June, '00
My newest venture in the musical realms is with some musicians from the
Roanoke area. With Paul Salvey on keyboards, Mike Van der Griff
on bass, Gary Kelly on drums and myself on guitar and vocals,
we're ready to shake down the walls. These guys are high-energy and don't
mess around. We're doing a whole bunch of Steely Dan's songs since
we're all SD freaks. We're also doing songs I've written and I'm happy to
say the band makes them sound really good. We call the band
"Tongue In Groove"and have been playing
gigs in and around southwest Virginia and West Virginia. Gary and I also
perform as a duo sometimes and you'll often catch us at the Pine
Tavern in Floyd on Sunday nights, when I run the Open Mic there.
A recent project of mine was a dance/rock band called Floydian Slip,
with Clifford James on guitar and vocals, Carol Cassis on
keyboards and vocals, Kara Sweetwater on drums and myself on bass and
vocals. We played local clubs and parties for about a year and got a lot of
good response. We were doing all kinds of music spanning the 60's to the
90's with 3 part vocal harmonies and some of my original songs. This band was
a lot of fun and a kickin' band.
Another project I became involved with is a reggae band called
Foundation Stone with
Jacques Trudel on bass, Emily Bourassa on sax and vocals,
Debra Doe on trombone and vocals, Kris
Hodges on drums and vocals, sometimes Keith Cooley on guitar
and vocals, sometimes Russ Detko on guitar and vocals and
myself on guitar and vocals. This band had the infectious groove and always
had people up and dancing. Besides the reggae we also played some hip-hop
grooves, funk and even some rap thrown in. We backed up Burning Spear
and performed at the Black Mountain Festival in North Carolina. Kris
also performed with Zakiyah, a soulful singer from the Roanoke area.
Their first album was recorded at Flat Five studio in Salem, VA. That's Tom Ohmsen's studio,
who also has done a lot for Jane and Sonny of Radar Rose, the
Dave Matthews Band and a number of other local talented musicians.
Tom has written a very informative and comprehensive book on music theory
that I peruse from time to time.
I often like to bring down my friend from NYC,
"Flamin' Amy" Coleman,
to our area of the Blue Ridge mountains. I set up gigs for us down here in
SW Virginia and she comes down about once or twice a year. Amy can sing the
blues and has a power in her voice that can shake an audience out of their
chairs. I played in her band for about two years in and around NYC. Elton
Reid played drums for a while and some of his friends that used to come
down to see us play off Bleeker Street were in the band Blues Traveler.
At the time I didn't know much about them but after moving to Virginia, I
heard them on the radio all the time. One of our keyboard players was Steve
Weisberg. Steve had his own 17 piece jazz band doing avant-garde
arrangements. He was both an accomplished technician as well as a comical
genius in musical expression. He often elicited blurts of laughter from me
because of the strange and unexpected things he would play. Steve produced
albums for Karen Mantler, daughter of jazz greats, Carla Bley and
Michael Mantler.
Dave Binney played sax with us. What a soulful
player he was. He has a band called Lost Tribe that went on to hit the
Billboard jazz charts with the release of their first album. Binney told
me he was a descendant of the Binney and Smith Crayola empire but was on the side
of the family that was long ago ostracized. Our original guitar player was a good
friend of mine, Scott Hathaway. Scott is an
awesome guitarist, downright scary sometimes. He plays Bach's Toccata and Fugue in
D minor at lightning speed on the guitar from beginning to end. Scott had a band
for a while that only did Yes songs. Replacing him was Bruce Arnold,
a quiet guy originally from South Dakota who made his guitar scream and wail. Bruce
was soulful and tasty and knew how to build a solo to a frenzied climax right before
the band would bring it back down to a whisper. Oh yeah, I played bass in this band
and sang second lead and backup vocals for two years ('91-'92).
If you'd like to hear a short clip of this band, click the button.
