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These are the five guys that Ralph sometimes refers to as "the great band that backs us up", but they are much more than that. This is a real band, with its own personality and even, to some degree, its own repertoire. The musicians form the "Sixties" axis of the group and play authentic Rock 'n' Roll. But they also have extensive experience playing a variety of other styles, which gives Risky Business the versatility to play at most any function. Tommy's been with the group the longest, joining in 1992, but our musicians have a history of playing together that goes back a lot further than that.
In a band with no shortage of "characters", Tommy may be the biggest one of all. He has played drums for three decades and for practically every kind of act, including a three year stay in Holland. He and his bandmates ran a dairy farm on the side, getting up at 5 AM to milk the cows. This long experience has given him a certain "seen it all before" air and there is pretty much no way to get him stressed out on a gig.
In the '70s he played with a number of touring groups including a one-hit-wonder named Crazy-Elephant. Just before joining Risky Business he played for many years in a Long Island wedding band named Windjammer. He was responsible for recruiting two other Windjammer alumni, Willie and Greg, to play bass and keys for Risky Business. Tommy's vast experience has given him a real feel for authentic sounding rhythms. Cha-Chas sound like Cha-Chas, Rock 'n' Roll like Rock 'n' Roll. The same goes for Swing, Merengue and Doo-Wop: You never feel like everything sounds like rock, or (worse) like a cocktail group.
One of the better Tommy stories from the Risky Business years (he joined in 1992) was the time his car's trunk caught fire on the way to a job at Hoyt Farms Park. He pulled off onto the shoulder of the Northern State Parkway, and with the help of his daughter, rolled his smoldering drums on the grass to stop them from bursting into flames.. Meanwhile, at the park, Ralph was getting nervous since Greg was already there with no word from Tommy. (as some of our more observant fans may know, when Greg gets to the job, it's officially late) About 15 minutes before the job was to begin, a police car pulled up with Tommy, his daughter and his drums. Tom had somehow convinced the officer to drive him there. Moral of the story: Tommy always makes the gig.
Ralph calls on Tommy for occasional lead vocals. His songs include Vehicle, Hang on Sloopy and Mustang Sally. Of course, even when he's NOT singing, he's got a live mike attached to his head, which gives him a direct "thought- link" to the PA speakers, or so it sometimes seems...
Send E-Mail to Tommy at tommy@risky-biz.com
Willie has the best "chops" in the band and isn't afraid to use them. A guitarist he used to play with was of the opinion that there must be more notes on Willie's bass neck than on his guitar. Willie would agree, saying "That's why it's longer". In any other band Willie's comedy "chops" would be tops as well, but this band has Ed in it, so there's heavy competition. Nonetheless, Willie has a thousand jokes in his head and since he's been on the 'net, the number is rising every day. (Sample some for yourself: Visit Willie's Joke Page)
He and Richie, our guitarist, make up the "Astoria Connection" in the band. They have known each other and played together in one setting or another for decades. Legend has it that they met when Willie "followed his ears" to an apartment a few blocks away where Beans was practicing with the windows open. While Willie will happily bend your ear for a half-hour on the subject of basses, amps, strings or speakers, he can, unlike Richie, leave his instrument alone during breaks.
Speaking of instruments, Willie has amassed quite a collection since Richie infected him with E-Bay Fever. He's up to 25 basses now. He brings two to each gig, rotating them so none get too lonely. Can the Astoria Bass Museum be far off? Gearheads may want to check out the "herd" at Willie's web site: www.maintainlowtones.com
Willie also sings some of the band's baritone parts and some leads. In fact, his repertoire is quite extensive as he is one of the principal lead vocalists in the band "Let's Go Crazy", a five or six piece group that occasionally surfaces in the wintertime to play Classic Rock hits. With Risky Business he sings "Black is Black", "Personality", "Long Tall Glasses" and shares vocals with Ralph on "Let It Be Me". With enough crowd support, he can be coaxed into singing "The Letter", "The Weight" or "Desperado".
