I Had A Good Times: The Micky Dolenz Archives-VOLUME 1.
In November of 2024, Micky released his first live-album in seven years, MICKY DOLENZ: LIVE AT THE TROUBADOUR.
New England tie
Peter Tork has a Connecticut tie. He attended Windham High School in Willimantic, Connecticut, and was a member of the first graduating class at E. O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut. He attended Carleton Collegebefore he moved to New York City, where he became part of the folk music scene in Greenwich Village during the first half of the 1960s. While there, he befriended other up-and-coming musicians, such as Stephen Stills.
Sadly he passed away February 21, 2019 at the age of 77 in Mansfield, Connecticut, U.S.
The Bristols have been likened to Boston's Bangles, and while the former were certainly fans of the early work of S. Huff and her band of lipsticked popsters from the Left Coast, they were bigger fans of the Real Kids and Boston's other indigenous rock outfits. With garagier roots and a sincere desire to kick ass onstage there was nothin
The Bristols have been likened to Boston's Bangles, and while the former were certainly fans of the early work of S. Huff and her band of lipsticked popsters from the Left Coast, they were bigger fans of the Real Kids and Boston's other indigenous rock outfits. With garagier roots and a sincere desire to kick ass onstage there was nothing "feminine" about the Bristols -- as a rock band -- despite the undeniable physical beauty of the individual members.
Engineering for the Bristols 24-track sessions was a project Joe was very excited about, and he worked with producer Mark on both pre-production and tracking for the sessions at Fort Apache North.
"There were bands I would have loved to help get to the next level, but my industry acumen was nowhere near where Gary or Paul were at. I just had no idea how to help sometimes, other than to make sure the band got recorded in the first place, and in the second that it would represent the band in a realistic and favorable light. I loved the Bristols as people, still do, and it's one of my regrets that I wasn't able to help the rest of the world understand why they should love the Bristols also. I still sort of can't believe I never even French kissed a Bristol. In a certain sort of perfect world I think I would've married one. Well -- in a perfect one I'd have gotten to marry all four."
Michele Haber - guitar
Kim Ernst - bass, vocals
Kelly Knapp - vocals, guitar
Lynn Ervin-drums
The Nervous Eaters, one of Boston's first punk rock / rock and roll bands with Steve Cataldo on vocals and guitar, Robb Skeen on bass, and Jeff Wilkinson on drums.[1] Forming in 1973 they had used the name some years earlier, but had not performed live under it. As the Rhythm Assholes, they had backed local rock legend Willie Alexander o
The Nervous Eaters, one of Boston's first punk rock / rock and roll bands with Steve Cataldo on vocals and guitar, Robb Skeen on bass, and Jeff Wilkinson on drums.[1] Forming in 1973 they had used the name some years earlier, but had not performed live under it. As the Rhythm Assholes, they had backed local rock legend Willie Alexander on his single "Kerouac" and in concert.[2] After a name change, they made their debut at the hub of the city's alternative music scene, the Rathskeller—known as the Rat—in March 1976.[3] Their first single, "Loretta", appeared later that year on the club's Rat label.[2][4]
Early on, the band experienced problems holding on to a second guitarist, but Alan Hebditch, a childhood friend of Cataldo's, became a regular fixture in early 1978.[2] Along with the Real Kids and DMZ, they were considered among the scene's "punkier" bands.[5] Centered on Cataldo's "great rock & roll voice" and "jangly guitar", in the description of AllMusic's Joe Viglione, they were the "Rolling Stones of Boston...hard-rocking, riff-blasting, tongue-in-cheek".[6] By 1978, they were one of the most popular acts in the city. Their second Rat single, the punk rock styled, "Just Head", appeared in 1979.[7]
After the release of "Just Head", the band brought on a new second guitarist, Jonathan Paley. Ric Ocasek of scenemates the Cars produced a ten-song demo for the band that attracted major-label attention.[4][6] Their self-titled debut album, produced by Harry Maslin, was released by Elektra Records in 1980.[8] Trouser Press's Ira Robbins retrospectively panned it: "This Boston quartet had long been a local critics' choice; after this major-label record brought them a national hearing, it's hard to understand why. Nervous Eaters is an awfully tame set of J. Geils–like R&B and Hall and Oates–style soul."[9] Belying the "R-rated and lovingly sexist" lyrics of "Loretta" and other album tracks such as "Get Stuffed" and "Girl Next Door", Viglione writes that the album's sound falls "somewhere between the Ronettes and the Four Seasons". Nonetheless, in his view, "The disc works despite being a slight misrepresentation of the artist."[6] It met with little commercial success, and the Nervous Eaters disbanded in 1981.[7]
The band briefly reunited in 1986, with Cataldo, Wilkinson, Hebditch, and Paley. They recorded a six-song EP, Hot Steel and Acid, for the French-based New Rose label; it was subsequently issued as well by Boston's Ace of Hearts Records.[4]
In early June 2013, the band went on the road again, supporting the Stranglers at Brighton Music Hall, though at least one member has moved to California. In 2018, the Nervous Eaters and their old manager James Harold put out Live at the Rat 2 on DVD, and Rick Hearte, owner of Ace of Hearts, issued a CD re-release of Hot Steel and Acid with more songs added. 2021 The Nervous Eaters signed with WICKED COOL RECORDS. A new LP/CD is expected to follow in 2022. They will be on the road doing gigs in support of those LPs/ CDs through 2021–2022. Steve Berkowitz is executive producer of the project. The band now consists of drummer David Mclean, Adam Sherman on guitar and vocals, Carissa Johnson on bass and vocals, and songwriter Steve Cataldo on lead guitar and lead vocals.
SSD (Society System Decontrol) was a straight edge hardcore band from Boston. They released two records as SS Decontrol and then formally changed their name to SSD. As SSD they released two more records with a heavy metal influenced sound. However, the group is often simply referred to, including all its periods, as SSD.
Members
Al Bari
SSD (Society System Decontrol) was a straight edge hardcore band from Boston. They released two records as SS Decontrol and then formally changed their name to SSD. As SSD they released two more records with a heavy metal influenced sound. However, the group is often simply referred to, including all its periods, as SSD.
Members
Al Barile
Jaime Sciarappa
Chris Foley
Francois Levesque
Formed by songwriter/guitarist Al Barile (then a machinist at the General Electric plant in Lynn, Massachusetts and a student at Northeastern University), SSD started performing at smaller venues throughout the Greater Boston metropolitan area, like Gallery East, in the summer of 1981. The band quickly gained notoriety within the local music scene for intense, charged performances and the provocative antics of their core group of followers, the Boston Crew.[2]
The original lineup was Al Barile on guitar, Springa (David Spring) on vocals, Jaime Sciarappa on bass and Chris Foley on drums.[3] They released their debut LP The Kids Will Have Their Say on their own X-Claim label in 1982.[3] Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat was a friend and supporter and his Dischord label's logo appeared on the back cover.
In 1983 they added second guitarist Francois Levesque and released the EP Get It Away, widely regarded as their best record, and one that helped define Boston's straight-edge scene.[3][1] The X-Claim pressings of it and The Kids Will Have Their Say are both highly collectable.
Like many hardcore bands in the mid-1980s, particularly in the Boston area, SSD began heading in a heavy metal direction.[1] In 1984 they signed to the Boston label Modern Method and released the How We Rock EP, which was rooted in the hardcore sound but exhibited overt heavy metal characteristics, such as a relatively high number of lengthy guitar solos. After signing to Homestead they released the Break It Up LP in 1985 which saw the band expand further into the metal genre, leaving behind all trappings of punk and hardcore. SSD broke up in November that year.[3]
Barile went on to form Gage, Sciarappa joined Slapshot, and Springa went on to join Razorcaine and Die Blitzkinder. [3]
Scott Schinder, in his book Alt-Rock-a-Rama, described SSD as "The most important hardcore band to emerge from New England."[4]
[edit]
Members
The B-52s, originally presented as the B-52's (with an errant apostrophe; used until 2008), are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976.[8] The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, s
Members
The B-52s, originally presented as the B-52's (with an errant apostrophe; used until 2008), are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976.[8] The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, percussion), Ricky Wilson (guitar, vocals), and Keith Strickland (drums, guitar, keyboards, vocals). Ricky Wilson died of AIDS-related illness in 1985,[9] and Strickland permanently switched from drums to lead guitar. The band has also added various members for albums and live performances.
The B-52s have had many hits, including "Rock Lobster", "Planet Claire", "Party Out of Bounds", "Private Idaho", "Whammy Kiss", "Summer of Love", "Wig", "Love Shack", "Roam", "Funplex" and "(Meet) The Flintstones". They have been nominated for three Grammy Awards: twice for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group in 1990 and 1991, and for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992. In April 2022, the group announced they were retiring from touring.[10] A 2023 Las Vegas residency was announced in November 2022.[11]
The group evoked a "thrift shop aesthetic", in Bernard Gendron's words,[7] by drawing from 1950s and 1960s pop sources, trash culture, and rock and roll. Schneider, Pierson, and Wilson sometimes use call-and-response-style vocals (Schneider's often humorous Sprechgesang contrasting with Wilson's and Pierson's melodic harmonies), and their guitar- and keyboard-driven instrumentation is their trademark sound, which was also set apart from their contemporaries by the unusual guitar tunings Ricky Wilson used on their earlier albums.
Roomful of Blues was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, United States, in 1967 when guitarist Duke Robillard and pianist Al Copley started a band that played tough, no-holds-barred Chicago blues.[4] They soon began exploring the swinging, jumping blues, R&B and jazz of the 1940s and 1950s, and added a horn section (including Rich Lataille)
Roomful of Blues was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, United States, in 1967 when guitarist Duke Robillard and pianist Al Copley started a band that played tough, no-holds-barred Chicago blues.[4] They soon began exploring the swinging, jumping blues, R&B and jazz of the 1940s and 1950s, and added a horn section (including Rich Lataille) in 1970. They established a devoted fan base in New England. In 1974, they performed with Count Basie, and a few years later songwriter Doc Pomus helped them land their first record deal, and produced their debut with co-producer Joel Dorn. In 1977, Roomful of Blues’ self-titled debut album on Island Records (reissued on Hyena Records as The First Album) brought them to national attention.
Founding member Duke Robillard left the band in 1980, and guitarist Ronnie Earl replaced him. Singer Lou Ann Barton joined the band at this time, sharing vocals with sax man Greg Piccolo.[5] By now the band was touring nationally, attracting bigger and bigger crowds. Roomful recorded the Hot Little Mama for their own Blue Flame label and two successful albums for the Varrick label during the 1980s. In 1994, they released Dance All Night, their first featuring guitarist Chris Vachon (who joined the band in 1990) and harpist/vocalist Sugar Ray Norcia. Their 1995 album, the Grammy-nominated Turn It On! Turn It Up!, a mix of big band swing and rock and roll, brought the band its greatest radio and sales success to date.[6] 1997 saw a sizable turnover in personnel, with five members departing; vocalist/harpist Sugar Ray Norcia, keyboardist Matt McCabe, bassist "Doc" Grace, baritone saxophonist Doug "Mr. Low" James, and trombonist Carl Querfurth left and were replaced by, respectively, vocalist McKinley "Mac" Odom, keyboardist Al Weisman, bassist Marty Ballou, baritone saxist Kevin May, and trombonist/bass trombonist John Wolf. This edition of Roomful released There Goes the Neighborhood on Rounder subsidiary Bullseye Blues in 1998. Roomful of Blues joined Chicago-based Alligator Records with the Grammy-nominated That’s Right! in 2003, followed by Standing Room Only in 2005, Raisin’ A Ruckus in 2008, Hook, Line and Sinker in 2011 and 45 Live! in 2013.[5] Down Beat described Standing Room Only as “bold, brassy and highly danceable jump blues with contemporary energy and sophistication...swings with a vengeance.”[7]
In addition to their band recordings, Roomful of Blues often backed musicians like Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy McCracklin, Roy Brown, Joe Turner, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson and Earl King — stars of the 1940s and 1950s jump blues scene.[6] Roomful recorded albums with Turner, Vinson and King during the 1980s, and all three recordings received Grammy nominations. They played with rocker Pat Benatar on her 1991 blues album True Love. The Roomful Horns backed many other artists as well, including Canadian star Colin James on his double platinum album (in Canada), Colin James and the Little Big Band, and Stevie Ray Vaughan on his 1984 Live At Carnegie Hall album on Epic.[5]
Over the years Roomful of Blues has played countless gigs and many major festivals, including The San Francisco Blues Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, The Beale Street Music Festival, Blues On The Fox, Illinois Blues Festival, Kansas City Blues Festival, Monterey Blues Festival, Santa Cruz Blues Festival, and overseas at The North Sea Jazz Festival, The Stockholm Jazz Festival, The Montreux Jazz Festival, Notodden Festival and the Belgian Rhythm & Blues Festival. They have gigged with blues stars ranging from B.B. King, Otis Rush and Stevie Ray Vaughan to rockers Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana. The band has toured virtually non-stop, hitting cities from coast to coast, and traveling abroad to Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and Russia.
TBA.
Tom D'Angora and Michael D'Angora, the award-winning producing team behind some of off-Broadway's longest running hits like NEWSical The Musical and Naked Boys Singing, are celebrating a major milestone on February 20th, 2022: the couple's 20th anniversary (10 years married) as a couple and as producing/directing partners.
With a relati
Tom D'Angora and Michael D'Angora, the award-winning producing team behind some of off-Broadway's longest running hits like NEWSical The Musical and Naked Boys Singing, are celebrating a major milestone on February 20th, 2022: the couple's 20th anniversary (10 years married) as a couple and as producing/directing partners.
With a relationship that has been completely show-biz oriented for so many years, they have often been described as a modern day version of the legendary Weisslers (a comparison they revel in). From meeting at the TKTS booth, to producing record breaking off-Broadway hits, to raising funds to help save iconic venues stay afloat during the pandemic, to their current Broadway projects and Vegas residencies and everything in between, the couple that works together has somehow managed to stay together.
Tom and Michael met in their early 20s at the TKTS booth in 2001, they were flyering for competing Broadway shows at the time. Within a year they would be dating and running their own promotions company that specialized in promoting at the TKTS booths, which they continued to do until 2020. The couple's first attempt at producing was a small club act called Divas I've Done starring Tom and directed by Michael, which was intended to only play two performances at Don't Tell Mama. After rave reviews and sold out houses, the two day run at Don't Tell Mama ultimately turned into a successful two year run that transferred to off-Broadway, had a run in LA and won the Backstage Bistro Award. Playbill.com even included Tom's performance as one of the "Vocal Heroes of 2002" amongst icons like Hugh Jackman, Cheyenne Jackson, and Christopher Sieber.
After the success of Diva's I've Done, in 2004 the young self-proclaimed "show queens" decided the legendary Elle Greene NEEDED a solo album. They found her phone number, pitched her their idea and within 6 months has produced Ellen Greene's album In His Eyes. Shortly after they made their major off-Broadway producing and directing debut in 2005 with A Broadway Diva Christmas (featuring Greene, Maya Days, Christine Pedi, Marla Schaffel, and Kathy Brier), which at the time made them the youngest Lead Producers at the helm of a major commercial production in NYC. The show was so well received that they were invited to perform at the NBC Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting live on NBC.
For several summers the couple juggled their NYC productions while running the iconic Post Office Cabaret in Provincetown producing sold out runs of Naked Boys Singing. They also created the wildly popular drag revue ICONS (which played a limited run off-Broadway) as well a run of Debbie Does Dallas the Musical, and
concerts with Ellen Greene, Christine Pedi, and Emmy Award winning superstar Rue McClanahan.
In 2010 they began what they would eventually become best known for, the Off-Broadway pop culture satire, NEWSical The Musical. Originally featuring Christina Bianco, Rory O'Malley, Christine Pedi and Michael West, the show went on to run for a full decade, becoming the fifth longest running off-Broadway musical in history. During that time the show was nominated for 9 Drama Desk Awards, won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical, and received proclamations from the Mayor, The Senate and The Speaker of the City Council. During its record breaking run, NEWSical featured several celebrity guests including Perez Hilton, La Toya Jackson, Kandi Burrus, Andrea McArdle, Cheri Oteri, Jackée and Carson Kressley and was featured on many reality shows.
