ROXY PERRY COVER STORYroxyperry.com/press/Blues Rocks The World.pdf · Roxy Perry: The music biz...

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SPECIAL “WOMEN IN BLUES”

INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT MUSIC MAGAZINE N° 2 • NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007

Boss TweedMelissa Forbes

Suzanne FoschinoAriel HyattKelly’s Lot

Sheena MetalToni Price

Kelly RicheyMadalyn Sklar

Hope Waits

blues rocks the world • november-december 2007 | 3

In the beginning was a woman, and that woman was Mamie Smith

(1883-1946). In August, 1920 she recorded “Crazy Blues” – the first blues

record ever. Released on Okeh Records, it sold nearly a million copies in

one year and, according to blues researcher Paul Oliver, “paved the way for

every other blues artist to come, regardless of style.”

It’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world! A macho-driven one. Even its Creator is

Father. Not for everybody, though. Twenty-five years ago, in December

1972, Helen Reddy said in her Grammy Award acceptance speech: “I want

to thank everyone at Capitol Records, my husband and manager, Jeff Wald,

because he makes my success possible, and God because She makes every-

thing possible.” Whew, I love it!

The idea of this special “Women in Blues” issue originates from a wonder-

ful project, The National Women in Blues Festival, founded and headed by

Michele Seidman (of Michele & The Midnight Blues band). As I write this,

the second Women in Blues festival is being held in Wilmington, North

Carolina.

There were many more candidates than the organizers could accept, so I

decided, instead of presenting the lucky participants, to virtually enlarge the

festival stage by presenting other outstanding ladies whose life is made up

of music and who themselves are making up the music world. As you will

see, not all of them are singers or musicians, but – all are indispensable

actors of the music scene.

This issue also marks an important stage in the magazine development. Here,

the focus is less on the music as such and more on the personality of those

making great music and those making great music possible.

Paul Bondarovski

E D I T O R I A L

www.bluesrocks.net

FOUNDER / PUBLISHER / EDITOR IN CHIEF:Paul Bondarovski

DESIGN & PRODUCTION:Paul Bondarovski

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:Suzanne Glass,

Ben Lazar, Sheena Metal, Suzie O’Kane, Rob Patterson,

Mark Pucci

PROOFREADINGMargaret O’Brien

(www.sonicbids.com/MargaretOBrien)

ADVERTISING:e-mail: [email protected]

CONTACT:e-mail: [email protected]

Postal address:Paul Bondarovski

14, rue Olier75015 Paris

France

Blues Rocks the World welcomes articles, photos,and any material suitable for publication. Personswishing to write letters to the editor are invitedand encouraged to do so. Blues Rocks the Worldassumes no responsibility for unsolicited mate-rials, manuscripts, CDs, or photographs. Mater-ial may be edited at the discretion of the editors.The opinions expressed in this publication byindividual authors are not necessarily the edito-rial opinion of Blues Rocks the World.

Blues Rocks the World is © 2007 Paul Bondarovski.All rights reserved.

Blues Rocks the World is published bimonthly by Paul Bondarovski, 14, rue Olier, 75015 Paris,France. No part of this publication may be re-produced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans-mitted in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher.

INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT MUSIC MAGAZINEN° 2 • NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007