Willie joined the band in 1993 fresh from a long stint with the Long Island wedding band "Windjammer". With his '60s roots, his wedding experience and a long tour through the twisting pathways of Ralph's '50s memory vault, he can play most any style. In this band that's a real asset, especially in the last set, when Ralph might call just about anything.
Send E-Mail to Willie at willie@risky-biz.com
Richie, or "Beans" as he's known to some of us, is a "lifer". We don't know when he got his first guitar but we're pretty sure he hasn't been more than a few steps away from one for more than an hour or two since. Even during band breaks he yields to the irresistable pull of his "rig". He'll come offstage, get a soda, gab with the guys for a minute and then go check his tuning. Or make sure the delay is the right speed for "China Grove". Or tweak his tone ("I've almost got it the way I want it now..."). Or wipe down the neck. Or practice some licks...
To be sure, he has calmed down a little. He has satisfied himself with the same two guitars for about a year now. But there was a time before that when he was really probing the boundaries of the exchange policy at the local music store. The cycle became familiar:
The one thing that can pry him away from his guitar for awhile at a gig is food. Although he weighs only a little more than his Strat (and probably less than his amp), he is arguably the biggest eater in the band. Stories abound of him making a snack of a pound of bacon, or breakfast of a whole box of Uneeda Biscuits drowned in a giant bowl of coffee and milk, with 10 sugars of course.
Richie is a bona fide sixties guy, but learned to play authentic fifties guitar while a member of the Teenchords and the Devotions. He's very picky about getting authentic sounds, sometimes adding a pedal to his setup just for ONE song. While he's well known for letting it rip on solos, most people probably don't know that he knows one whole side of Abbey Road note for note. (so does Wille, and Greg can follow anything so... so... maybe in the third set??? but no, Ralph won't let us play it)
Send E-Mail to Richie at richie@risky-biz.com
You're at the club and it's about twenty minutes before the band starts playing. A shadowy figure slides into the room... rolling an amp. That's Greg, arriving at his customary time. He came aboard in 1995, but was no stranger, having played with Tommy and Willie in Windjammer for several years before that.
Greg wears many hats in the group (Figuratively speaking, that is. He never fits in the hats Bobby B brings to the gig), playing horn, string and percussion parts in addition to piano and organ. He has also become the band's "utility vocalist", singing baritone or falsetto but hardly anything in-between.
Greg's favorite part of the gig is "Stump the Band" (Ralph refers to this as "taking requests"). Our musicians all have a talent for pulling a song out of the air , but it's Greg's specialty. He seems to actually prefer playing songs he doesn't know. This is a bit of good luck, since a fair number of the songs Ralph knows were recorded before Greg was born!
Greg likes photography also. Some of his better travel pictures can be found here. He is also the person designing this web site. So if you have comments, suggestions or perhaps a complaint about the um, leisurely pace at which things are being added, you can address them (gently) to him.
Send E-Mail to Greg at riskybusinessmusic@verizon.net
The recent addition of Marty and his saxophones has brought the Risky Business musicians full circle. Indeed, Marty can take a large share of the credit (or must shoulder the blame) for our current lineup. He was the leader of Windjammer, a Long Island wedding band to which Tommy, Willie and Greg belonged before their long-time association with Risky Business. So for Marty, joining our band is like a homecoming.
Marty’s musical experience is long and varied. It includes work with local Queens rock bands beginning in 1965 when he was a very young lad, two summers with a “society music” trio in the Catskills, even a short stint with a Polka band. (“Now those guys had great chops,” he recalls.) In 1974 he co-founded a wedding band that evolved into Windjammer and could boast a nice 23-year run.
Marty arrives with a whole sax section worth of woodwinds – tenor, alto, soprano and bari, plus sometimes flute and clarinet. (You never know when a Polka emergency might arise.) It’s fun playing all those saxes on a gig, he admits, but less fun carrying them all! And rubbing elbows with Willie for the last few months has awakened the collector in Marty, who has added several vintage saxes to his arsenal. You never know what new horn will appear on the bandstand.
To Risky Business, Marty is new and old at the same time, which seems appropriate, don’t you think?
Send E-Mail to Marty at marty@risky-biz.com