My band..Just in Time, is playing a beach party in Wildwood, NJ on the Labor Day weekend..

We are opening for "Brooklyn Bridge"...I hear the guy that replaced Johnny Maestro (Passed away about a year ago)..is very good..

I can't figure out how we do a 2 hour show as an opening act ....maybe because they get ten times the pay as Just in Time

I always get excited when we share the stage with "old" performers....the last ten years with the band, I have had many stage experiences with may of my favorite performers...too many to mention without leaving someone out...

Great band, Brooklyn Bridge, one of my favorites...great tunes and lots of nice memories.

My favorite was "Worst that Could Happen".

Sounds like a great gig, Fran.

Ian

"Worst That Can Happen"....GREAT BALLAD!

Good luck, Fran.

R.

I have done a few shows with johnny maestro Years ago with my band......but sadly since his passing and others in his group they are now not as good....sad.

... there is just NO WAY they could be as good without the "Maestro" ... RIP ...

You know how most of you guys hate Jazz! Well I love the "Righteous Bros, Jackie Wilson" and on and on.
But I want to know the answer to the following question. Please someone give me a number.

How many and what do you have to smoke to be as old as these guys look to sing so many different tunes for so many years and 99% of them are built on:
C, Am, F, G in a circle, or whatever key? Big deal, there are a couple of Fm's and D7's in a few of the bridge's of a few tunes.

If I would have done this for 30 years, or maybe just 29 years, even making 50 million dollars a year, it would not have done me any good, because I would have wound up in a straight jacket by now. I've come close a couple of times, but this monotony would have put the nail in the coffin for sure. Sorry not trying to be mean! I'm just stating a fact. For me, it's mind boggling!!!!!

The guy has a great voice, BUT? Come on singing do-wop and ahh's etc on the same four chords? How hard is that.

Well, I'll admit for tone deaf people it might seem like quite a feet, but for those tone deaf people even being able to hit a single note on the piano and singing it back would be a miracle.

boo ... as amazing as it may be to you - and other jazzers, including the sax player in our band for 26 years - there ARE people who enjoy - no, LOVE - this music ... so to them, it does not seem repetitive or boring ... Fortunately, this genre is ONE part of what makes ALL MUSIC great!!! ...

And we won't even BEGIN to talk about how many and what jazz musicians have smoked etc. etc etc ...

No one can ever replace Johnny Maestro. However the Brooklyn Bridge has added a new singer the group. His name is Roy Michaels. He is a great singer and performer and a wonderful addition to the group who must go on performing the wonderful music of Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge.Roy singing Unchained melody here...you be the judge..

Boo, go on playing jazz for peanuts. I will continue playing the music most people want to hear every night and play golf or fish all day.

DonM

Tony,

I and all musicians do these tunes friend. But, what I'm saying is, to me it would be like playing the same 10 tunes over and over for 30 years. Am I not explaining this right?

I'll put it this way. I can't name many, if any famous musicians and regular musicians that don't smoke stuff, drink too much so on and so forth. This is a fact. If a person does not have this problem they are in the minority.

I will say that I'm not a religious freak nor a superman or better than any other person. I'm not picking on anyone that has a problem. I have family and friends who have these problems. We all do. This is not the point that I am making!

The great problem that I have and that I'm thankful for is that I just can't stand the taste of beer etc. Also, I never could afford the drugs and I'm much too tight to spend money on drugs even if I could afford it.

I'll ask again. How much marijuana would I have to smoke to play the same 10 songs over and over for 100 years to not lose my mind. Ha ha! I don't know how else to explain what I'm trying to say.

I THINK I hear you saying:

1. Making good music is more important to you than 'making good money'.

2. The music you play has to please YOU as well as the audience.

Am I close?

chas

DonM,

You still don't get it. I'm a wanna be Jazz enthusiast. Man I do "Blueberry Hill" ( it does have a tricky bridge and most entertainers murder the chord changes there) how much more of a pop tune entertainer can you get than that tune, Jambalaya, I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Some Day, Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On, Friends In Low Places, Maybeline, Shake Rattle And Roll, Route 66, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Twinkle Little Star and 100 more similar to these to not be considered a Jazzer?

You really got me peeved off now!!!! I'm gone Fishing tomorrow morning and golfing in the afternoon and I'll have to rent a set of clubs. Put that In your pipe and smoke it.

