|
The
Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame 2015 Class of Inductees
All exhibits created by Jack
McKenna, official graphic designer for the RIMHOF
museum.
Click banners to enlarge.
Class of 2016 |
Class of 2015
|
Class of 2014
|
Class of 2013
|
Class of 2012
Class of 2012 - 2015
Slideshow
|
THE
SCHEMERS
|
BRENDA
BENNETT |
NELSON
EDDY |
 |
 |
 |
|
 Formed in the late 1970s during the
Punk/New Wave era, The Schemers were at
the center of the Rhode Island original
music scene for nearly a decade. They
won the WBRU Rock Hunt and Boston’s Rock
’n’ Roll Rumble talent contests and also
released a series of successful
independent singles. The major labels
all came calling, but no record deal
materialized. In 1987, singer/songwriter
Mark Cutler and guitarist Emerson Torrey
formed Raindogs with the rhythm section
from Columbia Records artists The Red
Rockers and Scottish fiddler, Johnny
Cunningham. Their unique sound put them
at the forefront of the blossoming
Americana music scene. They released two
critically acclaimed albums for Atco
Records and toured nationally with Bob
Dylan, Warren Zevon and Don Henley. Mark
Cutler has since pursued a solo career,
releasing six successful albums and is
considered the most important Rhode
Island songwriter of the modern era. In
recent years, The Schemers have reunited
for a series of sold-out concerts and in
2015 began recording their first
full-length album. |
 Brenda Mosher began her recording career
in 1973 for Columbia Records as a
featured singer/songwriter with Rhode
island's Ken Lyon & Tombstone. She then took
a job under her married name working for
Prince in his wardrobe department where
she was discovered by “The Purple One”
who enlisted her for his girl-group
project, Vanity 6. The group’s 1982
album was certified Gold and contained
several hits. In 1984, Vanity was replaced
and the group became Apollonia 6. Their
album went Platinum, they toured the
world with Prince and also on their own,
and Brenda had a speaking role in
Prince's movie "Purple Rain." She
retired in 1992 to raise her family, but
returned to the scene in 2012 with her
first solo album, “A Capella.” Her
comeback continued with a major New York
dance club hit, “Guiltier,” in 2013. |
 Born in Providence in 1901, Nelson Eddy
is recognized as one of the finest
singers in American music history. Over
the course of his 40-year career, he
enjoyed unparalleled international
success singing and acting on stage,
screen, radio and TV. He scored dozens
of hit records and was, at one point,
the “highest paid singer in the world.”
He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame (one each for film, music and
radio) and was awarded three Gold
records. Eddy passed away in 1967. |
|
|
GEORGE MASSO |
GEORGE WEIN |
DUKE BELAIRE |
 |
 |
 |
|
 George Masso was born in Cranston in 1926 and
has excelled in just about every area of the
music business – as a trombonist, composer,
pianist, recording artist, arranger and
educator. He played in the national big bands in
the 1940s and has recorded as a sideman with
some of the biggest names in jazz including
Bobby Hackett and The World’s Greatest Jazz
Band. He has released a dozen albums as a leader
which feature many of his own compositions and
those songs have, in turn, been recorded dozens
of times all around the world. He taught music
in the Cranston public schools for eleven years
and another eight years at the University of
Connecticut mentoring some of our finest
musicians including several RIMHOF inductees. |
 In 1954, philanthropists Louis and Elaine
Lorillard invited pianist and club owner George
Wein to Newport. What resulted was the Newport
Jazz Festival for which Louis Lorillard provided
a $20,000 grant. The successful event was the
first outdoor jazz festival in the United
States. The Newport Jazz Festival became an
annual tradition and put Rhode Island on the map
as an entertainment and cultural destination for
international travelers. In 1959, he also began
presenting the Newport Folk Festival. He is
credited with keeping folk, country, bluegrass
and blues traditions alive by providing, for
many of the performers, their return to the
stage after years of waning interest. The
Newport Folk Festival also created a launching
pad for future stars including Joan Baez, Bob
Dylan, The Kingston Trio, The Paul Butterfield
Blues Band and Arlo Guthrie. Mr. Wein later
founded the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
and pioneered the idea of sponsor association
with music events. Wein has been honored by
heads of state, educational institutions and
leading publications. He is proud to be
receiving a Grammy Trustee award on February
7th, 2015. |
 Drummer Anthony “Duke” DeCubellis was born to
his calling. His father, Ray Belaire, led one of
the top New England big bands of the Swing era
and also ran The Arcadia Ballroom in downtown
Providence where Duke got his start. Following
in his dad’s footsteps, he adopted the Belaire
stage name and organized the house band at The
Celebrity Club, Rhode Island’s first integrated
nightspot, backing every major star who came
through the area. In 1967, he founded his own
big band and secured a Monday night residency at
Bovi’s Tavern in East Providence in 1969. Duke
is credited with keeping the big band sound
alive for the next 25 years. The orchestra,
still based at Bovi’s and now under the
direction of trumpeter John Allmark, is
considered the longest continually running big
band in the United States. |
|
PACO
ZIMMER |
GEORGE PORGIE & THE CRY BABIES |
THE
OTHERS |
 |
 |
 |
|
 Richard “Paco” Zimmer has had a stellar
international career as a concert
promoter, artist manager and tour
manager. He reached the highest
levels of the entertainment business
providing guidance for superstars
including Kiss, The Allman Brothers
Band, Robin Williams, and ZZ Top.