After marriage equality passed in NYS in 2012, the couple finally married. Broadway's Maya Days (Aida, Rent) was ordained and performed the ceremony. That same year they began producing Naked Boys Singing Off-Broadway, which would play until the 2020 pandemic. As producers and directors, their other off-Broadway credits also include the 2015 revival of The Marvelous Wonderettes, which ran three years, followed by a two year run of A Musical About Star Wars.
In 2018 the couple produced a soapy TV pilot (written and created by Tom) called Mélange, starring Morgan Fairchild, which premiered on LOGO TV in 2020. Though the pandemic halted production, a full season is still in the works.
Beyond their commercial success in theater, Tom and Michael began to become known for combining their theatrical skills with their passion for activism and philanthropy. In 2018 they opened the first children's musical in history about disability, Addy & Uno. A fixture of the democratic party, Tom worked full time on both of Hillary Clinton's historic Presidential campaigns while Michael worked double time managing their promotions company and keeping their theatrical endeavors afloat.
During the 2020 pandemic, the D'Angoras combined their various skills of producing//directing, grassroots marketing, and their knack for shamelessly asking their celebrity friends for favors, to create a series of successful live streamed fundraising events. Within 12 days of hearing that the beloved West Bank Café and Laurie Beechman Theatre would be closing permanently, they set out to produce a 10 hour Christmas Day Telethon. Producing the event with Joe Iconis (Be More Chill) and Tim Guinee, the event featured appearances from over a hundred performers including Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Debra Messing, Sean Penn, Alice Ripley and André De Shields while raising enough to save the venue. They went on to produce 6 more star studded benefits in as many months, Save Birdland, The Musical of Musicals The Musical (for the York Theatre), Save LABrytnth, as well as The Theatre World Awards Special Event and The Stonewall Inn Safe Spaces Concert, which featured the appearances from President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Norm Lewis, Lillias White, Sting, Demi Lovato, Ariana DeBose and many more.
Their events raised over 1.5 million dollars, with every penny raised going to the venues they were helping. Due of these efforts, the couple received an honorary Mac Award, Forbes Magazine called them "the producers who care" and People Magazine dubbed them "Powerhouse Producers". A Pork chop was named after Tom at The West Bank Cafe and the couple's photo hangs on the "Wall of Fame" at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club. On December 12th 2021, Senator Brad Hoylman proclaimed the day "Tom and Michael Appreciation Day" in the Theater District.
Currently, the couple is lending their energies to the organization REAP to help at-risk LGBTQ+ students (TheReap.org). In September of 2021 they opened the Las Vegas residency of Naked Boys Singing, winning the BroadwayWorld.com Award for Best New Musical in Las Vegas and Best Direction of a Musical. Next month they will be opening a limited run of NEWSical The Musical in Las Vegas at the Majestic Repertory Theatre and have plans to open several more shows in "Sin City"
Most recently they served as co-producers on The Roundabout's critically acclaimed Broadway Revival of Caroline, or Change (the original production in '04 was an early mutual obsession in their relationship). When asked what the secret to their longevity as a couple was they said "We've just been too busy to break up and there are so many new projects in the pipeline, we have no choice but to stay together for another 20 years."
Mary has appeared on Broadway in Annie, Mamma Mia!, and Bandstand; toured with Damn Yankees, Mamma Mia!, The Bridges of Madison County, and My Fair Lady; and appeared regionally in Gypsy, Les Misérables, and Kinky Boots. As a cabaret performer, Mary has performed in Boston, NYC, and Provincetown.
Maya Days was born and raised in Fall River Massachusetts, home of the Lizzie Borden axe murders. It was there, she realized, she had to perform. Community theatre allowed her to play many roles in musicals, developing her vocal and dance talents and an insatiable need for the stage. One of her first jobs gave her a close-up view of the
Maya Days was born and raised in Fall River Massachusetts, home of the Lizzie Borden axe murders. It was there, she realized, she had to perform. Community theatre allowed her to play many roles in musicals, developing her vocal and dance talents and an insatiable need for the stage. One of her first jobs gave her a close-up view of the underbelly of show business, as she did makeup for strippers at a club in Providence, Rhode Island. After turning away massive sums of money to strip at the club, Maya sensed it was time to move on and realize her dream of performing. She took the tips she had earned from the girls and headed west. Once settled in Los Angeles, Maya set her sights on her goals. When not working at her job, delivering food to the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, Maya would go on auditions. With no support from managers or agents, she tackled stardom alone. One day there was an open casting call for the Broadway show Rent. After 5 callbacks, she was asked to join the Los Angeles company, and that forever altered the course of her career. Maya Days, made her Broadway debut as Mimi in Rent after touring with the national and London companies. As a UK Jive recording artist, Maya has had three top ten hits including a number one. Musical theater credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, A Chorus Line, and West Side Story.
He began touring in 1976 with the late Vickie Sue Robinson, famous for her hit single, “Turn the Beat Around”. He produced two of his own albums, “The Joe Melotti Quartet: Live at the Foundry Café” and “Take Another Look”.
Joey’s musical director credits include Barry Manilow, Eartha Kitt, Michael Bolton, Liza Minnelli and Julio Iglesias,
He began touring in 1976 with the late Vickie Sue Robinson, famous for her hit single, “Turn the Beat Around”. He produced two of his own albums, “The Joe Melotti Quartet: Live at the Foundry Café” and “Take Another Look”.
Joey’s musical director credits include Barry Manilow, Eartha Kitt, Michael Bolton, Liza Minnelli and Julio Iglesias, accompanying them on their world tours. He has also been conductor and musical director for David Gest on numerous productions, and has collaborated with outstanding artists like Michael McDonald, Luther Vandross, and Usher, to name but a few.
Additional highlights include serving as arranger, conductor, and co-musical director with Greg Phillinganes for the CBS TV Special, “Michael Jackson: The Solo Years 30th Anniversary Celebration”, arranger and keyboardist on Liza Minnelli’s CD, “Liza’s Back”, and keyboards on Barry Manilow’s #1 release “The Greatest Songs of the Fifties”.
Aside from being a part of the vibrant music scene in Las Vegas, Joey serves as keyboard/vocalist in Barry Manilow’s band, enjoying their continuing residency at the Westgate Hotel and Casino. Joey’s solo endeavors include his last three CDs “Moving At The Speed Of Love”, “Cleansing” and “Celebrate Your Life”, and single releases “My Chi-To-Be” and “Old Fashioned Christmas”. Visit www.joeymelotti.com to audition his music and find links for purchase.
Having successfully produced the soundtrack for best-selling author Stacey Hall for the audio supplement to her book “Chi-To-Be!” Achieving Your Ultimate B-All, Joey has just finished the theme song for Stacey’s new endeavor “Go For YES!”
Joey also lends his efforts and talent to numerous charitable organizations like the Michael Bolton Charities, This Close for Cancer Research, and others. He endorses MOTU DP 10, Quick-Lok Keyboard Stands, and Studio Projects microphones.
Marion Meadows https://www.marionmeadows.com
He started playing tenor sax in high
school, and then migrated to soprano
sax. His passion for various types of
music led him down an eclectic
music
Marion Meadows https://www.marionmeadows.com
He started playing tenor sax in high
school, and then migrated to soprano
sax. His passion for various types of
music led him down an eclectic
musical path. He was intrigued by the styles
of jazz musicians, like Stanley Turrentine,
Sidney Bichet, Johnny Hodges, John
Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderley,
Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Fortune,
Joe Henderson, Grover Washington
and many others. After studying jazz
at Rippowam High School in Stamford, CT
with Anthony Truglia, Meadows attended
Berklee College of Music. There he
majored in arranging and composition.
He later went to the SUNY Purchase School
for the Arts. During his college years he played
in a number of bands including disco, R&B and
various jazz ensmbles. I got a lot of sideman
jobs in college, and I have always said I
got my real graduate degree playing clubs,
says Meadows, who perfected his craft studying
with Sonny Fortune, Joe Henderson, Dave Liebman
and Eddie Daniels. “Not long after I finished school, (drummer) Norman Connors recorded one of my
songs, “Invitation” and then asked me to join his
band. I later produced his Passion album with my
colleague Jacques Burvick (Aquarium Dream).
Things just fell into place. Meadows first hit the
airwaves in 1991 with “For Lovers Only”, but his
career really began one day in the late ‘80s at
New York’s Grand Central Station. He had been
a sideman with Connors for three years, with only
vague notions of eventually going solo. One day,
while waiting for a train, he pulled out his horn and
began playing under the huge dome. His sweet
sound caught the attention of fellow traveler, producer
and TV composer Jay Chattaway, who happened to be passing by on his way to the train. Chattaway was so impressed with Meadows’ sound that he hooked
Meadows up with legendary keyboardist Bob James. Meadows and James collaborated on a recording
that unfortunately went unreleased. The experience
put him on the road to his eventual success. Meadows hooked up with numerous artists and musicians and
became a well-known sideman in his own right, recording
or performing over the years with Brook Benton, Eartha Kitt, Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carne, The Temptations, Michael Bolton, Angela Bofill, Will Downing, Bob Baldwin, Chuck Loeb,
John Lee, among many others. In the late ‘80s, Meadows stretched his boundaries by becoming a member of a New York avant-garde band called the Aboriginal Music Society. In 1990 Meadows submitted a solo project to
Steve Backer at Novus/RCA and was signed to
a recording contract, thus marking the beginning
of his solo career. Meadows’ first RCA release
“For Lover’s Only” was a huge success and was
followed by his groundbreaking “Keep it Right
There” album. He became a staple of the
contemporary jazz format with his subsequent
recordings, which include Body Rhythm (1994)
and Forbidden Fruit (1996), Passion (1997),
Another Side Of Midnight (1999),
Next To You (2000), In Deep (2002),
Players Club (2004), Dressed To Chill (2006),
Secrets (2009) Whisper (2013)
and most recently Soul Traveler,
the first installment of his Soul
Trilogy which now showcases his
current release, Soul City" on the
New York-based Shanachie Label.
Meadows is a semi-pro cyclist,
graphic artist and designer.
Marion received a doctorate
from Wilberforce University in 2016.
His artwork and photography can be viewed at:
www.marionmeadowsatmospheres.com
www.marionmeadowsphotography.com
Chris Brubeck https://chrisbrubeck.com
Grammy-nominated composer Chris Brubeck continues to distinguish himself as an innovative performer and composer who is clearly tuned into the pulse of contemporary music. Respected music critic for The Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein called Chris: “a composer with a real flair for lyrical melody–
Chris Brubeck https://chrisbrubeck.com
Grammy-nominated composer Chris Brubeck continues to distinguish himself as an innovative performer and composer who is clearly tuned into the pulse of contemporary music. Respected music critic for The Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein called Chris: “a composer with a real flair for lyrical melody–a 21st Century Lenny Bernstein.”
In addition to creating an impressive body of work, including several band pieces, chamber pieces, 3 concertos for trombone, a trombone quartet, and several concertos for stringed instruments and other ensembles, Chris maintains a demanding touring and recording schedule playing bass and trombone with his two groups: the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, with brother Dan on drums, Chuck Lamb on piano and Mike DeMicco on guitar (www.brubeckbrothers.com); and Triple Play, an acoustic jazz-funk-blues-Americana trio with Joel Brown on guitar and Peter Madcat Ruth on harmonica and Chris on bass, trombone and piano (www.chrisbrubeckstripleplay.com.) Additionally, Chris performs as a soloist playing his trombone concertos with orchestras and has served as Artist in Residence with orchestras and colleges in America, coaching, lecturing, and performing with students and faculty. Once a year he tours England with the group Brubecks Play Brubeck along with brothers Darius (on piano) and Dan as well as British saxophonist Dave O’Higgins. Chris had been a long-standing member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, writing arrangements and touring and recording with his father’s group for over 20 years. Dave and Chris co-wrote the orchestral piece “Ansel Adams: America” which has received dozens of performances and in 2013 was a Grammy finalist for Best Instrumental Composition.
, Dan Brubeck https://danbrubeck.com
Born in Oakland on May 4, 1955, Dan Brubeck was a highly energetic child who found his calling at the trap set. Mentored by two consummate polyrhythmic masters, Joe Morello and Alan Dawson (at the Berklee College of Music), he was working professionally before he finished his teens.
Over the years
, Dan Brubeck https://danbrubeck.com
Born in Oakland on May 4, 1955, Dan Brubeck was a highly energetic child who found his calling at the trap set. Mentored by two consummate polyrhythmic masters, Joe Morello and Alan Dawson (at the Berklee College of Music), he was working professionally before he finished his teens.
Over the years Dan was featured on nearly a dozen albums with his father, and toured widely with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, including many appearances with the world’s leading orchestras. He’s been an integral part of the various Brubeck bands, including the Darius Brubeck Ensemble, Two Generations of Brubeck, and the New Brubeck Quartet. He’s toured internationally and recorded three widely played albums with his electric jazz group, The Dolphins, and co-led the Brubeck LaVerne Trio with his brother Chris and pianist Andy LaVerne. A stylistically versatile musician, he’s toured with acts ranging from The Band and David Benoit to Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond. He’s recorded with jazz guitar legend Larry Coryell, singer~songwriter Livingston Taylor, jazz~pop singer Michael Franks, and pioneering blues guitarist Roy Buchanan.
Dan’s drumming style is both mesmerizing and unparalleled, and his distinctive, and astonishingly textured drum solos have received standing ovations all over the world! His uncanny sense of timing and use of odd time signatures, combining melodic phrases with polyrhythms that often stretch far beyond the bar line, has earned the respect of many jazz critics worldwide. His mastery of complex rhythms has led to his reputation as one of the most talented and creative drummers in jazz!
Dan continues to perform and record with his siblings—Chris Brubeck, (bassist, trombonist, and noted composer), Darius Brubeck (pianist/composer) and Matt Brubeck (cellist).
Dan also tours with his own Vancouver-based groups, the Dan Brubeck Quartet and Dan Brubeck Trio. In 2015, the Dan Brubeck Quartet, featuring vocal powerhouse Adam Thomas, released the recording Celebrating the Music and Lyrics of Dave and Iola Brubeck, which showcases his father’s music and little-known lyrics of his mother.
Details about Dan’s performance groups can be found on the Ensembles page. Detailed information (including downloadable bios and photos) about Dan and his performing groups can be found on the Media page.
Arti was born in Catskill, New York. Always wanting to play the drums he played on oat meal boxes, his mother’s pans and the arms of chairs because they had a soft sound to them. When he was 11 years old, he finally got to take drum lessons in school under the direction of Harold Fredericks. Arti’s mother played snare drum in an all-girl
Arti was born in Catskill, New York. Always wanting to play the drums he played on oat meal boxes, his mother’s pans and the arms of chairs because they had a soft sound to them. When he was 11 years old, he finally got to take drum lessons in school under the direction of Harold Fredericks. Arti’s mother played snare drum in an all-girl drum and bugle corps before Arti was born. Arti got his very first opportunity to play in a band with Hank Yost and Jamie Dinklelocker. Hank and Jamie lit the fuse in Arti that continued to burn with a band called “The Spirits of Sound”. This band became very popular at Coxsackie-Athens Central High School. The band was formed with Arti, Steve Riley, Doug Wager, Marc Turnello and Ronnie Ray.
While studying at The University of Albany in New York, Arti was playing with piano player John Esposito in a band called “Skytrain”. Arti played in a trio with Clyde Criner and Santi DeBriano, a quintet with Dave Rostetter, Jodi Shane, Greg Speck and Bernie Molita and a pop band with Doug Wager, Paul Abess and Jim Herrick. Studying with Jack DeJohnette inspired Arti the most to pursue a musical career.
After graduation he played The Four Seasons Hotel circuit from Montreal to Vancouver, Canada and throughout the United States with a show band “Living Color”. During this time he was called to play with “Sweet Box,” a band in England. While in England he also studied voice at the London School for Singing under the private direction of Arnold Rose.
After leaving that band he then pursued his career in New York City playing jingles and projects with Dorothy Donegan, Arvel Shaw, and various bands and song writers. While recording for singer David Wolf, producer Ron Frangipani recommended Arti to Janis Ian with whom he toured the world and recorded for the next few years. When that tour ended, Arti remained in the New York and Connecticut region. He played with Larry Coryell, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Randy Klein, Jessie Austin, Marion Meadows, Joe Melotti, Kevin Jenkins, Paul Spinner, Bill Payne, Alex Foster, Pete Levin, Roger Ball, Brian Keane, Michael Torsone, Sal Giorgiani, Paul Branin, Vicki Sue Robinson, Eartha Kitt, Tom Elias, Kit Hane, Michael Bolton, Brian Torff, Ali Ryerson, Lou Marini, Joe Beck, Ron Murray, Rex Cadwallader, Mike Asetta, Jim Cammack, “Cookie” Thomas, and many more. In 1988 Arti married Joanne which slowed him down just enough to honeymoon in Hawaii.