My good friend, Michael Scialfa, played in many
bands with me in the "old days". He's the quintessential rock 'n' roll keyboard
player. We went through some wild times together. His sister, Patty Scialfa,
married Bruce Springsteen. Michael and I went to a number of Bruce's
concerts together, sometimes driving as far away as Toronto to see a show. Bruce
always puts on a high-energy performance and I've enjoyed seeing him since the
Child/Steel Mill days in the late 60's. We even played some of the same
venues back then, including Teendevous in New Shrewsbury, NJ, a "for teens
only" club that burned down while I was still a teenager. Bruce lived in "West End"
for a while, a part of Long Branch where I grew up. He'd come down to the beach at
night and hang out with my friends and tell us funny stories about weird things that
happened to him and his friends. I saw him out in the clubs many times. I saw him
dancing at the Stone Pony when my band played. Michael called me one day to
come over to his Mom's house for his brother's birthday party. Bruce and Patty were
there and they, along with Michael and I played old songs all night. Bruce played my
left-handed Fender Jazz bass upside-down most of the night. I think he was trying to
get a feel for what it was like, watching me play a right-handed guitar upside-down
and backwards. Michael used to drag around his Hammond B-3 and Leslie speaker cabinet
in the old days. Later, it was the Yamaha DX-7, which he still plays. Michael pulled
a lot of wacky stunts in the past and seemed to attract trouble at every turn (if I
told you half of what went on...!) but he's since calmed down and we've remained
close friends through it all. We keep in touch regularly, even though we live nearly
a thousand miles apart. God bless email! Springsteen was at the
Clearwater Festival on "Harmonic Convergence"
in 1987 (Aug. 16th, 17th), and someone took a picture of him with Helen
Chrobosynski (one of the founders of Clearwater), Ellen Cohen(on left),
and myself behind the main stage.
I was in a top 40/ rock band called Acme Boogie Company that doubled as a
wedding band called Opus 1.
Sammy Cooper started that band. He and I
also played together in a former incarnation of The Shots. Vini Lopez
was the drummer for that group, the original drummer for Bruce Springsteen's
first two albums. A fine drummer with a great singing voice, a rare find indeed. Vini
and I also performed with Bob Killian, a folk
artist/environmental activist. Bob is one of the original founders of the Monmouth
County Friends of Clearwater, an environmental activist group based at Sandy Hook
National Recreation Area. Also with us at the time was "Big
Danny" Gallagher. At 6 feet, 5 inches, a red beard to his belly and somewhere
in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds, Danny was easy to spot in a crowd. I
remember first seeing Danny onstage with Bruce Springsteen when he had Dr.
Zoom and the Sonic Boom. They were in concert at the Sunshine Inn in Asbury
Park, with the Allman Bros. as the headlining act. Danny was one of four people
sitting at a card table, center stage, playing monopoly while the 10 piece horn band
rocked. They also had a couch, end table, and lamps onstage. It looked as if they might
have brought their home onto the stage that night. I remember listening to Duane
Allman jamming on slide guitar to the tape of "Dr. Zoom being played in between
bands by soundman Tinker, Bruce's first manager. This was sometime before the
Allman Bros. did their landmark album, "Live at the Fillmore East". Tinker is a
former NASA technician and is quite entertaining once you get to know him. I alos
played in Danny's band, "Big Danny and the Boppers". Steve Schraeger
played drums in that band. He also played drums for a short while in "Sister Mary and
the Bad Habits.
Another time at the Sunshine Inn , I got backstage when the Bruce
Springsteen Band was on the bill with Cactus and Black Sabbath.
Bruce jammed backstage with bassist Tim Bogert (formerly of the Vanilla
Fudge) and it was an indelibly marked moment upon my memory. That night, a
couple of friends and I walked into the middle of a dispute between the bands
Cactus and Black Sabbath as to the whereabouts of some contraband.
