Mark your calendar for Sunday, March 24, at 2:30 pm, when the West Tisbury library hosts “Great Ballads and Classic Jazz Standards,” a concert featuring Debbie Major and Steve Riddick with the Jon Bates Band.
Having performed seasonally on-Island for the past 30 years at parties, clubs, weddings, festivals, and special events, the Jon Bates Band is a New York–based extended family of musical talent. The program they will present at the library will feature their two frontline vocalists, Debbie Major and Steve Riddick, performing an inspired selection of classic jazz standards and popular ballads, covering multiple genres from the 1940s to some of today’s contemporary favorites.
Debbie Major (vocalist) is an awardwinning “first call” vocalist, performer, music teacher, and vocal coach who has recorded and collaborated extensively with many prominent musicians, producers, and music contractors throughout her career. Debbie is also the founder and visionary force behind Zylofone, which provides powerful, life-changing music and drama therapy programs for people with cognitive and physical disabilities to express their creative talents inside the magical world of music and the performing arts. She has become well-known for her innovative teaching methodologies that empower people to discover and develop their own inherent creative gifts. Her son, Gage, has also been a proud participant in the Camp Jabberwocky summer community every summer since 2012.
Steve Riddick (vocalist) is as authentic as it gets! Renowned music critic Rickey Wright described Steve as “the real deal old school soul master, who takes full ownership of every song he sings, and makes you feel it to your core!” Steve began his professional career as the lead vocalist in several elite regional NY-based R&B, pop, and gospel groups, and has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad ever since. His recording and performance credits run the gamut, and include sharing stages with a wide range of luminaries, from jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd to the legendary R&B soul group The O’Jays, Bo Diddley, Roberta Flack, Jeffrey Osborne, and others.
Jon Bates (drums/percussion) has established a very solid track record as a bandleader, music contractor, and drummer and percussionist over his almost 50-year career. For 20 years he was the production coordinator for many worldwide music events, presenting a Who’s Who of music royalty in numerous renditions of the Floating Jazz Festival, the Blues Cruise, and many other highly acclaimed festival events aboard luxury cruise ships around the world, while also performing with such notables as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Dr. John, Astrud Gilberto, and others. He was also a studio manager and in-house producer-engineer at Hank O’Neal’s famous Downtown Sound Recording Studio in New York City, home of the Chiaroscuro Records label, and worked with legendary Columbia Records producers John Hammond Sr., George Avakian, and many others. He has production and/or performance credits on more than 100 commercially released recordings.
Ken McGloin (guitar) has been a working musician since the age of 14, able to play many styles with an authentic feel and appreciation for what makes each valid. He is the director and guitar-bass-ukulele instructor at the Poughkeepsie Day School in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and runs its Summer Jazz Camp program. Ken has led bands ranging from swing to hip-hop, folk to funk, and his “hard-core alternative” band, Lunchmeat, played the main stage at the 1994 25th Anniversary Woodstock Festival. He is the guitarist and musical director for the internationally acclaimed “Face The Music” — facethemusicblues.com — which presents innovative teambuilding programs, using music to inspire and enhance the performance of corporate management and sales teams, administrators, researchers, and ranking professionals at Fortune 500 companies around the globe, and his music has been featured on many popular shows, including “The Real World” (MTV), “Road Rules (MTV), “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and the ESPN network.
Bill Dotts (bass) has performed with such renowned acts as the Harlem Gospel Choir, and as longtime bassist with jazz legend Lonnie Liston Smith’s band. Bill has toured Japan, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, all throughout Europe, and across the U.S. many times. He also performed for many years with the world-renowned New York–based Afro-Caribbean collaborative known as Spirit Ensemble. Some of the many inspired recordings he has performed on include the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s blockbuster movie “Do The Right Thing,” “Now That I’ve Got Your Attention” (Lesette Wilson), “Inspirations” (Spirit of Life Ensemble), and “Broad Strokes” (Roswell Rudd).
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please email wt_mail@clamsnet.org.