In 1993 Dave Mills commissioned Arti to play in a jazz trio with a string quartet at Yale University. The pianist for that project was Ahmad Jamal. Arti once again toured the world and recorded with Ahmad for the next year. While in Scotland Arti played with Ahmad opening for Jack DeJohnette and once again Jack became part of Arti’s success by recommending that Sonor Drum Company take him on as an endorser. Afterwards came endorsements with Vic Firth drumsticks, E-Muproducts, Evans drumheads and Sabian cymbals. On September 19th, 1994, Arti and Joanne had their first child, and in October of that year Arti left Ahmad’s band to be closer to his family.
Arti began working at the Foxwoods Casino as one of the house drummers where he played with many of the groups that came there including Harry Connick, The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Connie Francis and Ray Cousins. On his way home from a performance at Foxwoods, Arti was in a near fatal head-on collision. It took a while for him to recover from that traumatic experience.
Arti formed his own band to perform jazz education concerts and workshops throughout the school systems in Connecticut for young audiences. He is a member of the Music Teachers National Association. He has recorded with a host of singers and musicians. He has also done shows like Phantom Of The Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, and “Ella Off The Record,” as well as TV shows like the HBO Joe Louis sports special and The Pool Hall staring James Earl Jones. Arti has recently worked on documentaries for PBS and ESPN, including “Driving While Black” and “Yankees-Dodgers: An Uncivil War”.
In 2017, Arti signed a license and distribution agreement with Daddario for his Bass Drum Lift. It is sold in over 22 countries as the Evans Dixson Bass Drum Lift.
During the pandemic year of 2020 with the lack of performances, Arti was able to direct his focus on completing his rhythm instructional book, entitled “Rhythmasvir” — an antidote to treat rhythm and apply it to the drum set. Arti created Maroca Publishing and signed an agreement with Hudson Music to market and sell the eBook version of “Rhythmasvir”.
In spite of Arti’s busy schedule, he still finds time to give back to his communities. For 33 years he has collected toys for children and distributed them to fourteen locations in twelve communities in Connecticut, and has distributed food to twelve Connecticut food pantries for the past ten years.
Arti is the inventor of the Bass Drum Lift and The Spur Extender both of which he has patented.
Arti is a member of the Percussion Arts Society, the National Association of Music Merchants, and The Recording Academy.
Arti continues to perform and record throughout the region, is the percussion instructor at Greens Farms Academy and Adjunct Professor of Music at Gateway Community College, and accepts students for private drum set consultations.
Dave Brubeck, designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, was one of the most active and popular musicians in both the jazz and classical worlds. With a career that spanned over six decades, his experiments in odd time signatures, improvised counterpoint, polyrhythm and polytonality remain hallmarks of innovation.
Born into a
Dave Brubeck, designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, was one of the most active and popular musicians in both the jazz and classical worlds. With a career that spanned over six decades, his experiments in odd time signatures, improvised counterpoint, polyrhythm and polytonality remain hallmarks of innovation.
Born into a musical family in Concord, California — his two older brothers were also professional musicians — he began piano lessons with his mother at age four. He was 12 when his father moved the family to a cattle ranch in the foothills of the Sierras. Dave’s life changed dramatically. Piano lessons ended and cowboy life began. He worked with his father on the 45,000 acre cattle ranch. When he was 14, he started playing in local dance bands on weekends. When he enrolled at the College of the Pacific, in Stockton, California, his intention was to study veterinary medicine and return to the ranch. While working his way through school as a pianist in local nightclubs, the lure of jazz became irresistible and he changed his major to music. Graduating in 1942, he enlisted in the Army, and shortly thereafter married Iola Whitlock, a fellow student at Pacific. While serving in Patton’s Army in Europe, he led a racially integrated band. After his discharge from military service in 1946, he enrolled at Mills College in Oakland, California to study composition with French composer, Darius Milhaud. Milhaud encouraged him to pursue a career in jazz and to incorporate jazz elements into his compositions. This cross-genre experimentation with like-minded Milhaud students led to the formation of the Dave Brubeck Octet in 1947. In 1949, Brubeck with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty, fellow Octet members, cut their first award-winning Dave Brubeck Trio recordings. After suffering a near fatal diving accident in 1951, Dave formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, who was also a member of the Octet. The legendary Brubeck-Desmond collaboration lasted seventeen years and beyond.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s recordings and concert appearances on college campuses in the ‘50s and early ‘60s introduced jazz to thousands of young people. The Quartet’s audiences were not limited to students, however. The group played in jazz clubs in every major city and toured in package shows with such artists as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Getz. The Dave Brubeck Quartet repeatedly won top honors in trade magazines and critic’s and reader’s polls. In 1954 Dave Brubeck’s portrait appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with a story about the jazz renaissance and Brubeck’s phenomenal ascendancy.
In 1958 the Quartet made their first of many international tours. The U.S. State Department sponsored the Quartet’s performances in Poland, India, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. Exposure to many different cultures was reflected in the group’s repertoire that sometimes incorporated exotic elements. The 1959 recording “Time Out” experimented in time signatures beyond the usual jazz 4/4. To everyone’s surprise “Time Out” became the first jazz album to sell over a million copies and “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and “Take Five” (now in the Grammy Hall of Fame) began to appear on jukeboxes throughout the world.
Early in his career Brubeck wrote primarily for this Quartet, and some of those pieces, such as “In Your Own Sweet Way” and “The Duke” became part of standard jazz repertoire. His first orchestral composition, “Elementals“, written for an improvising jazz combo and symphony orchestra was premiered and recorded in 1962. Choreographed by Lar Lubovitch, “Elemental Brubeck” is currently in the repertoire of the San Francisco Ballet and several other dance companies.
Throughout his career Brubeck experimented with integrating jazz into classical forms. In 1959 his Quartet premiered and recorded his brother Howard’s “Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra” with the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting. In 1960 he composed “Points on Jazz” for the American Ballet Theatre, and in later decades composed for and toured with the Murray Louis Dance Company. His musical theater piece “The Real Ambassadors” starring Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae was recorded and performed to great acclaim at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival.
The “classic” Dave Brubeck Quartet (Paul Desmond, alto sax from 1951; Eugene Wright, bass from 1958; Joe Morello, drums from 1956) was dissolved December 1967. Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan joined a newly formed Dave Brubeck Trio (with Jack Six, bass and Alan Dawson, drums) the following year. This group recorded and toured the world together for seven years. In this period Brubeck also performed with three of his musical sons, Darius, Chris and Dan billed as “Two Generations of Brubeck” frequently with Gerry Mulligan or Paul Desmond as guest artists.
In the ‘80s Brubeck led a quartet that featured clarinetist Bill Smith, a former Octet member, with his son Chris on electric fretless bass and Randy Jones on drums. This group toured the Soviet Union in 1987 and along with former bassist, Eugene Wright, accompanied President Reagan to Moscow to perform at the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in 1988. Since the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s first appearance at a State Dinner for King Hussein of Jordan during the Johnson administration, Brubeck performed at The White House on several occasions and for many different Presidents.
Shortly after the dissolution of the “classic” Quartet, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with Erich Kunzel conducting, premiered Brubeck’s oratorio,” The Light in the Wilderness” (February 1968). The following year Brubeck’s second major work “The Gates of Justice”, a cantata based on the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Old Testament, was also premiered by Kunzel in Cincinnati. It has since been re-recorded by the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Cantor Abraham Mizrahi, tenor and Kevin Deas, bass-baritone, for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, Russell Gloyd conducting.
Throughout his career Brubeck continued to experiment with interweaving jazz and classical music. He performed as composer-performer with most of the major orchestras in the United States and with prestigious choral groups and orchestras in Europe and America. When citing some of the highlights of his career, Dave would always include the premier of his composition “Upon This Rock” for Pope John Paul II’s visit to San Francisco and the performances of his mass “To Hope! A Celebration” in St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna and in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra and Orloff choir.
Dave Brubeck’s compositions include a popular Christmas choral pageant “La Fiesta de la Posada”, oratorios and cantatas, ballet suites, a string quartet, chamber ensembles, pieces for solo and duo-piano, violin solos and orchestral works. His mass “To Hope! A Celebration” has been performed throughout the English-speaking world, Germany, Russia and Austria and was recorded in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In 2002 the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices recorded in “Classical Brubeck” his Easter oratorio “Beloved Son”, “Pange Lingua Variations”, “The Voice of the Holy Spirit” and a composition for string orchestra, “Regret“, all under the baton of Russell Gloyd, who was Brubeck’s conductor, producer and manager for 34 years. In 2006, the Monterey Jazz Festival presented Dave’s mini-opera based on Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row“.
While increasingly active as a composer, Brubeck remained a leading figure in jazz, recording for Telarc, appearing in festivals and touring internationally in concert halls with the most recent version of the Dave Brubeck Quartet– Bobby Militello, sax and flute, Randy Jones, drums, and Michael Moore, bass. As in former Dave Brubeck Quartets, each was a master musician and their concert repertoire ranged from “hits” from the old Quartet “book” to cutting edge new material.
Throughout his long career Dave Brubeck received many national and international honors, including the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Medal, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was awarded numerous honorary doctorates from American, Canadian, English and German universities, including an honorary degree in Sacred Theology from Fribourg University, Switzerland. Brubeck received the Distinguished Arts Award from the Ford Honors program of the University of Michigan and in 2006 received from Notre Dame their highest honor, the Laetare Medal. He was a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, and was presented with the Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music
In the year 2000 the National Endowment for the Arts declared Dave Brubeck a Jazz Master. He was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2007 he received a Living Legacy Jazz Award from Kennedy Center and the Arison Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts.
His international honors include Austria’s highest award for the Arts, a citation from the French government, and the Bocconi Medal from Italy. The London Symphony Orchestra, acknowledging their long association, presented him with their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
In 2009, Dave was honored to receive the prestigious Kennedy Center Award, which President Barack Obama bestowed on him on his 89th birthday.
Toured with several national acts, Cyndi Lauper, Enrique Iglesias, Maxwell, Roberta Flack,Taylor Dayne and dozens of other local artist from the New York City area. Currently playing with Blues Sensation Shemekia Copeland. Played bass on several Albums and CDs over the past many years.
Charton Christopher Frantz (born May 8, 1951) is an American musician and record producer. He is the drummer for both Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, both of which he co-founded with wife and Talking Heads bassist, Tina Weymouth.[1][2] In 2002, Frantz was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads.[3]
B
Charton Christopher Frantz (born May 8, 1951) is an American musician and record producer. He is the drummer for both Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, both of which he co-founded with wife and Talking Heads bassist, Tina Weymouth.[1][2] In 2002, Frantz was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads.[3]
Born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Frantz graduated from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. He studied in the early 1970s at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he met both David Byrneand Tina Weymouth. Byrne and Frantz formed a band called the Artistics, which went on to become Talking Heads, in 1973. Weymouth, then Frantz's girlfriend, joined the band in 1975 after they had moved to New York City. Frantz and Weymouth were married in 1977 and have two sons.[2][4]
Frantz and Weymouth formed Tom Tom Club in 1980, when Talking Heads went on hiatus due to Byrne's solo efforts.[2]Weymouth, Frantz, and Jerry Harrison reunited as The Headsfor a one-off album called No Talking, Just Head in 1996, featuring a rotating cast of vocalists, including Debbie Harry.[5]He and Weymouth produced the Happy Mondays' 1992 album, Yes Please! and the Scottish group Angelfish's self-titled album, in addition to producing multiple albums for Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.[6] Frantz and Weymouth also contributed backing vocals and percussion for Gorillaz self-titled debut album.[7][8]
He is ranked number 12 in Stylus Magazine's list of the 50 greatest rock drummers[9] and hosts a monthly radio program, "Chris Frantz the Talking Head", on 89.5 WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut.[10] Frantz and Weymouth are also closely associated with the Compass Point All Stars movement.[11] After Phish covered Talking Heads' Remain in Light, Frantz become known as an influence on the modern jamband scene.[12]Frantz's memoir, Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina, was published in July 2020 (St. Martin's Press in the US and Faber and Faber in the UK).[13][1
Martina Michèle Weymouth (/ˈweɪməθ/ WAY-məth; born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wavegroup Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz.[2] In 2002, Weymouth was inducted into the Roc
Martina Michèle Weymouth (/ˈweɪməθ/ WAY-məth; born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wavegroup Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz.[2] In 2002, Weymouth was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads.[3][4]
Born in Coronado, California, Weymouth is the daughter of Laura Bouchage and U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Ralph Weymouth(1917–2020). The third of eight children, her siblings include Lani and Laura Weymouth, who are collaborators in Tina's band Tom Tom Club, and architect Yann Weymouth, the designer of the Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida. Weymouth is of Bretonheritage on her mother's side (she is the great-granddaughter of Anatole Le Braz, a Breton writer).[5][6]: 10 Her mother was an immigrant from Brittany and her father was American.[5]
When she was 12, Weymouth joined the Mrs. Tufts’ Potomac English Hand Bell Ringers, an amateur music group directed by Nancy Tufts, and toured with them.[7] At 14, she started to teach herself the guitar.[8][9]
Her early inspirations came from Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul & Mary.[7]
As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, she met Chris Frantz and David Byrne, who formed a band called the Artistics.[10]: 30 [1] She began dating Frantz and served as the band's driver. After graduation, the three of them moved to New York City. Since Byrne and Frantz were unable to find a suitable bass guitar player she joined them at the latter's request and began learning and playing the instrument.
As a bass player she combined the minimalist art-punk bass lines of groups such as Wire and Pere Ubu with danceable, funk-inflected riffs to provide the bedrock of Talking Heads' signature sound.[11]
Albert grew up in a medium-sized college town in the Midwest, being the oldest of 10. His first musical memory (as family legend has it) is requesting Shostakovich at the local music emporium at the ripe age of 3.
As a pre-teen in the 60’s, he lived for Top 40 radio, combing the AM airwaves for new and exciting music via baby blue GE trans
Albert grew up in a medium-sized college town in the Midwest, being the oldest of 10. His first musical memory (as family legend has it) is requesting Shostakovich at the local music emporium at the ripe age of 3.
As a pre-teen in the 60’s, he lived for Top 40 radio, combing the AM airwaves for new and exciting music via baby blue GE transistors. His first exposure to “outside” artists came from an older neighbor who took young Albert under his wing and entrusted him with his vinyl. “Seemingly overnight, my Beatles, Stones and Byrds LPs took a back seat to the Blues Project, Fred Neil, the Holy Modal Rounders and the Fugs. I bought everything I could with my paper route money on the Elektra, Vanguard and Island labels, eventually taking things a step further witnessing live music at local universities, clubs and coffeehouses, thanks to a high-quality, fake ID (it was much easier then)”.
Aimlessly toiling at the family flower shop, Albert jumped at the chance to help move high school friends to Berklee in the early 70’s, visiting Greater Boston often and eventually staying permanently. Albert considered it “everything I dreamed of…open all night and all within walking distance”. A chance meeting in the mid 70’s with someone involved in the (then) SMU Dartmouth, MA radio station (“it barely reached down Chase Road”) opened the proverbial radio doors, eventually leading to stints at community MIT radio WTBS/WMBR, WLYN (pre-WFNX), over 20 years at legendary WBCN, and over 5 years at Greater Media’s WROR & WBOS.
Albert finds it both refreshing and re-invigorating to be involved with WUMB, be it hosting Highway 61 Revisited or sitting in for the stellar daytime hosts. “I feel like I’ve come full circle, doing ‘real’ radio again and featuring artists of all genres who actually have something to say for listeners who are both appreciative and knowledgeable – a rare breed in this day and age”.
Loren found a part-time job in radio during college, however his career was interrupted by the Vietnam War with a couple years of service in the Marine Corps. In 1981 he moved to Boston to host a morning show at 105.7 FM and teamed up with Wally Brine, who soon became his best friend and radio partner.
Wally caught
Loren found a part-time job in radio during college, however his career was interrupted by the Vietnam War with a couple years of service in the Marine Corps. In 1981 he moved to Boston to host a morning show at 105.7 FM and teamed up with Wally Brine, who soon became his best friend and radio partner.