A lot of accusations were tossed about but (fortunately) it never escalated into
a fight. It was funny to read about it in a magazine some time later (what was
that...Creem maybe?).
I played in a Reggae band called Tropical Persuasion with Mike Lee on
drums, Desi (?) on keyboards and vibes, Tim Boyce on guitar, and
Harvey Cherlin on trumpet. Harvey played in the Bruce Springsteen Band
in the early 70's. He also did a solo project in my studio with Chino on
percussion, a Rastafari elder originally from Jamaica, with grey dreadlocks to his
waist; Tony Cimorosi on
bass who has a wonderful jazz CD out with well-known jazz artists like Michael
Urbaniak, Randy Brecker, Olatunji, James Beard, and others; Jim Molinaro
on saxophone, who hung out with Rahsaan Roland Kirk; along with
Joyce Spadoro on keys, who studied with jazz
pianist, Joanne Brackeen.
Another Reggae band I played in for a while was with Ragga, a Rastafari from
Jamaica who did "Dub" (sort of reggae rap). He had a trunkful of 45's, all recordings
of dub artists, and would play for me one after the other, as I would learn the bass
groove. Another singer in the band was Sharon Silvestri, from London, England,
a black woman with a British accent and a sultry, soulful voice and right at home in
Reggae music as well as Motown. I brought her into a recording studio with some other
talented friends, including Arne Bey on drums,
Andrew McDunnough on keyboards and vocals, Tom
Morongiello on guitar, myself on bass and vocals, and Mary McCrink on backing vocals. We began working on a project. Some tapes
still exist of those sessions and they are among my favorites to pull out to hear on
such occasions when I'm listening to former musical projects I have been involved in.
Ask me to play it for you next time you see me at home. Or maybe the sax solo on "How
To Live" by Perry Andrews. Perry teaches music at Rutgers University in N.J.
Bob Maus, an
old friend of Maureen McCrink, Mary's very talented sister, did some recording
for me in his studio in Malibu some years ago. Bob has a web development company now
and is living in a canyon above Malibu. Tommy Morongiello played guitar with that
particular group. He's now on tour with Bob Dylan as the guitar tech. My
good friend, (who asked me not to name him), who used to do sound for some of my
bands in the old days, now is the stage sound engineer for Bob Dylan's tour.
He's also done sound for many greats including Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Grateful
Dead and so many others. Another friend, Don, is also on the Dylan
tour as tech assistant to the bass player and pedal steel player. Tommy also played
guitar on some sessions I did in a 24 track studio a while back. We had Max
Weinberg on drums from the E Street Band along
with Garry Talent engineering (bassist from the E Street Band). John
Rollo, who mixed for the Kinks, was our mixdown engineer. We took these
tapes to Katy Carr, an A & R rep. from Columbia Records who was
responsible for signing Men At Work from Australia onto the CBS label.
She was very excited and there was talk of an album and video budget but the project
was dropped by my contact for unspoken reasons and shelved into oblivion. Que sera...
The keyboard player from those sessions was none other than an old musician friend of
mine, Tommy Zvonchek, who often performed with Blue Oyster Cult.
For about two years I played music with Gabrielle Roth's group, the
Mirrors. This is what Gabrielle called "tribal" rock; very ambient,
spacy sound with her mystical poetry at times sung by members of the group.
The members then (circa early 80's) was Rafael Sharpe on piano (Music
to Disappear In), Ma Prem Lolita on flute, Wendy Schubart on
vocals, Otto Richter on drums and vocals, Jeff Hoffman on guitar,
Eric Silverman on percussion, Melissa Rosenberg on vocals,
Robert Ansell on percussion, myself on bass and vocals, and Gabrielle on
vocals. Gabrielle has gone on to a successful record company called
Raven Records and still teaches
dance/movement at Esalen Institute in CA,
Omega Institute in NY, and many
other places around the globe.