2 N D N AT I O N A L W O M E N I N B L U E S F E S T I VA L

6 Ladies Gig the Blues

N E W F A C E T S O F T H E B L U E S

8 Hope Waits“We wanted to honor a rich heritage of blues and soulwithout becoming a slave to it” – by Mark Pucci

C O V E R S T O R Y

10 Roxy PerryReal Deal Blues Queen – Interview by Suzie O’Kane

20 Boss Tweed“The word ‘blues’ makes me think of women…”– Interview with Carolyn Sills

24 Ariel HyattIt Takes a Village to Launch an Artist

32 Kelly’s Lot“Every tune has a mind of its own…”– Interview with Kelly Zirbes

37 Sheena MetalQueen of ObservationManagers: Can’t Live With Them… But Can You Live

Without Them? – By Sheena Metal

40 Kelly RicheyLeaving You Speechless – By Mark Pucci

46 Suzanne FoschinoCatch the Moment of Truth

54 Madalyn SklarCuz Chicks Rock! – Interview by Suzanne Glass

58 Melissa ForbesBreaking Up with the Joneses

62 Toni PriceThe Toni Price Bio She Doesn’t Want – By Rob Patterson

66 B O O K S H E L F


the world

10 | blues rocks the world • november-december 2007

Suzie O’Kane: When and how did you getyour start in music? Roxy Perry: I sang in my church and schoolchoirs, and school plays during grammarschool through junior high school. My firstpaying gig was offered when I was just 10years old! A swing orchestra allowed me tosit in with them at a dinner dance at Glen Is-land Casino that my parents had brought meto. Some of the musicians had their ownjazz trios outside of that orchestra, and hiredme to sing at other functions, as well as jazzcabarets and beatnik bars. My father, bless hisheart, had to chaperon me! S. O.: Who do you consider your major mu-sical influences?Roxy Perry: When I was a girl, rather thanplaying with dolls, I played records. My in-fluences came from the stack of 78s that myparents had collected over the years; all theswing bands, Ray Charles, Dinah Washing-ton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, LouieJordan, Louie Prima and of course, LouisArmstrong, Mahalia Jackson and many otherblues, jazz and gospel singers of the 40s and50s. They were all my teachers and influencemy music to this day. I also listened to the ra-dio and watched the Ed Sullivan show reli-giously.

S. O.: You’ve been involved with music fromthe start…Roxy Perry: All my life… When I was about15, I wanted to be with people my own age,so from there it was one Top 40 band toanother, leading up to 1968. At that point Iwas in a 7-piece soul band called Ivory &Ebony. We played six nights a week, six setsa night, at the famed Peppermint Lounge on45th Street and Times Square in New YorkCity. Joey Dee, noted for the hit “PeppermintTwist,” was the band’s manager and tookme under his wing, so to speak. He gave memy first experience in a recording studio.I was hooked.S. O.: When did you do your first recording?Roxy Perry: In late 1968, Frankie Paris wasplaying at The Wagon Wheel, which wasdown the street from Peppermint Lounge.We would trade band members occasionallyjust for laughs. Little did I know that this re-lationship would have a great impact on thenext three years of my life. Frankie Parisgave me a call to go out on the road as a partof the band Dawn which had the current hits“Candida” and “Knock Three Times.”S. O.: I remember those as being songs byTony Orlando.Roxy Perry: Tony Orlando had recorded the


By Suzie O’Kane

Roxy Perry

Ifirst had the pleasure of experiencing a live Roxy Perry performance in 2001 at the“Red White and Blues” concert, which was given after the September 11th World Trade Center disaster

to raise funds for the widows and children of New York City fallen firefighters. Since then, through var-ious music project collaborations, I’ve had the good fortune of working closely with Roxy. She graciouslyagreed to share the beginnings and some of the lesser known circumstances of her career leading to hercontinuing success and recognition as one of the hottest female blues singers today.

PHOTOGRAPHY © ROXY PERRY.

INTERVIEW © SUSAN O’KANE, 2007.

Roxy Perry in 1998.

songs “Candida” and“Knock Three Times,” buthad no intention of goingout on the road to repre-sent them. So, Bell Recordsdesignated us to go out ontour representing the bandDawn, which was truly astudio group. We head-lined huge concerts inevery major arena in theU.S. and Canada for threeyears. We shared the billingwith the Carpenters,Kenny Rogers and the FirstEdition, Rare Earth, IronButterfly, Badfinger, ThreeDog Night, the NittyGritty Dirt Band, MikeNesmith (The Monkees),Mark Lindsay (Paul Re-vere & the Raiders), David

Cassidy and many other Top 10 artists of thetime. We were on all the American Band-stand-type T.V. shows across the U.S. andCanada. We did hundreds of radio inter-views, television interviews, appeared inteen magazines and so on.

Bell Records called us back to New York.Then, Tony Orlando decided it was timefor him to reap the benefits of the success ofsongs that we had promoted between 1969and 1971. He also decided that rather thanhave a band back him up, he would simplytour with two female vocalists. I don’t knowhow he pulled this off with the media tothis day. We walked into the studio as stars– literally – where people mobbed us every-

where we went… And we walked out of thestudio unemployed. Bell Records gave usno compensation other than enough studiotime to make a two-song demo. We tookthat two-song demo, to a division of Poly-dor Records which was run by James Brown.His manager heard the record and just wentcrazy! When I got home that night, mymother said that someone had called mefrom Africa, but she couldn’t understandwhat he was saying. I knew immediatelythat the caller was James Brown himself!We were contacted the next day by James’lawyer saying he wanted to sign Frankie andI as a duo.S.O.: And…?Roxy Perry: Honestly, I can’t remember, butfor some reason, the deal with Polydor neverwent down.S. O.: So, what happened next?Roxy Perry: At this point, we were alreadyworking locally again. Frankie and I were do-ing a duo act, sort of like Marvin Gaye &Tammi Terell, but not quite as laid back asthat. We were playing at Trudy Heller’s on11th Street, which was the hang out of the“ultra hip” in Greenwich Village, people likeMonti Rock III. (Laughing.) Don Corneliusfrom Soul Train and many other celebritiesshowed up there regularly.