Wally caught the radio bug at an early age, being the son of well-known radio personality Salty Brine, who hosted the top-rated morning show on WPRO for more than 50 years. His first radio job was in 1968 at WPRO-FM, and he held several other jobs in New England at WGAN, WLOB, WJBQ-FM and eventually WVBF (now WROR) where he teamed up with Loren Owens for “The Loren & Wally Show.”
Harvey Wharfield WCGY, WZLX, WCOZ, WAAF
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Larry “Cha-Chi” Loprete’s love for music began on February 9th, 1964, the day The Beatles performed for the first time in the U.S. on The Ed Sullivan Show. For many who witnessed it, The Beatles stirred up a passion for creativity and possibility and for ChaChi, it soon evolved into a lifelong
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Larry “Cha-Chi” Loprete’s love for music began on February 9th, 1964, the day The Beatles performed for the first time in the U.S. on The Ed Sullivan Show. For many who witnessed it, The Beatles stirred up a passion for creativity and possibility and for ChaChi, it soon evolved into a lifelong love of radio.
In 1981, Cha-Chi fulfilled what he describes as his “ultimate dream”. He began his radio career as a listener-line volunteer at Boston’s biggest rock radio station: WBCN 104.1FM. With hard work and determination, he was soon hired as Assistant Promotion Director.
His expansive knowledge and love for The Beatles became clearly evident to his radio peers and this passion paid off in the mid 1980’s when Cha-Chi was granted the extraordinary opportunity to have an air shift on WBCN as the host of a new program called Get Back To The Beatles.
In 2001 new stripes were added when Cha-Chi was appointed Marketing Director for both WBCN and WZLX.
In 2005 ChaChi became host of Breakfast With The Beatleson WZLX.
Through the years, Cha-Chi has interviewed Paul, George and Ringo on multiple occasions as well as many other significant ‘Beatle People’ in the close knit Beatles circle George Martin, Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, Patti Boyd-Harrison and Pete Best among them.
Cha-Chi’s extensive knowledge of The Beatles, both as a band and individually, and his significant collection of Beatles memorabilia is well known in the greater Boston area.
He is often regarded as Boston’s Beatles Historian and keeper of the flame. Cha-Chi frequently hosts Beatle events in and around the city and twice hosted and narrated multiple Beatles concerts with the legendary Boston Pop’s – ‘Pops Plays The Beatles’ with Keith Lockhart and ‘The Beatles and Beyond’ with the Boston Pops with Conductor Steve Hackman.
“I’m very excited to bring Breakfast With The Beatles to the listeners of WUMB. Said Cha-Chi Loprete. It is the beginning of a journey I will look forward to every Saturday morning.”
Listen every Saturday morning on WUMB from 6:00am-8:00am for Beatles music, interviews, rarities, solo Beatles, Beatles news and much, much more!
Cha-Chi Loprete resides south of Boston with his beautiful wife Stephanie and family of rescue cats and chickens. They both share a passion to help animals and support many organizations including multiple animal rescue shelters and 4H.
TBA.
Jimmy Jay’s career as a DJ took off like a rocket even before he completed his coursework at the Career Academy School of Broadcasting, run by Red Sox radio announcer Curt Gowdy. His school was located on Boylston Street in the same building that housed WMEX studios—a precursor of things to come.
Jimmy Jay, known as “The DJ of the Stars,”
Jimmy Jay’s career as a DJ took off like a rocket even before he completed his coursework at the Career Academy School of Broadcasting, run by Red Sox radio announcer Curt Gowdy. His school was located on Boylston Street in the same building that housed WMEX studios—a precursor of things to come.
Jimmy Jay, known as “The DJ of the Stars,” is the voice and host of the internationally syndicated radio shows Rewind, The Rewind Dance Party, the Rewind 1970’s Top 10 Countdown, and the Rewind 1980’s Top 10 Countdown.
“The DJ of the Stars” has become famous from doing events with the biggest names in entertainment and most know him on a first name basis. From cruise ships to the Academy Awards Jimmy Jay has done it all. From Sock Hops to Hip Hop, his mind is a book of knowledge!
Jimmy’s oldies show runs on Saturdays and Sundays. He also interviews rock and roll greats who helped shape the music industry on “REWIND,” his weekly radio show and podcast heard around the world. Catch Jimmy Jay on WMEX on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am – 5 pm! Check him out https://wmexboston.com/shows/the-jimmy-jay-show/
Julie Kramers's life as a photographer and radio personality has been intertwined throughout her career. She started with a radio job at WHJY in Providence to help pay for her photography degree at UMass Dartmouth. After graduation, Julie took a full-time radio gig at WGIR in NH to raise money for grad school. Her path was altered when sh
Julie Kramers's life as a photographer and radio personality has been intertwined throughout her career. She started with a radio job at WHJY in Providence to help pay for her photography degree at UMass Dartmouth. After graduation, Julie took a full-time radio gig at WGIR in NH to raise money for grad school. Her path was altered when she decided to return to school in Boston and take a part-time job at WFNX. When being a DJ became her bread-winning strength, she still had a camera by her side, or more appropriately, around her neck at all times. Work ultimately led her to become the music director at the groundbreaking radio station WFNX and host the number one mid-day show, Left Over Lunch. Dubbed "Karma Queen" by her listeners for her intense love of recycling and the environment, she championed many local and national charity events, bringing her excellent karma ethos to the public. When asked to recall some favorite moments at WFNX, Kramer says, "I loved it all—seriously. The early years were so exciting and creative; we were a family, a bunch of kids pushing the envelope daily and breaking barriers. I loved interviewing and photographing all the musicians I so respected, like David Bowie, Bjork, and Joe Strummer, who were so lovely and funny. Lots of stories!" WFNX was at the forefront of what would later be termed alternative music, providing a constant and varied stream of talent to photograph and music to share with her listeners. Some of these artists were already known, but most were at the beginning of their journey. Over a dozen artists would later be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with many more waiting. After 25 years at FNX, the station was sold in 2012, and many of the remaining members formed an online streaming station, RadioBDC, at the Boston Globe and, in 2018, formed Indie617.
We are pleased to announce that D-Tension will be inducted into the 2024 class of the New England Music Hall of Fame. D is being honored for his selfless and multifaceted contribution to the New England Hip Hop Community as an artist, producer, promoter, journalist and radio personality. His years of work not only launched his career b
We are pleased to announce that D-Tension will be inducted into the 2024 class of the New England Music Hall of Fame. D is being honored for his selfless and multifaceted contribution to the New England Hip Hop Community as an artist, producer, promoter, journalist and radio personality. His years of work not only launched his career but also benefited countless New England Hip Hop artists. He has released 11 albums since the mid 90's and is still going strong. D's music has been heard on TV and films on NBC, HBO, ESPN and the silver screen and he has produced records for legendary artists including Akrobatik, Slug of Atmosphere, Mr. Lif, Esoteric, Termanology, Edo G and members of legendary California collective Hieroglyphics. As a promoter, D is credited with breaking the "genre barrier" with his award winning live concert series "Hip Hop Live". The series took place from 95-2005 at Bill's Bar in Boston as well as at events at Axis and The House of Blues at a time when local and independent hip hop artists were shut out of most of the major Boston area clubs. The concert series opened the door for artists to perform at Boston area clubs to this day. As a performer, D-Tension has toured and/or shared the stage with a who's who of hip hop luminaries including KRS ONE, Method Man, RZA, Biz Markie, DMX and The Roots. He's performed at The Tsongas Arena, The Apollo in Harlem and at South X Southwest in Austin. TX. D-Tension was also responsible for getting independent hip hop played on commercial radio with his hip hop specials on legendary alternative rock radio station 101.7 WFNX. Additionally he hosted Yo! FNX Raps?, an award winning podcast on WFNX.COM He also shone a light on all-good-things-hiphop when he wrote feature articles and reviews for The Weekly Dig, Boston Sound Check and The Boston Phoenix. A true music lover, D-Tension turned heads in 2014 when he released his debut rock album "D-Tension's Secret Project''. Alas, the genre jump worked and D's debut was nominated for album of the year at the 2014 Boston Music Awards. He has released three rock albums and has another scheduled to be released this fall. D-Tension has a litany of awards including: Two Boston Music Awards (Best New Artist 2002, Producer of the Year 2009), Best Live Hip Hop Venue by The Boston Phoenix in 2004, New England Urban Media Podcast of The Year 2010 and Best Hip Hop Artist 2012 New England Music Awards. Some are known as artists, others as media personalities or concert promoters or producers. D-Tension is all of the above. He will be inducted at a ceremony in the fall of 2024.
Jonathan Soroff is lead columnist for The Improper Bostonian Magazine, where he covers Boston’s social and cultural events. A graduate of Duke University, Mr. Soroff began his journalism career at The Boston Herald. He’s written for a variety of publications, ranging from People Magazine to London’s Royal Academy Magazine. In 2013, he p
Jonathan Soroff is lead columnist for The Improper Bostonian Magazine, where he covers Boston’s social and cultural events. A graduate of Duke University, Mr. Soroff began his journalism career at The Boston Herald. He’s written for a variety of publications, ranging from People Magazine to London’s Royal Academy Magazine. In 2013, he published his first novel, “Crimes of Fashion.” He serves on the Board of Overseers at The Boston Ballet and the Board of Corporators for Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Official Website https://www.bostonmagazine.com
Boston-born, internationally renowned VJ Tom Yaz creates a dynamic entertainment experience that crosses generations in appeal. Unique in his profession, having at his disposal an enormous library of historical clips, volumes that pre-date MTV, he mixes sequences from movies and television to create a fun night. And its never a banal nigh
Boston-born, internationally renowned VJ Tom Yaz creates a dynamic entertainment experience that crosses generations in appeal. Unique in his profession, having at his disposal an enormous library of historical clips, volumes that pre-date MTV, he mixes sequences from movies and television to create a fun night. And its never a banal night of predictable Top 40 clips. It's an interactive experience that shows everything old is new again. With his vast knowledge of all things pop culture and his technical prowess, Tom pushes the envelope of nightclub, corporate event, and festival entertainment, making for unprecedentedly memorable occasions.
As a teenager, it was the advent of the MTV revolution when young Tom saw the possibilities of video as an entertainment medium at live gatherings. Whether it's in one of Boston's trendiest clubs or on board one of the world's largest cruise ships, he provides an eclectic mix of the classic and the now. Since he arrived in the heyday of the 1980s on Boston's world-famous Lansdowne Street Tom has been a mainstay in the New England club scene. His 14-year run at Boston’s iconic Club Café set the standard for video entertainment. With Tom’s solid reputation as an expert in this artistic realm, tom was a natural choice for the Video installations exhibition at Boston's well-respected Institute of Contemporary Art.
As a Provincetown staple for the past 15 years, Tom has made the Crown and Anchor's Wave Video Bar a must-visit nightspot that brings together tourists and year-round residents alike. As the club's resident VJ, he also entertains late night spill over crowds from the venue’s often sold out Broadway-helmed cabaret with innovative themed evenings, including his hugely successful Stage and Screen Night. As a humanitarian, Tom has also extended his services to several charities he supports (see resume page).
Tom also became a regular attraction with RSVP Vacations, entertaining vacationers on the some of the world's largest cruise ships during high travel season. On these ships, he offered travelers a wide array of entertainment opportunities, from video streaming into the ships' thousands of cabins to dancing in one of the exciting video bars or watching clips on the ships’ outdoor stadium-sized Jumbotron. On all of these ships including the Queen Mary 2 he was the first pioneer video disc jockey to ever perform.
Tom's talents extend to remixes as well. Some of his most popular clips are his modern re-imaginings of classic 1960s songs by such artists as The Mama's and the Papas, Petula Clark, The Rolling Stones, and of course The Supremes. His encyclopedic knowledge of visual and musical genres guarantees that no evening of Yaz-TV will EVER be the same twice. Expect the unexpected, and to be amused and amazed by his mix of the newest Dance videos, Top 40 hits and hot retro flashbacks.
What he does is portable enough to travel to small venues, as well as larger corporate-sized events and festivals. Tom Yaz has the talent and technology to turn any room into a video bar, and to preside over a unique and fun and most memorable evening.
Check out his official website
Robert Leroy Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, possibly on May 8, 1911,[4] to Julia Major Dodds (born October 1874) and Noah Johnson (born December 1884). Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker, with whom she had ten children. Charles Dodds had be
Robert Leroy Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, possibly on May 8, 1911,[4] to Julia Major Dodds (born October 1874) and Noah Johnson (born December 1884). Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker, with whom she had ten children. Charles Dodds had been forced by a lynch mob to leave Hazlehurst following a dispute with white landowners. Julia left Hazlehurst with baby Robert, but in less than two years she brought the boy to Memphis to live with her husband, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.[5] Robert spent the next 8–9 years growing up in Memphis and attending the Carnes Avenue Colored School where he received lessons in arithmetic, reading, language, music, geography, and physical exercise.[6] It was in Memphis that he acquired his love for, and knowledge of, the blues and popular music. His education and city upbringing placed him apart from most of his contemporary blues musicians.
Robert rejoined his mother around 1919–1920 after she married an illiterate sharecropper named Will "Dusty" Willis. They originally settled on a plantation in Lucas Township in Crittenden County, Arkansas, but soon moved across the Mississippi River to Commerce in the Mississippi Delta, near Tunica and Robinsonville. They lived on the Abbay & Leatherman Plantation.[7] Julia's new husband was 24 years her junior. Robert was remembered by some residents as "Little Robert Dusty",[8] but he was registered at Tunica's Indian Creek School as Robert Spencer. In the 1920 census, he is listed as Robert Spencer, living in Lucas, Arkansas, with Will and Julia Willis. Robert was at school in 1924 and 1927.[9] The quality of his signature on his marriage certificate[10] suggests that he was relatively well educated for a man of his background. A school friend, Willie Coffee, who was interviewed and filmed in later life, recalled that as a youth Robert was already noted for playing the harmonica and jaw harp.[11] Coffee recalled that Robert was absent for long periods, which suggests that he may have been living and studying in Memphis.[12]
Once Julia informed Robert about his biological father, Robert adopted the surname Johnson, using it on the certificate of his marriage to fourteen-year-old Virginia Travis in February 1929. She died in childbirth shortly after.[13] Surviving relatives of Virginia told the blues researcher Robert "Mack" McCormick that this was a divine punishment for Robert's decision to sing secular songs, known as "selling your soul to the Devil". McCormick believed that Johnson himself accepted the phrase as a description of his resolve to abandon the settled life of a husband and farmer to become a full-time blues musician.[14]
Around this time, the blues musician Son House moved to Robinsonville, where his musical partner Willie Brown lived. Late in life, House remembered Johnson as a little boy who was a competent harmonica player but an embarrassingly bad guitarist. Soon after, Johnson left Robinsonville for the area around Martinsville, close to his birthplace, possibly searching for his natural father. Here he mastered the guitar style of House and learned other styles from Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman.[15] Zimmerman was rumored to have learned supernaturally to play guitar by visiting graveyards at midnight.[16] When Johnson next appeared in Robinsonville, he seemed to have miraculously developed a mature guitar technique.[17] House was interviewed at a time when the legend of Johnson's pact with the devil was well known among blues researchers. He was asked whether he attributed Johnson's technique to this pact, and his equivocal answers have been taken as confirmation.[18]
While living in Martinsville, Johnson fathered a child with Vergie Mae Smith. He married Caletta Craft in May 1931. In 1932, the couple settled for a while in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the Delta, but Johnson soon left for a career as a "walking" or itinerant musician, and Caletta died in early 1933.[19]
From 1932 until his death in 1938, Johnson moved frequently between the cities of Memphis and Helena, and the smaller towns of the Mississippi Delta and neighboring regions of Mississippi and Arkansas.[20][21] On occasion, he traveled much further. The blues musician Johnny Shines accompanied him to Chicago, Texas, New York, Canada, Kentucky, and Indiana.[22] Henry Townsend worked with him in St. Louis.[23] In many places he stayed with members of his large extended family or with female friends.[24] He did not marry again but formed some long-term relationships with women to whom he would return periodically. In other places he stayed with whatever woman he was able to seduce at his performance.[25][26] In each location, Johnson's hosts were largely ignorant of his life elsewhere. He used different names in different places, employing at least eight distinct surnames.[27]
Biographers have looked for consistency from musicians who knew Johnson in different contexts: Shines, who traveled extensively with him; Robert Lockwood Jr., who knew him as his mother's partner; David "Honeyboy" Edwards, whose cousin Willie Mae Powell had a relationship with Johnson.[28] From a mass of partial, conflicting, and inconsistent eyewitness accounts,[29] biographers have attempted to summarize Johnson's character. "He was well mannered, he was soft spoken, he was indecipherable".[30] "As for his character, everyone seems to agree that, while he was pleasant and outgoing in public, in private he was reserved and liked to go his own way".[31] "Musicians who knew Johnson testified that he was a nice guy and fairly average—except, of course, for his musical talent, his weakness for whiskey and women, and his commitment to the road."[32]
When Johnson arrived in a new town, he would play for tips on street corners or in front of the local barbershop or a restaurant. Musical associates have said that in live performances Johnson often did not focus on his dark and complex original compositions, but instead pleased audiences by performing more well-known pop standards of the day[33] – and not necessarily blues. With an ability to pick up tunes at first hearing, he had no trouble giving his audiences what they wanted, and certain of his contemporaries later remarked on his interest in jazz and country music. He also had an uncanny ability to establish a rapport with his audience; in every town in which he stopped, he would establish ties to the local community that would serve him well when he passed through again a month or a year later.