Sometimes musical connections would send me off in some strange directions. A
studio owner, half brother to singer Melanie (Lay Down Candles In The Rain),
recommended me to someone needing a bass player in a hurry. I played bass behind an
Elvis impersonator who had a New Year's Eve gig at the Felt Forum at Madison
Square Garden in NYC for the radio deejay, Howard Stern. It was all very
surreal. I talked to Leslie West (of Mountain fame) for a little while.
We walked outside and he posed for me, hands up against the side of a police van with
a bunch of New York City Policemen milling about. My girlfriend at the time, Mary
McCrink, and her sister, Patty, sang backup. Most of Howard's New Year's
Eve program was a showy display of decadence and pompous frivolity. My friend,
David Peel is often a guest on Howard's radio show
in New York and has made appearances in both his movies. David toured Europe in the
summer of '99 and offered me a gig as guitar player, which i politely declined
because of previous commitments.
One band I was in during the high school days, Mulligan Stew, was a lot of fun
and we did a few originals along with progressive rock covers. At one point we joined
forces with another band, Highway and we had a megaband called Bat Guano.
This consisted of three guitar players:Jon
Herington, Rollie Rouse, and Frank Ravaschiere; two bass players:
R.J. Hines and I; two drummers: Mitchell Bunin and Michael Anastasia,
a keyboard player: Mark LaPorta; and a singer: Michael Folkenflik. We
played some gigs and people loved it so we did it some more. Jon was the guitar player
in Highway. He later moved to NYC and now performs with the likes of the
Brecker Brothers, Eliane Elias, Steve Gadd, Jeff Lorber, and many
other jazz luminaries. He's even written some songs for Michael Brecker's newer
albums. An awesome musician since the early days, Jon has gone on to a successful career
in the big bad Apple. I recently had dinner with Jon in NYC and he told me not only
would he be on the new Steely Dan album
release but Donald Fagen asked him to go on tour with them in 2000. Jon got rave
reviews from that tour, went on to tour with Boz Scaggs and is now back to work
in NYC, but who knows for how long? Mike Folkenflik("Folk") and I had a few bands together in the old days. The
first was Joshua, with Robbie Horvath on guitar, and Jeff
Simmons on drums. Lots of rock and roll covers, playing the bars on the Jersey
Shore... and then Oasis, with Joey DeSantis on guitar,
Sal Ruggieri on guitar, and Mitchell Bunin on drums. This was
strictly a "cover" band but we did everything from Foghat to Joni
Mitchell, from Stevie Wonder to Pure Prairie League. An
eclectic mix of music that seemed to work for us. Both those bands worked quite
steadily back then. Going back even further into my musical past, there was our
wild days with the likes of Bill McGrath, Gregg Laugelli, and Mark
Siegel. Billy is quite a player and I remember how well he played all that
Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton back then - note for note. Gregg plays
the bass, electric and upright, and has some really wonderful instruments,
including a sitar. He had a great music studio built out of an old cold storage
building in his back yard he co-owned with Mick Seely. Mick is a keyboard
wizard and has done programming for Casio and Roland and helped me
out in the early days of doing music on computer. Mark Siegel and I used to have
a hot band together in high school with a guitarist from Hazlet named Don
Daley. Mark has gone on to work for
Robert Morris booking agency, managing soul and rap artists, like Lisa
Lisa and Cult Jam, and then as head of Motown Records. Mark was
another amazing keyboardist but ended up not getting involved in playing music,
rather managing it. And if anyone out there remembers my band from the really
early days, Sunn, I'd be tickled to know about it. Sunn was quite
progressive for its time, doing unorthodox music by obscure artists (anybody
remember Blodwyn Pig?). I played bass in that band with Bobby Mancari
on guitar, Tom Cianflone on Farfisa organ, Billy Fleming on
drums, and (occasionally) Ray Simmons on rhythm guitar. The Teendevous
Club in New Shrewsbury was one of my favorite places back then that we played.