Send me a couple hundred lyrics to some CW tunes. Hell I won't even have to practice. I'll just start doing them on my gigs and make a lot of money. Shoots I'll even do them with all the same four chords that we know. Lol

Tell the family hello would ya? You big mean looking "Teddy Bear."

boo ... ironically, we actually agree on most things musical ... fortunately, when I was playing these songs over and over I never did pot or any other drugs ... of course, I was 16 years old and that was the music I listened to ... ...
I can appreciate your feelings about the chord repetition ... I can recall one gig when I was a teen, where we played so many blues in Bb (best for our vocals at the time) that I thought my hand was going to cramp up in that position ...

A Number 1 hit for "The Elegants" in 1958 ... High school friends of mine from Staten Island NY ...
Their one and only hit because they pi$$ed off Alan Freed, the king of RnR DJs and big 'payola' guy ...

Chas, Tony,

From now on, I will refer to the post that I'm commenting on, email you the post have you guys edit it, email it back to me and them I'll post it.

That way maybe the folks here will understand what I'm trying to say and not make so many enemies. I don't want to make enemies and that is not my intentions.

Man they just don't cut a person any slack here at all, Don't they know that Cajuns are human too and need help?

Don't be fooled DonM is not anywhere near a Cajun! OK? Where I come from we call Shreveporters. Yankees. Ya'll har?

When I was a kid in Brooklyn ....Vito Piccone sang this song to me in my car outside our school.....thought it was great then before it became a big hit........now his mother is in a NH I perform at and always requests this song...
I performed playing KB with so many Top Doo Wop groups on stage & Cruse lines in many shows thru the years, I actually met my lovely wife on a Doo Wop tour when I was with the
"Mystics" ( "Hushabye" #1 1959 ) in the early 80's..mostly nowadays aren't close to what they wee or even have any originals left to perform.....but they mostly now merge together to create a group and make a living off the Big Hits the former members made years ago...
Little Anthony & The Imperials are one of the few left who sound great and are original..Doo Wop is more about the singing and harmonies then the simple music derived from the street corners growing up in the city streets..

Donny ... you are younger than some of us, aren't you? ... you must have been a Freshman when Vito sang this to you ...
I was at a High School dance flirting with a pretty young girl when a friend of mine came over and told me she was Vito's girlfriend and said I'd better back off ... and that was BEFORE he became a STAR !!!

Meanwhile back ON topic ... Fran ... good job opening for the BB ... take some pics ...

Donny...you were 6 years old when "Little Star" topped the charts...What car did you have..."push car"

Art and Vito wrote the song...they were from South Beach, Staten Island...

I was an 18-year-old kid in the U.S. Navy when that song came out! Still remember when I first heard it at a USO.

Gary

Boy, it seems like just yesterday when I was knighted by Queen Elizabeth (we were on a first name basis, so I just called her 'Liz'). I think it was just after I charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt, but I still suffer from 'survivors guilt' from being the only survivor at Custer's Last Stand....I'm pretty sure it was one of DonM's relatives shooting at me....no wait, I was on the other side....gee, it's funny how the ol' memory goes when you get old....or whatever.

chas

exactly Fran, what I meant to say is I heard them do it acapella in the barber shop when I was a little kid maybe 8yrs old, then a few years later Tony the barber took me for a ride in his new Caddy, met up with Vito at Spumoni gardens for pizza and he sang it again in the car acapella for us and some girls outside Lafayette HS.......Vito got his haircut next door to my fathers Italian restaurant as his barber and friend Tony worked there...they always had dinner at my pops place...fond memories.This also led to to doing WMCA Radio AM oldie battle of the bands when I was 14 made alot of connections..

Let's take another turn here..

I was 15 when Little Star topped off...and I did own a car..had it when I was 13....It was used in a "hold up" and my Father towed it in and ended up with it for storage...the title could not be transferred...so I used it on the 30 acres of land behind our Garage, and home...I was a motor head at a young age...Here is a youtube clip showing a 46 Merc like the one I had...it was also like new...

Listen to the music background, and it won't seem off topic...that much..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtGa_hBvWno

all I know The BB need a better lead singer asap...
the sympathetic fans get frustrated fast....Nationwide Auditions are in order......they did it for the Four seasons for Jersey Boys on Broadway so they can do it for the BB also....

I guess Vito took the old 69st (Brooklyn) Ferry to hang out there ...