Shines was 20 when he met Johnson in 1936. He estimated Johnson was maybe a year older than himself (Johnson was actually four years older). Shines is quoted describing Johnson in Samuel Charters's Robert Johnson:
Robert was a very friendly person, even though he was sulky at times, you know. And I hung around Robert for quite a while. One evening he disappeared. He was kind of a peculiar fellow. Robert'd be standing up playing some place, playing like nobody's business. At about that time it was a hustle with him as well as a pleasure. And money'd be coming from all directions. But Robert'd just pick up and walk off and leave you standing there playing. And you wouldn't see Robert no more maybe in two or three weeks. ... So Robert and I, we began journeying off. I was just, matter of fact, tagging along.[34]
During this time Johnson established what would be a relatively long-term relationship with Estella Coleman, a woman about 15 years his senior and the mother of the blues musician Robert Lockwood Jr. Johnson reportedly cultivated a woman to look after him in each town he played in. He reputedly asked homely young women living in the country with their families whether he could go home with them, and in most cases, he was accepted, until a boyfriend arrived or Johnson was ready to move on.
In 1941, Alan Lomax learned from Muddy Waters that Johnson had performed in the area around Clarksdale, Mississippi.[35] By 1959, the historian Samuel Charters could add only that Will Shade, of the Memphis Jug Band, remembered Johnson had once briefly played with him in West Memphis, Arkansas.[36] In the last year of his life, Johnson is believed to have traveled to St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and New York City.[37] In 1938, Columbia Records producer John H. Hammond, who owned some of Johnson's records, directed record producer Don Law to seek out Johnson to book him for the first "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. On learning of Johnson's death, Hammond replaced him with Big Bill Broonzy, but he played two of Johnson's records from the stage.
Main article: Robert Johnson recordings § Sessionography
In Jackson, Mississippi, around 1936, Johnson sought out H. C. Speir, who ran a general store and also acted as a talent scout. Speir put Johnson in touch with Ernie Oertle, who, as a salesman for the ARC group of labels, introduced Johnson to Don Law to record his first sessions in San Antonio, Texas. The recording session was held on November 23–25, 1936, in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio.[38] In the ensuing three-day session, Johnson played 16 selections and recorded alternate takes for most of them. Among the songs Johnson recorded in San Antonio were "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", "Sweet Home Chicago", and "Cross Road Blues", which later became blues standards. The first to be released was "Terraplane Blues", backed with "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", which sold as many as 10,000 copies.[39]
Johnson traveled to Dallas, Texas, for another recording session with Don Law in a makeshift studio at the Vitagraph (Warner Bros.) Building,[40] on June 19–20, 1937.[41] Johnson recorded almost half of the 29 songs that make up his entire discography in Dallas and eleven records from this session were released within the following year. Most of Johnson's "somber and introspective" songs and performances come from his second recording session.[42] Johnson did two takes of most of these songs, and recordings of those takes survived. Because of this, there is more opportunity to compare different performances of a single song by Johnson than for any other blues performer of his era.[43] In contrast to most Delta players, Johnson had absorbed the idea of fitting a composed song into the three minutes of a 78-rpm side.[44]
BornFarrokh Bulsara
5 September 1946
Stone Town, Sultanate of ZanzibarDied24 November 1991 (aged 45)
Kensington, London, EnglandNationalityBritishOther names
Alma mater
Occupations
Years active1969–1991Partners
BornFarrokh Bulsara
5 September 1946
Stone Town, Sultanate of ZanzibarDied24 November 1991 (aged 45)
Kensington, London, EnglandNationalityBritishOther names
Alma mater
Occupations
Years active1969–1991Partners
Musical careerGenres
Instruments
Labels
Formerly of
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991)[2] was a British singer and songwriter who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury defied the conventions of a rock frontman with his theatrical style, influencing the artistic direction of Queen.
Born in 1946 in Zanzibar to Parsi-Indian parents, Mercury attended English boarding schools in India from the age of eight and returned to Zanzibar after secondary school. In 1964, his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution, moving to Middlesex, England. Having previously studied and written music, he formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Mercury wrote numerous hits for Queen, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "We Are the Champions", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". His charismatic stage performances often saw him interact with the audience, as displayed at the 1985 Live Aid concert. He also led a solo career and was a producer and guest musician for other artists.
Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. He continued to record with Queen, and was posthumously featured on their final album, Made in Heaven (1995). In 1991, the day after publicly announcing his diagnosis, he died from complications of the disease at the age of 45. In 1992, a concert in tribute to him was held at Wembley Stadium, in benefit of AIDS awareness.
As a member of Queen, Mercury was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 1990, he and the other Queen members received the Brit Awardfor Outstanding Contribution to British Music. One year after his death, Mercury received the same award individually. In 2005, Queen were awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2002, Mercury was voted number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
An imagination taller than the Rocky Mountains. A wanderlust that has taken him further than a Northern Ontario bush pilot. A guitar, a pair of boots, and a knack for writing songs about Canada can only begin to describe the man that Canada has come to know and love as Stompin’ Tom Connors.
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Tom’s youngest
An imagination taller than the Rocky Mountains. A wanderlust that has taken him further than a Northern Ontario bush pilot. A guitar, a pair of boots, and a knack for writing songs about Canada can only begin to describe the man that Canada has come to know and love as Stompin’ Tom Connors.
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Tom’s youngest years were spent living hand-to-mouth with his mother, until he was taken from her and placed in the care of the Children’s Aid. From there, he was adopted into the Aylward family of Skinner’s Pond, PEI, where he lived until he began his hitchhiking career at the age of 15.
Tom traveled to almost every corner of Canada throughout the next 13 years – from the rocky coastline of Newfoundland to the arctic desolation of the Yukon – and a hundred thousand points in between. He could rarely be found without his guitar; even when he had a “real” job (which never lasted long), he would still write and sing songs about the people he met and the places he visited.
Money was a scarcity for Tom during this period in the 1950’s and early 1960’s; it may also have been his big “break”, when he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins, Ontario. The bartender, Gaet Lepine, agreed to give Tom a beer if he would play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 13-month contract to play at the hotel, a weekly spot on the CKGB radio station in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.
Tom’s recording career picked up in 1969 when he signed with Dominion Records; over the next two years, he released 6 original albums, a compilation album, and a 5-album set of traditional music. He subsequently left Dominion Records to help form Boot Records – a company that would see 10 more original albums by Tom and a myriad of recordings from many other Canadian artists.
The album “Gumboot Cloggeroo”, released in 1979, would be Tom’s last. In a fit of frustration and disappointment, Tom returned all six of his Juno Awards, as a statement of protest against the Americanization of the Canadian music industry. This began Tom’s self-imposed exile from the music industry – a music industry that would not embrace his hTom Getting The Crowd Goin’omespun and fiercely patriotic brand of music.
Tom has never been a quitter; his dogged persistence and spirit to succeed rose in 1986 with his formation of A-C-T Records – a new label that would record and promote Canadian music. Tom began touring and releasing records again in 1988, and his signing with EMI Canada would eventually allow for the complete re-release of his entire catalogue of music. Tom would also receive the Order of Canada, an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from St. Thomas University, the key to the city of Peterborough, Ontario, and countless other honors.
To date, Tom has put out 24 albums of original material, several children’s books, 2 canadian best selling autobiographies, a movie, a television series, a live concert special and countless memories for the Canadians that he has touched with his verses of Canada.
On March 6th 2013 Tom passed away at his Halton Hills home but he left us with this message that he wanted passed along to all Canadian:
“Hello friends, I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin’ Tom.”
“It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with it’s beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.”
“I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the Patriot Canada needs now and in the future.”
“I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done.”
Sincerely,
Your Friend always,
Stompin’ Tom Connors
WEBSITE
MARTIN PAGE, who hails from Southampton, England, first gained recognition as a songwriter in the early 80’swith Top-40 hits for Kim Carnes and Earth, Wind & Fire, among others. With Bernie Taupin (whose usual partnerwas Elton John), plus Dennis Lambert & Peter Wolf, Page wrote “WE BUILT THIS CITY,” a worldwide NumberOne Hit for
MARTIN PAGE, who hails from Southampton, England, first gained recognition as a songwriter in the early 80’swith Top-40 hits for Kim Carnes and Earth, Wind & Fire, among others. With Bernie Taupin (whose usual partnerwas Elton John), plus Dennis Lambert & Peter Wolf, Page wrote “WE BUILT THIS CITY,” a worldwide NumberOne Hit for Starship (their first) in 1985. Page and Taupin returned to Number One the following year with“THESE DREAMS,” recorded by Heart (also Heart’s first chart topper). Teaming up with Peter Cox and RichardDrummie of the UK group Go West, Page wrote “KING OF WISHFUL THINKING,” featured in the movie“PRETTY WOMAN,” which became a Top Ten hit for GO WEST in 1990, and “FAITHFUL,” another hit for GoWest. With Robbie Robertson, Page penned the critically acclaimed “FALLEN ANGEL,” featured in Robbie’s firstsolo album. Page has also written for, produced, had his songs cut by, and/or otherwise worked with such artistsas The Commodores, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Paul Young, Earth, Wind & Fire, Brian Ferry, Phil Collins,Josh Groban, Colin Bluntsone, Robbie Williams and Elaine Paige, among many others.As a Songwriter/Recording Artist, Page gained success in America for his own band Q-Feel, with the classicdance hit, “DANCING IN HEAVEN,” which brought him to this country in the early 80’s; and later, Page’s debutsolo LP “IN THE HOUSE OF STONE AND LIGHT” (Mercury Records) was released in 1994. In 1995, its titletrack became a substantial pop hit and a No.1 adult contemporary hit – breaking the record as the longestcharting single in Billboard’s A/C Chart history, and garnering Billboard’s “1995 Top Adult Contemporary Single OfThe Year” Award. It earned one of ASCAP’s top 5 “most played” Awards for 1995, and again for 1996, atASCAP’s ANNUAL POP AWARDS. In 2008, Page released his 2 nd solo album, “IN THE TEMPLE OF THEMUSE” (available at iTunes, Amazon & other digital outlets), the first release from Page’s independent label,IroningBoard Records, which quickly reached No.1 on CD Baby’s Top Selling Albums Pop/Rock chart, andremained in the Top 5 throughout the 1 st year, repeatedly returning to the No.1 position during the 36 monthsfollowing its release. Two songs from the “Temple” album have been cut by major artists: “The Long Walk Home”was recorded by ROBBIE WILLIAMS on his Greatest Hits album (Deluxe and Ultimate Editions), and “MiMorena” was recorded by JOSH GROBAN (which Page produced) on his multi-Platinum “Closer” album andsubsequent live albums, and by ELAINE PAIGE, the “First Lady of music theatre” (performed with Jon Secadafeaturing Kenny G), for the lead-off track on her Gold duets album, “Elaine Paige and Friends” - one of only twonew songs on an album of classics, produced by the legendary Phil Ramone. Page’s 3rd solo album, “ATEMPER OF PEACE” (IroningBoard Records), was released in July of 2012. An ambitious undertaking of 14songs, completely self-played, produced and recorded, it topped the CD Baby Top Selling Albums Pop/Rock chartin the first week after its release and was featured as a Top Seller in their August newsletter. One of the songsfrom the “Temper” album, “I Can’t Get There Without You”, was recorded by THE OSMONDS and released astheir first single from their 50 th anniversary album of the same title. Page’s 4 th solo CD, “HOTEL OF THE TWOWORLDS” (also available on CD Baby & iTunes, etc.), was released on his IroningBoard label in June 2015. Itwas featured at CD Baby as an Editor’s Choice CD and reached the No.1 spot in their Top Selling AlbumsPop/Rock chart in less than a week, returning to the top position repeatedly. In January 2017, his current CD,“THE SLENDER SADNESS (The Love Songs)” was released, containing a mixture of new and previously-released Page love songs, which also topped the CD Baby Top Selling Albums Pop/Rock chart in short order.A key cut on the Ronan Keating (formerly of Boyzone) “20/20” album (released in 2020), is “The Big Goodbye”,penned by Page and Robbie Williams. The album entered the British Pop Charts at #2 in the first week afterrelease. The song features guest vocals from Robbie Williams.Interesting Note: “We Built This City”, which first topped the Billboard charts in 1985, re-entered the Top-20 inEngland 20 years later when it appeared in a TV ad there. It topped the UK charts again, 33 years after it’s initialrelease, beating Ariana Grande into England’s revered national “Christmas No.1” slot in 2018, when a young
celebrity video blogger named Ladbaby recorded it with parody lyrics - “We Built This City (on Sausage Rolls)”.Ladbaby hadn’t been born yet when “We Built This City” first became a hit!Page is currently working on several projects for his Ironing Board label and has a Podcast radio show.www.facebook.com/martinpagemusic martinpage.com martinpage.com/songfacts.html
he building, located on York Street down the street from Ashley's Ice Cream and across an alley from Mory's Temple Bar, was the original location of the Yale Co-op. During the 1960s, it was a popular restaurant called Hungry Charlie's and then the location of Caleb's Tavern.
In 1974, Mike Spoerndle, formerly a student at the Culinary In
he building, located on York Street down the street from Ashley's Ice Cream and across an alley from Mory's Temple Bar, was the original location of the Yale Co-op. During the 1960s, it was a popular restaurant called Hungry Charlie's and then the location of Caleb's Tavern.
In 1974, Mike Spoerndle, formerly a student at the Culinary Institute of America, rented the building for a French and Italian restaurant, which opened in March 1975. He named it Toad's Place, after a childhood joke. He said, "When my parents were going out to dinner, they would tell me they were going to such-and-such, and I thought it would be funny if they said, 'We're going to Toad's Place.' Plus, people who didn't go out and stayed at home, we'd call them 'toads.' It was the equivalent of a couch potato."[1]
In 1976, Spoerndle turned the restaurant into a live music venue,[2] working with a local musician named Peter Menta to bring in bands. Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Koko Taylor were some of the first performers.[1] In 1976, Brian Phelps joined as manager and eventually co-owner. Phelps took control in 1995, after Spoerndle's numerous problems with alcohol and drug addiction.[2] Spoerndle died on May 6, 2011.[3][4]
In 1983, a second location opened in Waterbury, Connecticut, although it lasted only three years. In 2007, a franchise location in Richmond, Virginia opened with a concert by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. It included a restaurant and club for up to 1,500 visitors.[5] The principal owner was Charles Joyner, a local physician who was a disc jockey at Toad's Place while he was a Yale undergraduate in the 1980s. On 9 March 2009, Toad's Place Richmond was closed. [6] All scheduled shows were canceled and/or moved to The National, another venue in Richmond. A third location was planned for Trenton, New Jersey.[7]
Jeff Lorber, a jazz keyboardist, included an instrumental piece called Toad's Place on his album Water Sign.[7]Through mutual friends, singer Rob Zombie met future wife, actress Sheri Moon, at Toad's in 1989. They married on Halloween of 2002.