At Trudy Heller’s, we alternated showswith a jazz trio that had the famous bebopimproviser, Anita O’Day, who sang in thebands of jazz greats, Gene Krupa, WoodyHerman, Stan Kenton, etc. Whenever shewas under the weather, I would sit in. Shewould give me advice… I learned a lot fromher.S. O.: When did the blues catch your atten-tion? Roxy Perry: Want to hear a true story?S. O.: Sure, go for it…Roxy Perry: The music biz had me feeling re-ally burned out and confused. One day, I justtook off and headed south in my VW Bee-tle. I eventually found my way to a tiny, cin-der block, Pentecostal church out in the


Roxy Perry in 1985.

“The song made the Top 20 on the BillboardDisco charts. I was mortified! I refused

to represent the record… Silly me. Musicalintegrity is a dangerous thing…”


“New York Blues Queen”in 1997.

farmlands of North Augusta, Georgia. Thecongregation was in a full pitched frenzywhen I inexplicably felt an urge to go out-side. It was like I was drawn by some unseenforce! I got into my car and it wouldn’t start.

Looking out at the cut down cornfield be-fore me, once again, I just felt compelled tocross it.

The moon was full and I made my waythrough the field up to the dirt road. Look-ing in each direction, I could see a light inthe distance to my right and started walking.As I got nearer to the light, I heard music. Igot closer and could see that it was an aban-doned gas station turned roadhouse.

I stood at the door and peered inside theroom filled with black folks seated on any-thing that would suffice for a chair, drink-ing clear liquid from assorted vessels, jars, etc.They were raucously participating in themusic that came from an old man playing apiano, which was undoubtedly missing afew keys! Another man was playing a well-worn acoustic guitar and singing blues likeI’d never heard before.

I didn’t go in immediately. It was, after all“the south,’’ where black people were just asnervous about white people as white peoplewere nervous about blacks. I respectfullystayed outside until two women sitting by thedoor hailed me in. Their names were Rubyand Pearl… I’ll never forget them. Theywere in from Chicago visiting their cousins.They immediately extracted all the facts asto who I was and how I ended up there.

As the room filled with down home blues,a couple of the folks came over and offeredme some of that clear liquid, better knownas white lightning, moonshine, corn liquor.I was welcomed and felt comfortable and athome… and I realized, through the strangeevents of that evening, it seems I had becomean initiate in the genuine, real-deal bluesscene.

The sun rose, we all said our fond good-byes, and went our own ways. I felt the coolGeorgia clay beneath my feet on the road thatled me there. As I headed back across thecorn field, midway I was asking God,“Whatnow? I’m lost. Lead me.”A sudden downpourmade me run for the shelter of my car. Iturned the key again and it miraculously


In 1999, at Manny’s Car Wash.

“…An old man played a piano, which wasundoubtedly missing a few keys. Anotherman was playing a well-worn guitar and

singing blues like I’d never heard before…”