A year or two later, it would become the jams at the Sunshine Inn and
Student Prince in Asbury Park.
One of the first bands I ever played music in was called The Pancake Industry
and included my cousin, Peter Lucia on guitar, Billy Acerra on guitar,
Jim Ferraro on drums, with myself on bass. We played a wedding in 1964 when I
was all of ten years old and actually made some money. We went on to perform at grade
school dances and backyard parties. At one point we added singer/harmonica player
Mike Vanore and drummer Jake (?). Sometime around '67-'68 I was asked to
join local band Sunn and worked most weekends playing music throughout high
school.
Occasionally, my friend John Kruth comes down here to visit Starroot
and I. John has quite a number of albums out on the Flying Fish
record label and plays an arsenal of exotic instruments like the bazouki, the
mandocello and the mandocaster and is a excellent flutist. John is just finishing
up a biography of Rahsaan Roland Kirk
and was instrumental (no pun intended) in releasing a new compilation of
Kirk's music on the Blue Note label. He recently played Carnegie Hall
with a group of Turkish musicians originally made famous by Keith Richards
of the Rolling Stones.
My good friend, Tim Boyce, is an awesome jazz guitarist living in Sea
Bright, NJ. Tim first turned me on to Pat Metheny's music which I've come
to enjoy immensely. I mentioned Tim to Pat after one of Pat's performances where
I volunteered to help with equipment backstage. Pat said Tim was the resident heavy
metal guitarist back then. I found that amusing considering what Tim sounds like
these days. Tim has been performing with members of Spyro Gyra in NYC lately.
Tim and Pat were in the University of Miami together around the early 70's, as was
Michael and Patty Scialfa, Hiram Bullock, and Clif Carter.
Patty, Hiram, and Clif formed the 24th Street Band when they all moved to NYC
years later. They used to come to play the Deal Pub where I used to play. I
remember talking to Hiram outside about his gigs with Bob James,the well known
jazz keyboardist on GRP records, and how strange it felt to leave Hawaii just
to come play this little place back in Deal, NJ. Hiram does an awesome solo on
Sting's version of "Little Wing", an old favorite of mine from Jimi Hendrix.
David Sancious does some amazing keyboard work on some of Sting's later
things. David played with Springsteen on his first two albums before going on
to a solo jazz career with albums like "Forest of Feelings". "Boom" Carter's
drumming is so complimentary to David's effusive style. David used to live (before me)
at the Elberon Ranch, in Long Branch, NJ, where I lived for 8 years. Chick
Corea once had a brand new grand piano delivered to the music studio there, James
Fusco had told me. David also played with Santana for quite a while. He's an
awesome pianist. When John Lennon died, all the radio stations across the
country had ten minutes of silence. WNEW in NYC had David Sancious play ten
minutes of a medley of Beatles songs that interwove in magical phrasing that
was just sublime. I wish I had a recording of that! David and Ernest "Boom" Carter
used to show up at the infamous Elberon Ranch jam sessions where sometimes
there'd be literally ten or twelve of us playing at once. I met Carlo Novi at
one of those, a saxophonist later with the Asbury Jukes. Carlo played in my
all-original band, Dream Logic. Jim "Theo"
Theobald also played in Dream Logic. He played percussion on tour with
Julio Iglesias for years. Joyce Spadoro and Sherry Brock were
the keyboardists in that band. They were both great songwriters and have beautiful,
clear and strong voices. Joyce now does a solo jazz piano w/ vocals and is pretty
well known around the Jersey shore area. Lee Elfenbein was our bassist and
Alan Wilkov, the drummer. Alan owns a music
store or two in the NY/NJ area. Lee went on to study music and get a degree from
Berklee in Boston. Jonas
Hellborg, Shawn Lane,
and Jeff Sipe have been coming around Floyd County lately
('98-'99). Jeff has bought some land near Doug Coulter, who
builds the MCAD digital recorder I use (a great drummer in his
own right). Jeff was playing with Colonel Hampton and the Aquarium
Rescue Unit, a band of incredible talent; polyethnic Cajun slamgrass
music ofLeftover Salmon
and Jazz Is Dead, a band doing the music of the Grateful Dead in a jazz setting.