[img]http://www.allposters.com/-sp/69th-Street-Ferry-Posters_i2900495_.htm[/img]


http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0682011/bio

While we are on this NEW topic ... whenever we had a gig in Brooklyn pre- Verrazano - Narrows Bridge (pre - 1964) two of us use to get in the ferry line at about 3:00 in the afternoon with the van and all the gear ... the rest of the guys would take the ferry on foot at about 5:00 or so depending on the start time ... we had to get in line earlier because on a weekend night you could sit in line for HOURS before you got a vehicle on a boat ... sometimes we would make the same ferry as the guys who got there at 5:00 !!!

As I was growing up...we had 3 different "Tony the barber" ...If I can recall...one of them wasn't a barber at all..

We would sometimes take the trolly Buses to the 69th St Ferry,..I went over the Verrazano bridge first day with the folks......it was the beginning of the END of Staten Island....my aunt lived on Shore road facing the Hudson......my Uncle was a pro photographer and took pics every night right out their window from the first day of construction and put them in an album till it was finished.
After the mass Exodus from Bklyn in the mid 70's it's never been the same ......all Russian & Korean Now have migrated there....I bought my first house in S.I. but when I saw what was happening it was time to flee asap....happy I made that move with my family down the jersey shore no regrets..
S.I. became Brooklyn for a little while but now a very crowded melting pot wasteland....so sad.

Chas, speaking of forgetting..........what happened to that lunch we were going to have...when you visited Benny's...

Fran, I would still enjoy that very much. I just haven't been able to get up that way in quite a while. I have a very dear friend (lives in Media) who is pretty ill and unlikely to recover, so I'll probably go up to visit him. If, no, When, I come up, I will make sure we have an opportunity to get together. Any meals that might transpire will definately be on me. It's good to see you ol' farts still active in the music business (I can see how the ladies we always see you with, could make you want to postpone retirement ).

I can hardly believe Benny's still alive and kicking, much less still hustling merchandise. A true Philly legend in the music community. Take care, friend.

chas

I bought an accordion off Benny last year......gave me a great deal.....still feisty as ever!! A legend for sure...
Cintioli Music..still selling gear the old fashioned way, I Love going to his shop in Philly.

Cintioli Music

While I'm not a major Beatles fan, the thing I remember is, they broke the "C, Am F, G" pop mode.

By 64, when they hit it big in the US, I had been working in clubs for 9 years. ?Firs, it was Les Paul and Mary ford tunes...then R&B of the three and four chord variety.

Part of the deal is the way those chords are played.

"Think of "You made me leave my happy home" (substitute and Fm for the F), "But you don't know me" and many others.

The Coasters, Drifters, Skyliners (Since I Fell For You)...all part off my personal and music past.

I'm, glad I was around to enjoy that music.

After all, that music was the "bridge" to the more involved stuff.


Ain't this a GRAND way to make a living?


Russ

Donny ... I was a sergeant in the US Army Reserves at the time and our unit and others marched across the bridge in the Opening Day parade ... I was at a bachelor party the night before and didn't get home until about 4AM ... had to be at the Post at 6AM ... I was a Tank Commander in the Armored division and we wore yellow ascots when we marched ... my CO told me my face matched my ascot quite well ... ... having been born and raised in SI, I really feel bad about what has happened ... not about the people, but the fact that there were NO controls on expansion, and they just allowed developers to knock down trees and put up houses ... once they started buying and tearing down beautiful one family ranch homes and replacing them with 4 family units, I knew things were really going to get bad ... fortunately, the company I was working for relocated to RI and we went with them ... and NEVER looked back ...

Meanwhile ...

http://justintimeband.homestead.com/XFER.html


Here is a link to our trio Just in Time...performing a Dupree's medley(mp3)...I am playing the "old" G1000...

Nice vocals Fran. I'm sure you guys well be very well received at the show.

I get it and have often wonder the same thing. How can a group do the same songs for many years and keep it fresh and fun sounding. Recently seeing a story about the Beach Boys 50th year reunion tour I wondered, "don't they get sick of those songs" Heres my take. Preforming those songs and watching the crowds go nuts transends the boring chord changes. I still never get tired of hearing the introduction to "Califorina Girls" and those tight high harmonies. Even a group like Tower of Power can't get off a stage until they do "What Is Hip" Its got to be very repetative for them but the crowd, myself included, goes crazy when the bass starts pumping the intro. In my own little world I'm getting sick of a lot of my material but it still works and some is hard to replace. I'm there to make the peole happy , not myself.
I love jazz and its a delicate balance of being entertaining to the listeners and entertaining yourself with new licks and changes. Whatever, you have to try to have fun

Are they using a live band or have they gone Kareoke like so many acts I see now? A friend of mine who I worked with used to play drums for them and they had a very decent backup band in the day.