started. I headed back to New York withthat rich experience on my mind.S. O.: That’s quite a story! So this launchedyou headlong into a career singing blues?Roxy Perry: Not yet. When I got back toNew York, a letter was waiting for me frommy old boy friend, who was just getting outof the Marine Corps. To make a long storyshort, six months later we were married!Bob Fusco has been my husband and bassplayer in the band for the past thirty years.Anyway, we moved to South Carolina (don’task me why!), lived and played there forfour years. We returned to New York andwithin two months were involved in an orig-inal hard rock band. We had one bad recorddeal after another. 1985 I actually ended updoing a remake of “Gimme Gimme GoodLovin’” for Personal Records, written andproduced by Richie Cordell. Richie was JoanJet’s manager at the time. This song wasoriginally recorded by Crazy Elephant. To myutter embarrassment, the song was pro-duced as a dance single and made the Top 20on the Billboard Disco charts. I was morti-fied!! I refused to represent the record andhad to “sit still” for the duration of the con-tract. Silly me. Musical integrity is a dan-gerous thing.S. O.: You must have been discouraged.Roxy Perry: I had pretty much convinced my-self it was time to quit singing. One day, Iended up at Dan Lynch’s on Second Avenueand 14th Street in New York City. FrankieParis was running a blues jam there. I metmany wonderful players and made a lot ofgreat friends there, and began to regainsome of the enthusiasm that the bad busi-ness deals had dampened over the years.Popa Chubby, The Holmes Brothers, MichaelHill, Bill Perry, Bill Sims, Crusher Green,Dave Keyes, Joe Taino, and just about every-body on the New York blues scene eventu-ally showed up there. I accompanied themto other jams in town – Bobby Nathan’sjam uptown, Big Ed Sullivan’s jam, and so on.One Sunday night, I went to Popa Chubby’s

jam at Manny’s Car Wash and was called tothe stage by him mid-song. The crowd lovedit. Popa got me my first gig there and Iplayed at Manny’s regularly until it closed.S. O.: What blues recordings have you done?Roxy Perry: In the first year, 1995, when I re-turned to the New York scene, I got a recorddeal with an indie label, Monad Records.


Back in Bluesville, 2005.

They released my first blues album, Hi HeelBlues, in 1996, then folded right after therelease. However, this CD was a great intro-duction for me in blues radio internationally.

In the meantime, Tri-State Blues Maga-zine published a “Women In Blues” issuein 1997 and put my picture on the cover, ti-tling it “Roxy Perry, New York Blues Queen.”Boy, was I surprised!! I released a new CD ayear later in1998 using that title, Roxy PerryNew York Blues Queen, on my own label,

Blueperry Hill, just for laughs. I had no ideahow well received this album would be-come. All the major blues magazines gave itglowing reviews. National Public Radio(NPR) blues radio shows all over the worldplayed the hell out of it and the generalblues public really enjoyed it too. I am sur-prised to hear it’s still played occasionally onthese stations to this day! Several songs fromthis CD were also included on a number ofcompilation albums in past years.

We did a version of “House of the RisingSun”for producer Joe Ferry’s compilation al-bum, Public Domain, on Purchase Records in2000, which received a Grammy nomina-tion in 2001. This song has been a continu-ing favorite of my audiences.

Through the late 90s I appeared on sev-eral blues releases as a backup vocalist. Alsoduring that time, I did a number of com-


“In winter 2007, I received an e-mailinvitation from the Montreux Jazz Festival,

which was written in French. I almostdeleted it, thinking it was spam!”

Harpin’ her heart away at Montreux Jazz Festival,July 2007.

mercials and voiceovers, and continue doingthis presently. I really enjoy recording as wellas performing.S. O.: What artists have you shared the billwith over the years?Roxy Perry: Rod Piazza, Shemekia Copeland,Popa Chubby, The Holmes Brothers, JohnMayall, Saphire, Buck Wheat Zydeco, BillPerry, Leon Russell, Peter Karp, Koko Taylorand many others.S. O.: Tell us about your Back In Bluesville al-bum, which was awarded Best Self-Pro-duced CD 2006 at the International BluesChallenge in Memphis, Tennessee.Roxy Perry: I was both surprised and pleasedthat the Blues Foundation recognized BackIn Bluesville. I believed in the CD and felt itwas my best work. Since this new releasewas so long-awaited, I put my heart andsoul into every detail. There were severalpoints in its creation and even after its releaseand success, that the CD was abandoned byothers involved. But my faith in it, focus onfinishing, releasing and representing it neverwavered, to date. To a great extent receivingthe award from the Blues Foundation vin-dicated my belief and determination thatthe material on Bluesville was worth all theheartache and pain. Having a baby would bea cinch next to this!S. O.: Radio and Internet station supportfor Back in Bluesville were also strong, andthe album got lots of attention in the press,notably Blues Revue and Downbeat, amongothers…Roxy Perry: I really am grateful for the re-ception the CD received, and am drawing onthat inspiration to move closer to the com-pletion of my current project.S. O.: You were also recognized by the West-chester Arts Council (NY) this year, beingawarded the Council’s most prestigious 2007Artist of the Year Award.Roxy Perry: Yes, the award has been pre-sented annually for the past 27 years, and Iwas humbled and honored to be chosenthis year.