The bass player, Oteil
, went on to perform with the Allman Brothers. Jonas
Hellborg, from Sweden, toured with John McLoughlin, and
Shawn Lane is just one of the most accomplished guitarists I have
ever seen. And he's just as impressive on the piano, as I witnessed one
night when he played with John Bain and I at the Pine Tavern,
here in Floyd. Shawn really dug my version of Steely Dan's "Josie".
He saw me perform a few times at the "Pine". Bob Lansing hung out
with him for a few weeks. Bob and I were playing music together for a while
and still do occasionally. He used to be in an L.A. punk band called the
Dickies, and was then known as Enoch Hain. We still like to
call him Enoch but mostly he goes by Bob Lansing these days. Bob has
a masterly proficiency on guitar technique, ranging from Brazilian classical
to rich textural jazz voicings. He and my good friend Shamama got
together for a while in Blacksburg. East Bay Ray
from the Dead Kennedys is a good friend of Shamama's and he
comes to Floyd on occasional visits. We've jammed a few times and even
performed locally together.
Another incredible sax player I had the privelege of performing with was
Mel Taylor. Mel had played with the likes of Jackie Wilson, Otis
Redding, Wilson Pickett and many others I can no longer remember for
time has wiped those memories from me. We were in a ten piece horn band
together called The Shots doing a lot of rhythm and blues, motown,
funk, early rock, and even fusion jazz. The Shots were the opening
band for Elvis Costello's first gig in America, which happened to
be at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Tim Boyce was also in
that band with me, along with Ernie Loughlin from Scotland on trumpet
and Bobby Butterfield on drums. We played at Trax and
Tramps in NYC and nightclubs a lot. The singer, Donny Bertelson,
was one of the wildest people I've ever had occasion to perform with. He was
a wildman with a capital "W". His brother, Bobby Bertelson, and I had
some bands together as well, including Krackit, Shore Shot, and
Innerface. Michael Scialfa played in both Krackit and Shore
Shot. He also played keyboards in my band Sister
Mary and the Bad Habits. This band was with Mary
McCrink on guitar and vocals and Lenore
Franzen on bass. Paul Ende was on
sax, original keyboardist Mark Pietri and Bob Butterfield on drums.
That eventually evolved into Channel 1 with
Nels Andersen on bass,
Adam McInnis on keyboards, and
Pete Meier on drums.
Here's a picture of a band of mine from the 70's called
Krackit. This was with Bobby Bertelson on
lead vocals and saxophone, Me on bass and lead vocals, Tom Dimock on guitar
and slide guitar, Mike Quinton on guitar and vocals, Ritchie Mitchell
on piano and electric piano, Mike Scialfa on Hammond
B-3 organ and Polymoog synthesizer, and Billy Loughlin on drums. We played every
Thursday night at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ for quite a while. We
performed in a lot of clubs up and down the "Jersey Shore". This band eventually
evolved into Shore Shot and played the Jersey Shore club scene for a few years.
Frank Ravaschiere also played guitar with us in this band. After this particular
incarnation, we reformed as Innerface, which
consisted of three members of Krackit/Shore Shot, Bobby, Ritchie, and I, and
three members of Stir Crazy, including Cliff (?), Jon Piantadosi, and
Peter Meier. It was a powerhouse of a band (superb musicianship) that got to
perform at a lot of college campuses in the tri-state area, as well as the local
club scene.
I had a band in the late 70's called the Mission Band that was a
lot of fun. It was short-lived but had some fine talent all in one place.