Notible concerts
DateBandNotesJuly 10, 1980Billy JoelBilly Joel recorded the song "Los Angelenos" from his album Songs in the Attic at Toad's Place.December 14, 1980U2U2 played during the second leg of the Boy tour. This was only their eighth tour date in North America.May 27, 1981U2U2 played during the fourth leg of the Boy tour. This was their first public performance of the song "Fire".[8]November 15, 1981U2U2 played during the second leg of the October tour.April 2, 1984Allan HoldsworthAllan played tracks from the upcoming album Metal FatigueFebruary 13, 1989Dream TheaterAccording to the "I Can Remember When" documentary taken from the When Dream and Day Reunite bootleg, Dream Theater played there during the When Dream and Day Unite tour.[9]April 24–25, 1989Cyndi LauperThe April 24 concert was the second one on the A Night to Remember tour. Earlier that evening, Brian Phelps (owner of Toad's Place) took Cyndi Lauper to dinner at Mory's Temple Bar, where the Whiffenpoofsserenaded her with an a capella performance of her song "Time After Time". She invited them to join her onstage the next day.[10]August 12, 1989The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones played a surprise hour-long concert for 700 people at Toad's Place. They had been rehearsing for the Steel Wheels tourfor six weeks at the Wykeham Rise School, a girls' school in Washington, Connecticut, that had closed earlier that year, and performed the concert as "a thank-you to Connecticut for the hospitality."[11]January 12, 1990Bob DylanBob Dylan started a tour with a Toad's Place performance including four sets that lasted over five hours, his longest show to date. It was his first club performance in 25 years.[1]January 24, 2002SlayerOriginal drummer Dave Lombardoperforms with the group for the first time since 1992.March 17, 2005The Black CrowesThe concert was called "Mr. Crowes Garden" and was one of five tour dates at small Northeastern clubs. The concerts were intended as a warm-up for their 2005 tour, after not having toured for almost four years.[12]
Official Website
Singer, Pro Wrestler, Trainer, Author
JIMMY started wrestling in 1964 as "Big Jim Vallen". He went to the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1970s as "Handsome Jimmy Valiant" and formed a team with Johnny Valiant that would dominate the tag team scene for a while as WWWF Tag Team champions. In the later 1960s in the World Wrestling Ass
Singer, Pro Wrestler, Trainer, Author
JIMMY started wrestling in 1964 as "Big Jim Vallen". He went to the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1970s as "Handsome Jimmy Valiant" and formed a team with Johnny Valiant that would dominate the tag team scene for a while as WWWF Tag Team champions. In the later 1960s in the World Wrestling Association, they were managed by Bobby Heenan.[3]
Valiant had entered the WWWF in 1971 as a babyface, originally known as "Gentleman Jim Valiant," but quickly switched to heel.[4] He had title matches against champion Pedro Morales in secondary arenas, such as Philadelphia, and feuded with short-term tag partner Chief Jay Strongbow. Jimmy and his kayfabe brother Johnny Valiant held the tag belts from 1974 to 1975 and main evented Madison Square Garden against Chief Jay Strongbow and Bruno Sammartino (Strongbow and Sammartino won 2 out of 3 falls, but one fall via disqualification; hence the belts didn't change hands).
During the late 1970s to early 1980s, Valiant was a central player in the Memphis, Tennessee wrestling scene. He feudedregularly with Jerry Lawler and teamed with Bill Dundee to dominate the tag team matches of that time. He even recorded a song, "The Ballad of Handsome Jimmy", which was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music and became a mainstay on some Memphis radio stations for a few years. Despite the Memphis promotion desperately wanting to keep him in Memphis full-time, even offering to buy him a house in Memphis according to Jerry Lawler's biography, Valiant decided to move on after holding the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship for roughly a year. Valiant also spent a brief amount of time in Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1970s as the heel "King James Valiant" managed by Lord Alfred Hayes.[5]
In 1979, Jimmy returned to the WWWF with Johnny occasionally wrestling and went into the manager role. He managed Johnny and Jerry Valiant as they won the tag belts.
In the early 1980s, Valiant returned as a babyface to National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions as "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant and called his fans "the Street People". His theme music around this time was "Boy From New York City", by The Manhattan Transfer. While in Jim Crockett Promotions, he would sometimes appear in a black bandit-style mask and call himself "Charlie Brown from Outta Town". This usually occurred when Valiant was (in kayfabe) banned from wrestling. Charlie Brown was billed as someone other than Valiant, despite "Brown" having Valiant's legendarily prodigious beard.
January 1984, Valiant was attacked by Paul Jones and The Assassins. They tied him to the wrestling ring ropes so that Jones could cut his beard off. This led to a grudge match with hyped supershow called 'Boogie Man Jam '84' in Greensboro, North Carolina. For this match, Dusty Rhodes was in Valiant's corner and tied by a rope to Paul Jones. Valiant defeated Assassin II, who was unmasked and revealed as Hercules Hernandez. Due to the beard cutting attack, he feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his army of wrestlers, from 1984 through to late 1986. This army of wrestlers included The Barbarian, Baron von Raschke, Teijo Khan, and The Assassins. During this three-year feud, Valiant received help from Héctor Guerrero and "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez. Although Jimmy Valiant would lose a Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight to Paul Jones at Starrcade 1984 in Greensboro, North Carolina the feud with many from the Paul Jones stable continued, which would come to include Abdullah The Butcher. In 1985, Valiant and Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez formed a team called B and B Connection ("Boogie Woogie" and "Bull").
Valiant in 2008
During The Great American Bash 1986 summer shows, Paul Jones adopted a military style look in his long feud with Valiant and labeled his stable of wrestlers The Army. Valiant would beat Shaska Whatley in a hair vs hair match, but with outside interference lost a hair vs hair match to Paul Jones only weeks later. In the fall of 1986, the Raging Bull Manny Fernandez, Valiant's best friend accepted Jones' money and turned on Valiant, starting a feud between the two. Paul Jones at this point shortened his army to his newly acquired tag team of Ragin Bull and Rick Rude. The war between Valiant and Paul Jones climaxed at Starrcade 1986 with Valiant putting up the hair of his valet Big Mama against the hair of Paul Jones in a No DQ Match which Valiant won (while the Ragin Bull was placed in a cage above the ring).
In the late 1980s, he teamed with Hector Guerrero (then masked as Laser Tron) and Bugsy McGraw and feuded with The New Breed. When Jim Crockett Promotions became World Championship Wrestling, Valiant left and returned to Memphis to wrestle in the United States Wrestling Association. In 1990 he twice won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship from Jerry Lawler, losing it back to him both times.
His last match was for WrestlePro in Rahway, New Jersey, where he teamed with Buster Jackson to defeat the team of Colt Cabana and CPA on February 8, 2020.
He now enjoys his time with his wife Angel and training wrestlers at Boogie's Wrestling Camp located in Shawsville, Virginia. Jimmy currently wrestles under the ACW Banner (American Championship Wrestling) around the Roanoke Virginia Area. He has also recently wrestled with George South, Stan Lee and Ricky Morton in ASW Wrestling and New OCW in Ashland, KY with Matty B and Violet Rayne against Beau and Misty James and Scotty Ace.
Valiant remains in the wrestling world today with continuing to appear at independent shows signing autographs while his students appear in a few matches on the card.[citation needed] He keeps in touch with fans through his official Weekly website.[citation needed]
Most recently, Valiant lent his name to a foreword for a fiction novel called "Only The Beginning". It is a book set in the 1980s about a girl's life during high school. While the book is not wrestling related, the author Jason Strecker is a personal friend of Valiant's and in the forward Valiant responds to his friendship with the author along with the book's message of being of strong character and doing positive actions for others. The book also has a foreword by Nikolai Volkoff.[citation needed]
On May 14, 2022, Valiant came out of retirement at 79 years old winning a 6-man tag team match at Patriotic Wrestling Federation in York, South Carolina.[6]
Valiant debuted for Beside the Ring Wrestling in Mountain City on August 31, 2024. After unveiling the inaugural Beside the Ring Championship, Valiant excited the crowd before being interrupted by Evan Golden.[7]
Music
Owner of the legendary Chans restaurant
Chan's Chinese Restaurant and Jazz and Blues Music Club and Nightclub in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Such moments are regular happenings at Chan's, and that's why music lovers regard the place as one of southern New England's great cultural institutions. Most Chinese restaurants pull in customers w
Owner of the legendary Chans restaurant
Chan's Chinese Restaurant and Jazz and Blues Music Club and Nightclub in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Such moments are regular happenings at Chan's, and that's why music lovers regard the place as one of southern New England's great cultural institutions. Most Chinese restaurants pull in customers with aroma, the sizzling smell of spare ribs and pot stickers. You'll find all that at Chan's, of course, but the crowds packing the place on weekend nights are there for jazz and blues.John Chan added music to the menu back in 1977, shortly after he took over management of the family-owned restaurant at 267 Main Street. In the early years the staff would remove tables from the dining area to make room for the bands. When the bank next door closed in 1986, Chan connected that building to his own to create more space for performances. He dubbed the place The Four Seasons Jazz and Blues Club, but most fans call it the listening room," a tribute to his efforts to create a true concert hall with great acoustics. The list of musicians who've played the club since that time includes many of the top names in both blues and jazz. Fusion drummer Steve Smith. Sax great Greg Abate. Bluesman Lucky Peterson, a virtuoso on almost any instrument. Guitar Shorty, who learned a few licks from his brother-in-law, Jimi Hendrix. Mose Allison, nearing 80 but still tickling the ivories. The late Dizzy Gillespie celebrated his 70th birthday blowing his horn on Chan's stage. And jazz diva Rebecca Parris recorded an album there, as have a number of other performers.During Robillard's last appearance, a Jamestown resident volunteered himself as a spokesman for fans. "John Chan has dedicated his life to the greatest art forms created by man," he said. "On Saturday night this place is the capital of the world."That's only a slight exaggeration, because Chan's really is known to jazz and blues lovers around the world. Earlier this year the Blues Foundation, an organization of musicians, promoters, critics and academicians, recognized the club by presenting the manager with their Keeping the Blues Alive award.John Chan and a troupe of Rhode Island pals traveled to Memphis for the awards ceremony. "It's an international award, a sort of Grammy for the blues," he said proudly. "Basically it means 'blues club of the year. ‘ Of course, we couldn't have done it without the support of the jazz and blues fans who've been coming here for so long, our long-time sound engineer, Bob Sloane, and all the great musicians who've graced our stage."About the same time, USA TODAY listed Chan's as one of the country's best places to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Another USA TODAY article on regional sandwich favorites suggested those seeking a new taste sensation stop by Chan's to sample an only-in-southeast-New-England specialty -- brown gravy chow mein served on a hamburger bun.According to Chan, the double dose of carbohydrates makes the dish "a mill town specialty. It's hot, it's fast, it's inexpensive and it's filling -- everything a working man wants."The sandwich might be an acquired taste, but everyone agrees Chan's deserves recognition as a music venue, especially those who’ve played at the club."John Chan has been keeping the blues alive, let me tell you, for as long as I've been around," says Robillard, a Pawtucket resident who was raised in Burrillville. "We're lucky to have this place. A lot of places have closed in recent years, because of the economy.""I've been playing here since '85," adds Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, a veteran of Muddy Waters band. "It's a great place. I'm so glad John Chan got it going and keeps it up."The Mississippi native now resides in New Hampshire, which means he can make the trip to Woonsocket several times a year. He insists there's nothing remarkable about southern music finding a home in a New England mill town. "Blues riffs are part of every music," he says. "No matter what's in style, the blues will always be around."In a recent interview on WICN, Bronx guitar virtuoso Poppa Chubby called Woonsocket one of his favorite tour stops. "There's no place like Chan's in New York City," he said.Joe Krown, a master of the Hammond B-3, recently drove up from New Orleans with an all-star trio that included drummer Russell Batista and guitarist Walter "Wolfman" Washington. "When I first heard we'd be playing a Chinese restaurant, it sounded kind of weird, but this place really works," he said after his first night at the club. "If bands are going to keep bringing their music to other parts of the country, we really need more places like this. These days there are so few clubs with live music, we're driving hundreds of miles between tour stops, and with the price of gas, that's not easy."The Main Street Chinese restaurant has been part of Woonsocket life since 1905, though with other names. The original owners were the Ark family. Chan's father, an electrical engineer, bought the business because he wanted to raise his family in a small town. Prior to that, the Chans had lived in Hong Kong -- where John was born -- and New York City. "Tommy Ark and my dad met literally on a slow boat to China," Chan said. "They were both returning to the same village in Canton to find their brides, which was the custom back then. Through the years they kept in touch with Christmas cards and letters. Tommy Ark retired in 1964 and moved his family to Hawaii. When my family heard the news, my father decided a restaurant in a smaller community sounded like a good opportunity. We bought the business. Woonsocket really opened its arms to us. Today we have loyal customers whose families have been coming here for three generations."John Chan worked at the family business through junior high and high school. He first took an interest in music while studying at Providence College in the early '70s. "My roommate was a deejay at the college radio station, and he'd bring the new releases back to the dorm," he recalls. "Then I started going to the jazz clubs in Boston, Paul's Mall and a few other places."He credits the success of the music club in part to the renovations he's made to the former bank. "Musicians love playing here because it really is a listening room, not a dance club," he said. "That means you get an especially appreciative audience. And acoustically it's great -- I put sound proofing all the way up to the ceiling. There are no obstructions in the room, no columns blocking the view, because I put a steel beam across the ceiling."The restaurant and club are an art gallery as well. Visitors are greeted by larger-than-life portraits of Pinetop Perkins, Billie Holiday, and other blues and jazz greats, including some who have performed in the very same rooms. The portraits were created by George Frane, also known as Commander Cody, a piano pounder who frequently plays the club.Also exhibited on several walls are surrealist paintings by the late Robert Hamilton, an artist and faculty member at Rhode Island School of Design. By the way, his son Scott is the well-known tenor sax man (and another Chan's veteran.)The entranceway is decorated with posters reminiscent of the psychedelic ad bills that promoted San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium back in the heyday of hippies, peace, and love. They were created by RISD grad Patty Sargeant, who runs Dragonfly Bookbinders with her husband George. Chan asked her to produce 25 posters to mark the 25th anniversary of the music venue.Keep looking, and you'll find a few works by the club owner as well. Chan is a talented artist himself, working with water colors and more recently oil paint.There's more great music coming to Chan's this fall. Robillard returns on Oct. 21; the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Oct. 22; Roomful of Blues, Oct. 24; Ronnie Earl, Nov. 4; James Montgomery, Nov. 25; and Commander Cody, Dec. 23.That roster could include your name, too: the final Wednesday of each month is open-mike night at Chan's, and patrons are invited to play or sing with a house band. Dr. John Chan, PhD was hooded by President of Providence College Fr. Sicard during the 103rd Commencement.
is a blues pianist and singer, plus arranger and co-founder of Roomful of Blues. After 16 years with Roomful, Copley relocated to Europe in 1984, and back home to the US in 2010.
Copley has been performing extensively in Europe and the northeast US since 2010, appears regularly in New England, Switzerland and Paris, and continu
is a blues pianist and singer, plus arranger and co-founder of Roomful of Blues. After 16 years with Roomful, Copley relocated to Europe in 1984, and back home to the US in 2010.
Copley has been performing extensively in Europe and the northeast US since 2010, appears regularly in New England, Switzerland and Paris, and continues to develop in style and taste, always noted for energy, versatility and harmony. He has been included in Chapman Roberts' 2018 "Broadway Jazz Festival" in Manhattan with stars from Chapman's hit plays Blues in the Night, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Five Guys Named Moe and Bubbling Brown Sugar.
In 2016, Copley instigated a reunion recording of the 1970s version of Roomful of Blues. This is due to be released in 2021. The goal, according to co-founder Duke Robillard, was to "make a record equal to or better than our first record."[1]
In June 2002 and 2009, Copley performed four of his own full symphonic orchestrations before an audience of more than 25,000 with the Boston Festival Orchestra at Summer Pops.
Copley has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award (1983 and 1984) in the category Best Traditional Blues Album. In 1978 he performed with the original Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and in 1993 he opened for Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall in London for 12 concerts, performing with Jimmie Vaughan. His performances on the main stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland include opening for Bob Dylan in 1998, opening for Eric Clapton's Legends in 1997, doing a duo of "Jazz-Hot" with Jeff Healey in 1997, and opening the Blues Summit with Etta James and B. B. King in 1993. Copley also performed at the first Montreux Jazz Festival in Japan with George Duke and McCoy Tyner in 1998.