Hey Bill,
Would you mind if I use you along with Tony and Chas as an editor of my post also?

Maybe I'd become more likable. I'm trying to win a popularity contest. I want to be more popular on the forum like I am with the musicians around New Orleans. Ha ha!

I enjoyed your post it was put more tactful than I'm able to do. I always put my foot in my mouth and nothing seems to come out right. LOL!

they aren't even the same group,.. all the people from different groups in the Duprees...feeding off the original hits, I did shows with mostly original groups years ago when they sounded great........they usually use a 4 or 5pc band in their shows now for big venues.....as do most of the
Doo Wop acts who are still active........but many use tracks also...some bought, some custom made....no body cares as long as it sounds good...

here's something interesting also....

Duprees original manager protests

I saw the Beach Boys doing a live performance on TV recently - at least those that are still around - I believe two of them have passed away? ... Brian Wilson looked almost comatose sitting at a keyboard - very sad indeed - although a couple of times when the camera zoomed in on him it looked like he played a couple of chords - ... they have a pretty good size band of all young musicians/singers backing them up so it is hard to tell who is actually playing and singing ... but the sound and the energy seemed to be there ...

I don't get it...the band is opening for "Brooklyn Bridge"..yet I just played for their fans....at an assisted living center

Yea,... "weekend at Bernie's" seems to be the norm with some of these groups....very scary...YIKES!!

Just face it we're old and that's it who cares?....
live and die I say....but enjoy it while your here cause one day you ain't waking up.

No problem. I got your message when I first read it . wish you were in this area. I'd love to hook up with a good sax player and do my B3 thing again.

Bill,

I played in the 60's and 70's with Wayne Deville' (the spelling may be wrong but pronounced De Vill A). We did a lot of the R&R, R&B, Funk, and most popular tunes of the day along with a bunch of standards.

To keep working in NO at that time you had to play everything if you wanted to play a bunch. However, Wayne said we weren't going to play Ipanema all night, that I had to learn "Desifinada" too. He did me a big favor.

I had to quit the band and lay brick with an Uncle. I had three in diapers when I was 21. Wayne, in a couple of year's was playing with Al Hirt's band even at the Saints games in those days. He got to work with Wynton Marsalis’ Dad Ellis who was the Pianist, and Wayne played Hammond B3 with the Leslie Speakers.

Anyway, I also had the privilege of working with another better than average B3 player by the name of Billy Boykin. Wayne passed away quite a while back and I don't know anything about Billy today.

Anyway when the folks on the forum bring up Hammond B3's I remember the sound of swinging with "ON A Clear Day” and “Our Day Will Come” doing them as Bossa Nova’s. Man an improviser can really get his grove doing things like this… I got to enjoying the B3 and then they seemed to fade a way. In those days for these two guys it was Jimmy Smith.

You guys on the Forum lately get me thinking of the old days. Or, maybe like Gary says, I am old.

We're ALL old ... some just older than others ...
Ya know how parents tell their kids ages in months the first couple of years? ... well, I'm 855 months old !!!

Tony you're just a kid! I'm 858 months old!!!!

Boo, I'm really glad "the Kid" is back!


R.

Damned, now I know I'm really old - I'm older than Boo! (862 months)

Gary

I am 25,214 days old....now that sounds old ...17 days older than DonM...now that really seems old..

At the restaurant, a sign read "Karaoke Tonight!" Grandma studied it before asking, "What kind of fish is that?"

25 Signs You Are Getting Old

Your houseplants are alive, and you can’t smoke any of them.

Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.

You keep more food than beer in the fridge.

6:00 a.m . is when you get up, not when you go to bed.

You hear your favorite song in an elevator.

You watch the Weather Channel.

Your friends marry and divorce instead of “hook up” and “break up.”

You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.

Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as “dressed up.”

You’re the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won’t turn down the stereo.

Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.

You don’t know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.

Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.

You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.

Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.

You take naps.

Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.

Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.

You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.

A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer “pretty good sh!t.”

You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.

“I just can’t drink the way I used to” replaces “I’m never going to drink that much again.”

90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.

You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.

When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking “Oh sh!t what the hell!”