Andy McDunnough played guitar and sang, Otto Richter played
keyboards and sang, myself on bass and vocals, Billy Laing on drums,
later replaced by Ronnie Mailloux (from Yasgur's Farm and
Colony) and Trina (last name?), who sang lead vocal. I have
some of the old tapes and we had some fine harmonies that stand the test of
time. Trina was the lead singer in a country and western band that Billy
Laing and i gigged with right before forming the Mission Band. Alan Subarsky
was the guitar player in that band. Otto and
I were working on original songs of ours in the Berardi Brothers' studio
around that time as well. The Berardi's owned The Kramer guitar company.
I also recorded there with singer/songwriter Jeff Saxon. Jeff is
stand-up comedian, Tom Waits, and Donald Fagen rolled into one pineapple
cheeseburger served esoteric side up. Despite his quirks, Jeff is an inventive
and prolific songwriter and now teaches songwriting at California schools.
Otto introduced me to Delores Holmes, a vocalist of outstanding talent
and range. She was also with the Bruce Springsteen Band at one time and
has done recording in my studio for a few projects. One of them was with her
cousin Timo Scott, who had some original music he cowrote with Basha
Alade. Basha is a percussionist and a Yoruban priestess with Afro/Carribean
influence. I had the privelige of working on a number of projects with her,
including the music for her video projects. One was on the Junkanoo
festival held each year in Trinidad. Her and Timo have an ensemble known
as Iwo Dada, that can be seen in the Jersey Shore area, their
performances are wonderful. Timo followed me as bass player in Gabrielle Roth's
Mirrors, the musical ensemble of the Moving Center.
A few years back (mid-'90's), I formed a band called Wildlife, which later
changed its name to Altered Natives, with John Winnicki on
guitar, bass and vocals, Brad Miller on drums, myself on guitar,
bass and vocals, and various other members in our revolving door of musicians
including Gary Everett (on sax, keyboards, and vocals), Terry
McLoughlin (keyboards, vocals, harmonica), Debra Lee Hall
(keyboards, vocals), Billy Bell (sax),
Maia Whitaker (keyboards, vocals), Bob Grubel (keyboards, vocals), Neal
(keyboards, vocals), Chloe Ives (vocals), Sally Walker (vocals),
and a few others I can't remember now. We did rock covers, jazz standards, blues,
originals, fusion, ballads, new wave, pop, and just about anything that got in our
way.
When I go to the Rainbow Gatherings every year in June and July, I play a lot
of music and have met many fine musicians over the years. I can't mention
everyone but there are some I'd like to acknowledge including Tony Wells,
the jazz saxophonist from Las Vegas. I see him every year and he's quite an
accomplished player whom I enjoy playing music with. There's House of David
with Mariana Paradise on guitar and vocals and Renee on backing vocals.
Such sweet harmonies and beautiful spirit-filled songs. Mariana plays the guitar
like I do, upside-down and backwards. A right-handed guitar played by a left-handed
musician is not too common. Two of them at once is a rarity indeed. My friend,
Andius carries his acoustic standup bass each year to the gathering and I'm so
grateful to have him do so. He's an excellent player and just one of the nicest
people to hang out with. If you go to Seattle, you may very well see him playing in
a club there although you could also run into him in Australia or Africa, being
the world traveler that he is. MJ Greenmountain is an accomplished drummer
and is well versed in many musical traditions. There's always something exciting
going on when MJ is around. Michael St. John (also MJ) is also a fantastic
drummer and mandolinist/guitarist/bassist I had the opportunity to play music with
at the Montana gathering one past year. He's been busy performing all across the
country lately and lives in Santa Cruz. Elan Rae brought his drum kit to the
gathering and we performed together a number of nights this past year. Joe
(I don't know his last name) from New Orleans is one of the finest jazz saxophonists
I've had the privilege of getting to play music with. You'll find him at Kid Village
many nights where the sweet, soulful, smooth, and sassy tones can be heard from a
distance beckoning one to sit and enjoy. Timmy, from Venice Beach, is an
awesome musician with chops of steel and is equally at home on guitar, drums,
keyboards, and probably more.