Charisma, leadership and compassion best describe the singer/songwriter Steve Elci
His love for catchy hooks in his musings and soaring vocal style has won him acclaim from fans and critics alike. "Steve Elci is a songwriting machine with the chops and creativity to comfortably establish his own hooks” - Rick Koster, Arts Columnist/Report
Charisma, leadership and compassion best describe the singer/songwriter Steve Elci
His love for catchy hooks in his musings and soaring vocal style has won him acclaim from fans and critics alike. "Steve Elci is a songwriting machine with the chops and creativity to comfortably establish his own hooks” - Rick Koster, Arts Columnist/Reporter for The Day Paper. "Hey, Didn't the Beatles Sing About a Submarine" William Yardley - The New York Times.
My vision or philosophy of my work can be summed up from the made-up word called "Edutainment". Edutainment is "learning through music". Kids and adults come to dance and have fun at my shows. They get so immersed in having a good time, they don't even realize they are leaving with a lesson. After my performances, children and adults feel inspired and compelled to learn and grow together and as individuals.
My willingness to perform knows no boundaries; the stage is the ultimate place for me to express myself. When I perform, it is a chance for me to connect with my audience and interact with them with original songs, educational messages and fun creative dance steps. I make myself available to perform at all times, no gig is too small or too big and they are all equally important. All fundraisers and events I have been a part of have become a positive influence in southeastern Connecticut and the fabric of our music and arts community.
History as an artist:
1989 and 2009 - Organized the fundraisers “Harmony for the Homeless" Rock and roll concerts for the St. James Homeless Shelter and New London Food Pantry at Waterford High School. Both concerts had radio and newspaper coverage and exceeded fundraising goals.
2004 - Recorded a song titled "Submarine Town," which played a part in the Save the Groton CT Submarine Base political campaign with Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, U.S. Senators Andrea Stillman and Christopher Dodd, and then U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons. In May of 2005, New York Times reporter Bill Yardley wrote about Steve in an article called "Hey, Didn't the Beatles Sing about a Submarine?
2005 - Recorded a song called "Christmas Time" which was for "The Chimneys of New London" a Connecticut based Christmas CD featuring all local New London artists. The song "Christmas Time" was entered into the Unisong International Songwriting Contest where it became an Honorable Mention Winner internationally! (2005-2006).
2006 - Recorded a composition for the National PTA called "Every Child One Voice" as a fund-raiser for the association. The song was sold nationally for about three months before the end of the school year in 2007. Steve performed all over New England for PTA functions in support of the fundraiser, including at the National PTA New England Convention and Leadership Conference. March 16 - 17, 2007 in Manchester, NH.
2011 - Placed second in the 'John Lennon International Songwriting Contest' session I with the song “Bicycle"
2011 - Placed Second in the Earth Day Network contest 'Music for the Earth' with the song "Earth Day”
2011 - First released children's CD "Vowels" CD wins the 'Parents Choice Award’
2011- Placed second in the 'John Lennon International Songwriting Contest' session II with the song "Crayons in a Box"
2011 - Whalie Award Winner for Best Solo Performance
2012 - Partnered with theday.com to create "Kidsploration" a web based creative kids series to be broadcast on kidsploration.org and theday.com.
2012 - Whalie Award Winner for Best Singer/Songwriter
2013 - Whalie Award Winner for Best Singer/Songwriter
2014 - EMMY Nominated for producing the web series Kidsploration!
2015 - Whalie Award Winner for Best Pop Performance
2017 - Best Readers Choice Award (Best in the region) The Day Paper
2022/2023 - Produced two compilation albums (Arise Together, Arise Together Children of the World) benefitting children from war-torn Ukraine and children with special needs. The albums features artists from all over the world and 500 children from Ukraine, USA, Uganda and India. Both albums Julian Lennon performed.
Sunshine was a disco group and the backing vocalist for singer Donna Summer. The members included Carlena Williams and Summer's sisters Linda Gaines (now Lotman), Dara Bernard, and Mary Ellen Bernard.[1] Their 1978 number one Billboard Disco hit "Take It to the Zoo" charted as "Last Dance / After Dark / Thank God It's Friday / Take It to
Sunshine was a disco group and the backing vocalist for singer Donna Summer. The members included Carlena Williams and Summer's sisters Linda Gaines (now Lotman), Dara Bernard, and Mary Ellen Bernard.[1] Their 1978 number one Billboard Disco hit "Take It to the Zoo" charted as "Last Dance / After Dark / Thank God It's Friday / Take It to the Zoo" by Donna Summer.[2][3] The song was featured on the "Thank God It's Friday" film and soundtrack, was co-written by Summer (with Bruce Sudano and Joe "Bean" Esposito), who also sings background on the track. She was also the spokesperson for Black is Beautiful
As a songwriting musician, Lauren Agnelli has explored the many facets of American popular music throughout her wide-ranging career, writing and co-writing hundreds of songs, recording over 60 releases in various formats. In her home town of Chester, CT, Lauren was Music Director and performer with the Small Town Concert Series, an enti
As a songwriting musician, Lauren Agnelli has explored the many facets of American popular music throughout her wide-ranging career, writing and co-writing hundreds of songs, recording over 60 releases in various formats. In her home town of Chester, CT, Lauren was Music Director and performer with the Small Town Concert Series, an entity that she co-founded with her husband, Matthew Male, from 2007 to 2012--producing over 60 shows with local CT musical talent. In Connecticut, she also performed shows with co-writer Dave Rave, the short-lived but rockin’ Ravens in the Woods, and with Amalgamated Muck, a roots/country/folk group. She began her musical and writing career in NYC in the 1970’s, working for the Village Voice and Creem Magazine as rock writer Trixie A. Balm. Then, she wound up co-founding Nervus Rex, a fixture at New York’s CBGB’s whose debut album on Dreamland Records came out in 1980. Later she helped ignite an 80s folk revival with the Grammy-nominated Washington Squares. In the 1990s she played in the rocking Canadian-American Dave Rave Conspiracy, and then went on to form the melodic duo Agnelli & Rave with Dave "Rave" DesRoches. Meanwhile, she also recorded with nuclear polka musical geniuses and two-time Grammy winners Brave Combo for an inspired 1996 torchy yet musically multistyled release, Kiss of Fire. With her 2004 solo effort, Love Always Follows Me, Lauren Agnelli drew upon her many musical styles to present new and classic torch songs that revealed more of the many sides of love for the “hopeful, not hopeless” romantic. From 2016 to 2020, Lauren Agnelli joined and co-fronted Connecticut’s own long-running old time jug/roots/rock group, Washboard Slim and the Blue Lights. In the 2020s, she is seeking a new musical adventure in Connecticut while making music for and with residents of skilled nursing homes—those who crave and greatly benefit from music they know and love.
Paul Nelson - is recognized as one of today's top modern contemporary guitarists, songwriters and sought after record producers. He not only has the distinction of being the hand picked fellow guitarist to the legendary rock/blues icon Johnny Winter in the 2000's but he has toured the world over performing and or recorded along side an e
Paul Nelson - is recognized as one of today's top modern contemporary guitarists, songwriters and sought after record producers. He not only has the distinction of being the hand picked fellow guitarist to the legendary rock/blues icon Johnny Winter in the 2000's but he has toured the world over performing and or recorded along side an endless who's who of top artists from Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy to Slash, Billy Gibbons, Paul McCartney, Bootsy Collins, Ben Harper, Robben Ford, Jimmy Vivino, Vince Gill, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, James Cotton, Joe Perry, Susan Tedeschi, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, John Popper, Dr. John, Larry Carlton, Leslie West, Joe Bonamassa, Sonny Landreth, Dickey Betts to Joe Walsh and many more...
WEBSITE www.paulnelsonguitar.com
Back in the 1960’s, four brothers who wanted to be The Beatles formed a band called The Cowsills. The original Cowsills consisted of Bill on guitar, Bob on guitar and organ, Barry on bass and John on drums. Early gigs were at school dances and churches around their home in Newport, RI. Eventually, as their harmonic sound was perfected, t
Back in the 1960’s, four brothers who wanted to be The Beatles formed a band called The Cowsills. The original Cowsills consisted of Bill on guitar, Bob on guitar and organ, Barry on bass and John on drums. Early gigs were at school dances and churches around their home in Newport, RI. Eventually, as their harmonic sound was perfected, they got a regular gig on Bannisters Wharf in Newport where they would sing Beatle songs hour after hour. Early recordings were released by the four brothers on Joda and Mercury Records. Barbara (“mini-mom”) joined the group to record The Rain, The Park and Other Things and shortly thereafter 7 year old Susan and brother, Paul, were added to the group. They were signed by MGM records and the group began it’s climb to the top!Here’s what Bob had to say about the early days and getting started.
Although Bill and I performed at a very young age, and Bill, myself, Barry and John did a lot of frat parties at Brown University and clubs in Newport … the most memorable performance of what I would view as the precursor of what The Cowsills would be was at King’s Park in Newport (right at the foot of Halidon Hall) at some carnival. The family angle just evolved … first Bill and me, then Bill me and Barry, then Bill, me, Barry and John, then Bill, me, Barry, John and Mom, then Bill, me, Barry, John, Mom and Paul, then later, me, Paul, John, Barry, Mom and Susan, then back to Bill, me, Barry and John (very briefly in the end) and then to me, Paul, John and Susan. Our first real break came when we were playing the MK Hotel in Newport (in the basement there) and a guy from the Today show saw us and asked if we wanted to be on the Today show. We weren’t famous or anything but we were young and we were related and we were quite good. So we went on the Today show (I doubt a tape exists of that but if it did it would be priceless to see) and someone from Mercury Records saw us which ultimately led to our signing with that label and putting out “Most Of All” (a great “school’s out” song that should have been our first hit in my opinion) which led to Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff. Mercury dropped us, but Artie and Steve had written “The Rain, The Park and Other Things” and we went in and recorded that song at A&R studios in New York and took the whole package to MGM who decided wouldn’t it just be terrific if their mother performed with them and, voila, the rest, as they say, is history.
The Cowsills enjoyed great success during the late 60’s and in to the very early 70’s not only with their music but appearing as guests on many television shows and even hosting their own TV special. They were approached to do a TV series but the producers had already signed an actress to play the mother on the series so it was a no go for The Cowsills. What was the series? It was The Partridge Family. The Cowsills were also spokespersons for the American Dairy Association and appeared in commercials and print ads for milk. The Cowsills disbanded in the early 1970s but most of them have never really left the music business and various members have regrouped through the years.Bridey Murphy, aka Paul, Bill, Barry and Waddy Wachtel, was formed in the mid-70’s. Bill and Barry drifted in and out of this group and one single, The Time Has Come / Be Your Mother’s Son, was recorded with Paul doing all vocals and Waddy playing all instruments.Then, in the late 1970’s, some of the Cowsills regrouped and recorded an album affectionately known as Cocaine Drain. This album was produced by Chuck Plotkin and also featured Dennis Castanares as a “member” of The Cowsills at that time. During those days, The Cowsills sometimes played the LA area as The Secrets and The Critics. Rumor has it that The Critics also recorded (and never released) a few songs.Flash forward to the 1990s when some of The Cowsills (Bob, Paul, John and Susan) again regrouped. This time they were going to hit the oldies circuit but somehow playing just oldies didn’t appeal to them. They had too much fun on some new material written by Bob and his wife, Mary Jo. So, this incarnation of The Cowsills started playing small clubs and showcases in the Los Angeles area and across the country. They generated great reviews from the critics and fans alike. The Cowsills also went back into the studio and Global was a result of those sessions.Some long-time Cowsill fans (Marsha & Martha Jordan, Jo Malone, Lynn Mathis and Becky Presley) have formed the Committee for the Nomination of The Cowsills for Induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are striving to have The Cowsills inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They have created a colorful presentation brochure on The Cowsills that details the ways in which The Cowsills have met the criteria for induction into the Rock Hall which will be sent to each member of the nominating sommittee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The criteria addressed includes: longevity, influence, innovation, distinction, and perpetuation. Also included are comments from Artie Kornfeld, Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish, Shirley Jones, Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, etc.During their research, the committee compiled some amazing facts about The Cowsills and their careers, including:
Both Barry and Susan had their lives turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina, which hit the gulf coast in August 2005, since both were residents of the New Orleans area at the time. Susan and her family lost their home and most of their belongings but they were all safe during the hurricane and it’s aftermath and returned to live in New Orleans in January 2006. Barry, unfortunately, did not get out of New Orleans before Katrina hit and was among the missing of Hurricane Katrina for 4 months. Then, sadly, on January 4th, 2006, The Cowsill family got the news that Barry’s body had been found and identified. Barry Cowsill is no longer with us. At the memorial service for Barry, the Cowsill family was informed that Billy had passed away following his battles with hip replacement surgery, back surgery, emphysema, osteoporosis and other problems. Today, the surviving Cowsills continue to make music – sometimes individually and sometimes together – and their harmonies are still as infectious and bright as ever. Be sure to watch the documentary about the Cowsills, Family Band: The Cowsills Story, available now!The Cowsills are proud to announce their new album, Rhythm Of The World, released on September 30, 2022. Check it out!
📷William Joseph Cowsill, Jr. January 9, 1948 – February 18, 2006
📷Richard James Cowsill August 26, 1949
Robert Paul Cowsill August 26, 1949
Paul Mitchell Cowsill November 11, 1951
Barry Steven Cowsill September 14, 1954 – 2005
📷John Patrick Cowsill March 2, 1956
📷Susan Claire Cowsill May 20, 1959
Barbara Cowsill July 12, 1928 – January 31, 1985
William Joseph Cowsill, Sr. December 2, 1925 – September 29, 1992
The Reducers bio
"I can't think of anything better than spending 30 years doing something you love with three of your best friends," Peter Detmold says of his time with The Reducers, the band he co-founded in 1980.
For more than three decades, The Reducers maintained their stature as regional rock 'n' roll legends and tenacious true beli
The Reducers bio
"I can't think of anything better than spending 30 years doing something you love with three of your best friends," Peter Detmold says of his time with The Reducers, the band he co-founded in 1980.
For more than three decades, The Reducers maintained their stature as regional rock 'n' roll legends and tenacious true believers. The quartet remains a beloved institution in and around their hometown of New London, Connecticut, while maintaining a fiercely loyal fan base around the world.
The four longstanding compatriots forged an enduring friendship and a productive musical partnership rooted in their shared belief in the catchy, unpretentious, effortlessly uplifting rock 'n' roll that remained the band's focus for its entire existence.
The Reducers remained a vital musical force until June 2012, when bassist Steve Kaika passed away after battling cancer. His bandmates chose not to continue without him, and instead set about putting the finishing touches upon their final studio sessions, which had been recorded prior to Steve's illness. Those recordings now form the foundation of Last Tracks & Lost Songs, which combines those sessions with a scintillating selection of rare and unreleased Reducers tracks dating back to the 1980s.
The Reducers spent more than three decades resisting the fickle turns of popular taste, the transient whims of musical fashion, and the temptations of the music-industry buzz that briefly threatened to turn them into the Next Big Thing. Instead, the band spontaneously moved forward on its own uncompromising terms, continuing to make brilliant, personally charged rock 'n' roll, while remaining well below the radar of the mainstream music biz but prominent in the hearts of those who loved them.
The Reducers' history is a powerful testament to rock 'n' roll's power to transcend and inspire, for those who create it as well as for those who consume it. These four working-class underdogs—Detmold and fellow singer-guitarist-songwriter Hugh Birdsall, drummer Tom Trombley and bassist/vocalist Kaika—spent most of their adult lives building a potent body of recordings and a far-reaching reputation as a scrappy, riveting live act that affirmed rock 'n' roll's vibrant promise on a regular basis.
"There's a lot you can do with two guitars, bass and drums," asserts Birdsall.
The nine albums that The Reducers released between 1978 and 2012 charted the band's evolution from punk-inspired smartasses to thoughtful craftsmen, without sacrificing the musical and personal edge that originally established them as a special band. Those recordings showcase the foursome's organic musical rapport and the ace songwriting of Birdsall and Detmold, whose unfailingly infectious tunes incorporate a witty, heartfelt lyrical sensibility that's laced with barbed humor and humanistic insight.
Throughout their existence, The Reducers embodied the same fannish enthusiasm that first asserted itself in the late 1970s, when teenaged pals Birdsall and Detmold bonded over their mutual affinity for the punk and new wave sounds that were emerging at the time. They indulged their love for the new music with a ten-day visit to London during the musically volatile summer of 1977, during which the pair witnessed historic performances by the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Jam.
The new music's raw energy and do-it-yourself spirit provided a focus for the duo's own budding musical energies, and their passion for the music was further fueled by their frequent treks into Manhattan to pick up the latest British import releases, and to check out the city's booming punk scene.