S. O.: The list of past recipients is impressive!Among them, Renata Scotto, Roy Neuberger,Roberta Peters, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis…I’d say you are in very good company!Roxy Perry: I still can’t believe it!S. O.: OK, a final question. In July 2007, youparticipated in the 41st Montreux Jazz Fes-tival in Switzerland. It’s a legendary, super-gig that any artist would envy being offered.How did you get there, and how was theexperience?Roxy Perry: In fact, this was my second in-vitation to perform at Montreux. My first in-vitation came after the release of New YorkBlues Queen, way back in 1999. Miscom-munication happened on both sides of thepond because of language barriers betweenthe coordinator of MJF and my then man-ager. MJF thought we refused and sent mea blistering letter that I sadly kept all these


On April 2007, Roxy Perryhas received the Artist of

the Year 2007 Award fromWestchester Arts Council.

Roxy Perry in Montreux,Switzerland. July 2007.

years. I attempted to apologize, but it didn’twork. I never expected to hear from themagain. Then suddenly, in winter 2007, I re-ceived an e-mail invitation from MJF, whichwas written in French. I almost deleted it,thinking it was spam! It wasn’t until afterhaving it translated by several French speak-ing friends, that I realized the good news thatwe were once again invited! Of course, Ireplied with a big YES immediately!

Two days later, I was given yet another in-vitation for a second stage, starting a chainof more letters, documents, emails and con-

tracts, all written in French. We really had ourhands full of paperwork, travel details andpassports right up to the day we left!

By the time we had all the arrangementsin place, it was too late to book other gigsaround the Montreux dates to make the tripeconomically feasible. I must mention thatfriends and fans of the band helped us raisefunds to cover our travel expense by throw-ing a benefit jam hosted by our great sup-porters at the Georgetown Saloon in Con-necticut!

When we all got on the plane to Geneva,


The Roxy Perry Band liveat Montreux Jazz Festival,July 2007.Mike Ventimiglia (key-boards), Bob Fusco (bass),Linda Geiger (drums),Roxy Perry and ChrisVitarello (guitar).

I breathed a sigh of relief! We arrived inSwitzerland to a warm welcome by ourdriver Claude, who took us to Montreuxand our mountain residence overlookingFrance, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Wewere also greeted by antique villages andfields of sunflowers all along the way. Thescenery was breathtaking!S. O.: Now, with all the planning and aneight-hour flight behind you, you were finallyready to hit the stage.Roxy Perry: Our first performance, July 8th,was on a 3-deck party boat with four other

bands. The boat traversed Lake Geneva,packed from stem to stern with Blues lovingpassengers, for a three hour cruise. We playeda fantastic show that got a very enthusiasticresponse from the international audienceaboard. We had the slot that B.B. King hadlast year on this Blues Cruise and were theonly band aboard to get billing. The cruisewas sold out even before the 21-day festivalbegan! I was very surprised to meet so manyfans of ours from so many countries, onboard that day. I was both proud and ap-preciative of the respect afforded by Mon-treux’s international audience to Americanmusic and musicians.

Our second performance on July 9th wasat 10:00 p.m. on the Park Vernex Stage strate-gically located between the two main con-cert halls. This headlining spot was timedperfectly to meet the crowds exiting the twovenues. Despite the chilly temperature andlight rain, the crowd was greatly receptive andmore than willing to bear the elements forsome all American Blues! The band cap-tured them! My guitarist, Chris Vitarello,was wailing! When he played downstage,he had the girls going absolutely wild! MikeVentimiglia got cheers, during his boogiepiano solos. Our drummer Linda Geigerand bass player Bob Fusco got very enthu-siastic ovations on their solos as well.

The band members were great fun to bewith. They were an outstandingly support-ive team. I love them and I’m looking for-ward to more adventures with them when wesee what next year will bring!

Website: www.roxyperry.com


New York Blues Queen(1998, Blueperry Hill).

Back in Bluesville (2005,Blueperry Hill).

Hi Heel Blues (1996,Monad Records).

ROXY PERRY DISCOGRAPHY

“Friends and fans helped us raise funds tocover our travel expense by throwing abenefit jam hosted by our great supporters at the Georgetown Saloon in Connecticut…”

ROXY PERRY COVER STORYroxyperry.com/press/Blues Rocks The World.pdf · Roxy Perry: The music biz...

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