I've done a lot of producing in my studio over the years with projects by
Basha & Timo, Sherry Brock, Joyce Spadoro, Peter David Mullin, Phoenix Dion,
Wulenze, Ritchie Mitchell, Harvey Cherlin, Dorothy Sikora, Jana & Craig, Bob
Killian, Mary and Maureen McCrink, Beth Aiken, Daniel Porter, Starroot, the
River Band, Bob Grubel, Grace Note, John Two Ponies,
David Peel,
Jamie Raymond, Bob Lansing, Debra Lee Hall, Bill Hudson, Richard Bamberger,
Rafael White Sun, Deniece Williams (Duchess), John Kruth, Bettina Makley, Raven
Stands Alone, and others. I also have done live sound reinforcement for bands
including reggae artists
Ras Pidow and
Jah Levi.
THE ART OF MUSIC SOUND STUDIO
8920 Sugar Run Road, Copper Hill, VA 24079
My good friend, Michael Scialfa, played in many
bands with me in the "old days". He's the quintessential rock 'n' roll keyboard
player. We went through some wild times together. His sister, Patty Scialfa,
married Bruce Springsteen. Michael and I went to a number of Bruce's
concerts together, sometimes driving as far away as Toronto to see a show. Bruce
always puts on a high-energy performance and I've enjoyed seeing him since the
Child/Steel Mill days in the late 60's. We even played some of the same
venues back then, including Teendevous in New Shrewsbury, NJ, a "for teens
only" club that burned down while I was still a teenager. Bruce lived in "West End"
for a while, a part of Long Branch where I grew up. He'd come down to the beach at
night and hang out with my friends and tell us funny stories about weird things that
happened to him and his friends. I saw him out in the clubs many times. I saw him
dancing at the Stone Pony when my band played. Michael called me one day to
come over to his Mom's house for his brother's birthday party. Bruce and Patty were
there and they, along with Michael and I played old songs all night. Bruce played my
left-handed Fender Jazz bass upside-down most of the night. I think he was trying to
get a feel for what it was like, watching me play a right-handed guitar upside-down
and backwards. Michael used to drag around his Hammond B-3 and Leslie speaker cabinet
in the old days. Later, it was the Yamaha DX-7, which he still plays. Michael pulled
a lot of wacky stunts in the past and seemed to attract trouble at every turn (if I
told you half of what went on...!) but he's since calmed down and we've remained
close friends through it all. We keep in touch regularly, even though we live nearly
a thousand miles apart. God bless email! Springsteen was at the
Clearwater Festival on "Harmonic Convergence"
in 1987 (Aug. 16th, 17th), and someone took a picture of him with Helen
Chrobosynski (one of the founders of Clearwater), Ellen Cohen(on left),
and myself behind the main stage.
Here's a picture of a band of mine from the 70's called
Krackit. This was with Bobby Bertelson on
lead vocals and saxophone, Me on bass and lead vocals, Tom Dimock on guitar
and slide guitar, Mike Quinton on guitar and vocals, Ritchie Mitchell
on piano and electric piano, Mike Scialfa on Hammond
B-3 organ and Polymoog synthesizer, and Billy Loughlin on drums. We played every
Thursday night at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ for quite a while. We
performed in a lot of clubs up and down the "Jersey Shore". This band eventually
evolved into Shore Shot and played the Jersey Shore club scene for a few years.
Frank Ravaschiere also played guitar with us in this band. After this particular
incarnation, we reformed as Innerface, which
consisted of three members of Krackit/Shore Shot, Bobby, Ritchie, and I, and
three members of Stir Crazy, including Cliff (?), Jon Piantadosi, and
Peter Meier. It was a powerhouse of a band (superb musicianship) that got to
perform at a lot of college campuses in the tri-state area, as well as the local
club scene. 