"Those experiences were huge for us," Birdsall notes. "They made us realize that we didn't have to be virtuoso musicians to play out in clubs. All of those early punk songs were easy to learn, so we could actually learn lots of complete songs. And we started to learn about arranging songs so that we could play them, without having to achieve note-for-note perfection. It also made us realize that we'd have to write our own songs if we wanted to be a real band."
"The biggest lesson that punk rock taught us was 'You can do it,'" Detmold adds. "I'd been going to see bands for years and years, but when I'd see the Who or Thin Lizzy or Queen or the Allman Brothers, it felt like there was no way that I could ever manage something like that. But then when I began seeing shows by the likes of the Ramones and the Clash and the Jam and the Sex Pistols, it felt like it was within my grasp, and that it was something that we could do."
Another touchstone for the soon-to-be-Reducers was the '70s school of earthy, rootsy British pub-rock bands, e.g. Ducks Deluxe, Rockpile and Dr. Feelgood.
As Detmold recalls, "I got into the whole pub-rock thing after I found the first Ducks Deluxe album in a cutout bin at my local record store. I bought it because I was intrigued by the cover photo; those four guys looked like a band, but nothing like the bands I was used to. The whole idea of bands that played in bars for a drinking crowd appealed to us, because it further stripped away the pretense that there was something unattainable about being in a rock 'n' roll band."
Inspired to get serious about launching their own band, Birdsall and Detmold soon roped in Kaika and Trombley to complete the lineup. At the time, the bassist and drummer were gainfully employed as the rhythm section of the popular local country-rock outfit the Bob Bridgeman Band, but were nonetheless persuaded to join forces with Hugh and Peter. Armed with a growing list of original compositions and an eclectic array of cover tunes, The Reducers began playing out in New London and various New England college towns, quickly developing an enthusiastic following.
In the summer of 1980, The Reducers entered a small local studio to cut their first single, "Out of Step"/"No Ambition," which they released on their own homespun Rave On label. The landmark disc (original copies of which now fetch princely sums on ebay) was a perfect encapsulation of the band's hard-working underdog appeal. Despite a lack of promotional resources, the single gained numerous positive reviews and helped to spread The Reducers' reputation outside of their home region, even as their local popularity was helping to fuel a scene of new bands to coalesce around them at home.
The Reducers' public profile was raised further when the band's self-titled debut LP, recorded on the cheap and live in the studio, was released in 1984, with all four members sharing vocal duties and songwriting credits. Despite its lo-fi sonics, the album's urgent performances and winsome songcraft struck a chord with critics and college-radio DJs.
The Reducers' second longplayer Let's Go! was released in early 1985 and was even better received, breaking into the Top 10 on various alternative charts. Let's Go!'s anthemic title song broke out as a college-radio hit, ending up on Epic Records' compilation album Epic Presents the Unsigned. It was also named Single of the Year by the influential college radio trade publication CMJ, which also anointed The Reducers as 1985's Best Unsigned Band.
Those honors, combined with some grueling national touring and a widely-read rave by Robert Christgau in New York's Village Voice, helped to set off a national buzz that attracted the interest of several major labels.
At the time, The Reducers were in the vanguard of a historic wave of iconoclastic, independently minded young bands sprouting up across the United States.
"When we first started putting out albums in the early '80s, we'd find them in record store bins right in front of R.E.M. and the Replacements, and it was obvious that we were part of a movement away from the bloated arena-rock thing," explains Detmold. "I saw both of those bands, and lots of others, in small clubs in front of small crowds, and I realized that we were all working different variations of a similar idea."
"We felt like we were part of something," adds Birdsall. "But we also felt like we were on the periphery of it, on the outside looking in. To me, it's miraculous that we ever even got closeto the music business. That was more the work of others, who heard something in us that they thought might be marketable, than it was any ambitions on our part."
But while many of their contemporaries went on to major-label deals and mainstream recognition, the big deal that many predicted for The Reducers failed to materialize. Rather than turn bitter, the band simply continued doing what they loved. A third album, 1985's Cruise to Nowhere, was quickly written and recorded amidst touring commitments.
But the strain of constant roadwork began to wear on the band, and they soon retreated from national touring. Instead, they continued gigging locally and writing vital new material, sustained by their hometown fans and by their abiding belief in the music.
The Reducers made their belated CD debut in 1991 with the 29-song retrospective Redux, which gathered most of the band's prior vinyl output into one handy package. In addition to belatedly dragging the band into the digital age, the collection launched a wave of renewed public and press interest. 1995's Shinola, the band's first album of new material in a decade, covered some impressive new creative ground, while maintaining the qualities that had originally endeared The Reducers to their admirers.
In 2000, the band responded to years of fan requests for a live album by assembling the rough-and-ready Fistfight At Ocean Beach. That disc was a limited-edition CD-R release available only as a premium for donations to WCNI, the non-profit local radio station where Birdsall and Detmold have served as DJs almost continuously since 1979, carefully avoiding self-promotion and sharing their favorite old and new rock 'n' roll tunes with their loyal listeners.
A more formal live CD, 2003's Old Cons, found The Reducers celebrating their 25th anniversary with a career-spanning onstage retrospective that documented the band's intensity and versatility—as well as their longstanding love for early rock 'n' roll, vintage soul, British Invasion pop and '70s punk and new wave.
The Reducers' 25th anniversary also coincided with the mayor of New London's official proclamation of August 23, 2003 as Reducers Day, and the premiere of the career-spanning documentary The Reducers: America's Best Unsigned Band, which won critical acclaim for its compelling retelling of the group's unlikely journey.
The following year, a request from a group of Japanese Reducers fans—who had already bought out the backlog of vinyl LP stock that had been gathering dust in Peter's basement—led to the band's first-ever overseas tour, a ten-day run of rapturously received shows in Japan.
Such acknowledgements demonstrated how these humble outsiders had ended up as unlikely rock 'n' roll heroes. The title and musical contents of their 2008 studio effort Guitars, Bass and Drumsunderlined how The Reducers' unpretentious musical agenda remained as compelling as ever.
"It was never about money or fame," states Birdsall. "It was always about the music, and the camaraderie, and getting people to dance. I've heard from people in Germany, France, Spain and Japan," says Birdsall. "We seem to be their favorite secret band, whose record they put on at parties and their friends go 'Hey, who's that?' I kind of like having that status. In a way, it's even better than being really popular."
"None of us ever had any delusions about getting rich off of this band," Detmold concludes. "When we started, we were full of piss and vinegar and just wanted to show what we could do. We were four friends with a common vision, and our goals were to play around our area, maybe play New York City and Boston and maybe make a few 45s, and make a name for ourselves. That turned into something much bigger, and we had more success than we could have ever imagined, and it continued for much longer than any of us would have guessed."
Hailing from Ipswich, Massachusetts, the band was previously named "The Rhythm A's", where future Nervous Eaters' Steve Cataldo, Robb Skeen, and Jeff Wilkinson were joined by singer Mike Girard and guitarist Rich Bartlett. By 1976, Girard and Bartlett teamed up with Stacey Pedrick (guitar), Doug Forman (bass), and Chris Pedrick (drums
Hailing from Ipswich, Massachusetts, the band was previously named "The Rhythm A's", where future Nervous Eaters' Steve Cataldo, Robb Skeen, and Jeff Wilkinson were joined by singer Mike Girard and guitarist Rich Bartlett. By 1976, Girard and Bartlett teamed up with Stacey Pedrick (guitar), Doug Forman (bass), and Chris Pedrick (drums), becoming The Fools.In 1979, the band released "Psycho Chicken", a parody of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", and it was an immediate hit on Boston radio stations.[1] The group followed it up with "It's a Night for Beautiful Girls," which peaked at #67 on the Billboard charts. EMI signed the band and sent them on a U.S. tour with The Knack.[2] Shortly after, they recorded their debut album, Sold Out.In 1981, the band released their second album Heavy Mental, which featured a cover of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared" that reached #50 on the Billboard Hot 100. That year, The Fools were the opening band for Van Halen on their Fair Warning tour.[2][3]Shortly before being dropped by EMI, Chris Pedrick departed and was replaced by drummer Leo Black. Shortly after, Forman decided to leave, his void filled by bassist Joe Holaday.In 1985, The Fools released World Dance Party on the independent label PVC.[4] Four of the album's songs - "World Dance Party", "Life Sucks...Then You Die", "She Makes Me Feel Big", and a remake of Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy" - received considerable radio airplay throughout New England and the video for "Do Wah Diddy" was shown extensively on MTV.[5]In 2003, after seven years of part-time duty, the band returned to a full schedule. Bassist Lou Spagnola had replaced Joe Holaday, who by then was working with the Beatles tribute band Beatlejuice. Holaday does, however, continue to make occasional appearances with the band.In 2010, Mike Girard's book Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales published by Sons of Liberty Publishers hit the stores, which outlined the sometimes hilarious history of the band. The band continues to tour today.In February 2012, Lou Spagnola left the band and was then replaced by Bassist Eric Adamson.
The Energetics are very important part of New Englands Soul music history.
The Energetics were a nondescript, self-contained band of varying members of the mid-'70s and early '80s whose claim to fame was one album and two singles on Atlantic Records, all produced by Eddie and Brian Holland. Primary members were Melvin Franklin, Roscoe
The Energetics are very important part of New Englands Soul music history.
The Energetics were a nondescript, self-contained band of varying members of the mid-'70s and early '80s whose claim to fame was one album and two singles on Atlantic Records, all produced by Eddie and Brian Holland. Primary members were Melvin Franklin, Roscoe Mills, Joey Lites, Herbert Johnson, and John Borders; their first known recording, "Me and My Girl" b/w "If at First," came out on Top Top Records in 1975. It did so poorly that they didn't record again until the Holland brothers took them into the studio to record the Come Down to Earth album in 1978. The riff-laden LP has a few good spots, but lacked the Holland brothers' Midas touch. Both singles, "Living By the Strength of Your Love" and "Come Down to Earth," flopped. They resurfaced under a new name spelling, the Energettics (which was probably a typo), on Cobra Records with "You Make Me Nothing" b/w "Rainy Days and Mornings."
The Zambonis are a Connecticut-based indie rock band formed in 1991 by musicians Dave Schneider (The LeeVees), Peter Katis, Jon Aley, and Tarquin Katis. The Zambonis write songs exclusively about ice hockey. Schneider says of the band's musical style: “We’re the only band in the world whose two biggest influences are The Beatles and Way
The Zambonis are a Connecticut-based indie rock band formed in 1991 by musicians Dave Schneider (The LeeVees), Peter Katis, Jon Aley, and Tarquin Katis. The Zambonis write songs exclusively about ice hockey. Schneider says of the band's musical style: “We’re the only band in the world whose two biggest influences are The Beatles and Wayne Gretzky!”[
Background informationOrigin: Bridgeport, CT, United StatesGenres: pop punk Indie rockYears active: 1991-presentLabels: Tarquin RecordsMembersDave Schneider Jon Aley Mat Orefice Tom Andrukevich Shawn FogelTarquin Katis Cary Pollick Peter KatisSteve Tanski Matt Gonzalez Bob Anderson Rich Dart
The NHL has commissioned the group to compose theme songs for the Boston Bruins and the Colorado Avalanche.[2] The band has toured with the Stanley Cup[3] and fundraised for Matt Cullen's organization, Cullen Children's Foundation.[4]In deference to the ice resurfacer and Frank Zamboni, The Zambonis are a licensee of the Zamboni Company.
The Zambonis debut album, 100% Hockey...and Other Stuff,[5] was recorded at Tarquin Studios in Connecticut, USA and was released in 1996. The 15-song disc cracked the Top 40 on the CMJ charts,[6] and was added to the NHL, NCAA and minor league hockey arena playlists.[7]In October 1999, the band released its second full-length album, More Songs About Hockey...and Buildings and Food.[8]In 2002, the Zambonis opened the NHL All-Star Game along with Jewel and Five for Fighting.In 2003, The Zambonis released a new album, Chippy Sessions, a compilation of rare live cuts, singles and demos.
In 2000, the Zambonis single "Hockey Monkey" was featured in the Mr. Wong episode "Meet the Creep, Pt. 2".[9]In 2002, four Zambonis songs were featured on the Midway video game NHL Hitz 20-03.[10]In March 2006, The Zambonis single "Hockey Monkey" (co-written by cartoonist James Kochalka) was chosen by Fox as the theme song to a new sitcom called The Loop.[citation needed]
WEBSITE Bio | Zambonis (thezambonis.com)
“Together since 1997 and as American as music comes, the Rivergods are a genre-defying collection of the ethereal, the gritty, the raw and the real.” – Tim Malcolm, Norwich Bulletin
The Rivergods are a memorable, original, award-winning act based in southeastern CT that has played its own heartfelt harmony-rich folky/rootsy/rockish music (
“Together since 1997 and as American as music comes, the Rivergods are a genre-defying collection of the ethereal, the gritty, the raw and the real.” – Tim Malcolm, Norwich Bulletin
The Rivergods are a memorable, original, award-winning act based in southeastern CT that has played its own heartfelt harmony-rich folky/rootsy/rockish music (and occasionally, some choice covers!) since 1997. The Rivergods are fronted by husband/wife songwriters, Ben and Nancy Parent, who often perform as a duo. Ben and Nancy have written and performed together for over 25 years, and blend their voices with the sort of instinctual harmonies that are perhaps only achieved through blood, time or marriage. The Rivergods’ full band includes a rotating lineup of some of the finest, most talented players in southern New England, who round out the couple’s harmonious Americana sound.
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“Borrowing from country, folk, rock, and the blues, The Rivergods wear their influences on their collective sleeves while peppering in their own twists on each genre. Fans of everybody from Jason Isbell to ‘70s Bob Dylan will find a lot to love in The Rivergods…” – Chip McCabe, Hartford Courant
The Rivergods have seven albums of original material out (here’s our complete discography) and are gearing up for recording our next full length. Ever prolific as songwriters, Ben and Nancy started a Soundcloud page during COVID-19 for sharing demos and unreleased songs. The Rivergods have garnered a ton of good press for their eclectic recordings over the years — The New Haven Advocate once hailed the band’s “perfect eclecticism: country, gospel, pop and funky back beats mixed seamlessly.” Alright!
“One of the area’s finest and best-loved bands.” —Rick Koster, New London Day
The Rivergods have won many regional Whalie Awards (kind of southeastern CT’s version of the Grammies) over the past decade and continue to be a popular live draw in the region. The Rivergods have played hundreds of shows and festivals over the years, including playing to 15,000+ people at Summer Pops in Westerly, RI for several years running, Sailfest and Opsail in New London, CT, the Meriden Daffodil Festival, the Block Island Music Festival, the NEMO New Music Showcase in Boston, NXNE in Toronto, Canada and more. Ben and Nancy enjoy both big outdoor stages, and small, intimate listening rooms equally.
WEBSITE: www.therivergods.com
George Kiriakis grew up in Norwalk and started playing guitar at 11 years old. By the time he was 16, he was playing as an intermissionist at strip clubs and had earned enough cash to move out on his own. In 1950, George won an audition on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. The following year, he appeared on the Ted Steele Show and, over the n
George Kiriakis grew up in Norwalk and started playing guitar at 11 years old. By the time he was 16, he was playing as an intermissionist at strip clubs and had earned enough cash to move out on his own. In 1950, George won an audition on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. The following year, he appeared on the Ted Steele Show and, over the next few years, played clubs up and down the Connecticut coastline. Ed Sulik was from Stratford. He served in the military during the Korean War and discovered his passion for music playing local honky-tonks and country & western bars while on furlough. In 1958, George was playing rockabilly with a group called The Country Cousins, backing up big Nashville acts of the time as they toured the northeast. Destiny struck after he was introduced to Eddie during one of those shows and The Echoes were born. In November 1959, George and Ed recorded four original compositions at the legendary Bradley Barn Studio where they were backed by Nashville's finest, including guitarist Hank Garland, the Anita Kerr Singers, and Elvis Presley's studio band. From those Bradley Barn sessions, The Echoes released, "Bye-Bye My Baby," "Do I Love You? ('Deed I Do)," "Ecstasy" and "Loving and Losing" - all of whic received excited reviews from Billboard in 1960. The Echoes travelled the country performing in popular rock and roll venues, appearing on Bandstand, the Clay Cole Show, and as featured performers in the Miss Univer