Along the way, he remained true to
his belief in the Rhode Island music
scene. He was the creator and
manager of Center Stage, the
showcase club in East Providence,
and always made a point of featuring
local artists as opening acts when
the national bands came through
town. He also acted as manager and
champion of many Rhode Island acts
and is credited with putting the
music of Mark Cutler onto the
national scene when he procured the Atco Records contract for Raindogs.
|
 George Leonard, of Pawtucket,
entered the Rock ’n’ Roll history
books before he cut his first
record. When his family moved to
nearby Attleboro, Massachusetts in
1964, he was tossed out of school
for his Beatle-length haircut. He
filed – and eventually won – a
lawsuit which became a national
cause-celebre. Capitalizing on the
publicity, the band he’d formed with
his sisters became a fixture on the
thriving discotheque scene in
Manhattan and led to two national
releases for Jubilee Records. He
went on to record with poet Edmund
Skellings for the National Endowment
for the Arts and bassist Jaco
Pastorius; composed and produced the
controversial rock opera “Bozo;”
and, under his alter-ego “Commander
Video,” became a cable TV pioneer on
the New York underground scene of
the 1970s. |
Formed in 1965 by five college
students (guitarists Jim DeStout and
Mike Brand, drummer Mike Patalano,
and vocalist Pete Shepley from URI
and bassist John Costa from Brown),
the band became one of the most
popular acts in the Northeast,
enjoyed three national releases on
two major labels, and still managed
to stay in school! Their RCA 45s, “I
Can’t Stand This Love, Goodbye”
(1965) and “Lonely Street” (1966),
are internationally recognized as
two of the greatest garage band
singles of the ‘60s. Costa left in
'66 and was replaced by Bob Johnson
for a final single on Jubilee in
1967. After two more lineup changes
with Bob Angell replacing Brand and
Joe Parisi stepping in for Patalano,
they enjoyed continued success
through 1968. Shepley and Brand went
on to form the Kiss precursor band
Chelsea with drummer Peter Criss
releasing an LP for Decca in 1970.
|
|
THE
ASCOTS |
BOB
PETTERUTI |
MARTY
BALLOU |
 |
 |
 |
|
Formed at Barrington High in 1965,
singer/guitarist Rick Desilets, lead
guitarist Peter Mayhew, bassist Mark
Vinbury, drummer Ted Medbury and
organist Vinton Medbury found
immediate success on the teen
circuit. They released a series of
singles produced by Big Al Pavlow
for his Super Records label and the
second, a cover of Wilson Pickett’s
“Midnight Hour,” was a smash,
selling thousands all over New
England. Poised to break nationally,
the single collided at the New York
border with a competing version by
midwesterners Michael & The
Messengers. When Rick and Peter left
in ’68, the others continued as a
trio (with Mark switching to lead),
at first as The White Wash, then as
Deviled Ham. In 1970, they finally
got a national release with an LP
for Buddah which is considered a
psychedelic classic all over the
world.
|
 Robert “Bob” Petteruti is the “dean”
of bass players in Rhode Island.
Over several generations, he
instructed and mentored dozens of
our finest players at the Twin City
Music stores in Providence and
Pawtucket founded in 1932 by his
father, guitarist and bandleader
Joseph Petteruti. He began his
career in 1943 at age 13 and has
performed all over the Northeast in
every setting. During the last 70
years, he has performed with every
major jazz artist to pass through
Rhode Island. A fraction of the list
of musicians he backed as part of
the house band at The Celebrity Club
and The Kings & Queens includes Roy
Eldridge, Bobby Hackett, Mose
Allison, Zoot Sims and Ben Webster
with whom he recorded two albums. |
 Marty Ballou is high on the list of
New England’s “first-call” bassists.
Highly regarded nationally for his
work in the jazz and blues fields,
he is equally at home in other
genres including folk, rock, pop and
Americana. His massive list of
credits, in the studio and on the
stage, stands him alongside the all
time greats on both the upright and
the electric bass guitar. He has
lent his special talents on his
instrument, as an arranger, and as a
producer to dozens of performers
including Peter Wolf, Martin Sexton,
Herb Ellis, Roomful of Blues, Cheryl
Wheeler, Duke Robillard, John
Hammond, Dan Moretti and Jimmy
Witherspoon. |
|
MARTY
RICHARDS |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 Drummer Marty Richards is nationally
known as a “go-to” player for any
setting. His innate sense of swing
and unerring sense of time have
graced dozens of recordings and
thousands of stages behind a list of
performers which reads like a “who’s
who” of American popular music. To
name just a few, he has recorded
and/or performed with The Peter
Malick Group featuring Norah Jones,
The Gary Burton Quintet, Duke
Robillard, James Montgomery, James
Cotton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Peter
Wolf, Garth Hudson, Al Kooper, Dizzy
Gillespie, Benny Carter, and Tommy
Flanagan. He is a member of The Joe
Perry Project led by Aerosmith’s
lead guitarist. |
|
|
Class of 2016 |
Class of 2015
|
Class of 2014
|
Class of 2013
|
Class of 2012
Class of 2012 - 2015
Slideshow
|
|