GEOFFERY FITZHUGH PERRY - BMHOF CLASS OF 2004

Born March 29, 1961 to mother Dianne Perry and father James Standley Perry. 

Age 5 started taking piano lessons from my mother, a church organist (Blossom and Elma Lutheran, Lancaster Presbyterian Churches and others). 

Sang in the chorus at Court Street Elementary School, director Mr. Robert Willover, noticed I had good pitch, suggested that I also take up an instrument.  Weird kid that I was, asked “which one is the hardest?” When presented with saxophone or violin, I chose violin only because it was made out of wood, and my dad worked with wood at home.  Who would have thought that it would fill most of my life later?

I Started violin lessons in school, 1st lesson in a summer program after 3rd grade with Mr. John Murone but then joined Dr. Charles Sollinger’s program in my 4th grade school year.

Around 6th grade, started taking private violin lessons from various UB students until beginning with BPO’s Dennis Piwowarski (later with the National Symphony) at Villa Maria College, who would become my biggest influence in my technical (and life) training. 

Played in church with my mother fairly often, and into my adult years, accompanying hymns or special service features.At age 10 my mother taught me the beginnings of music theory, giving me assignments that included writing chord voicings in the left hand and writing melodies to that in the right hand.  This had a huge influence on how I think about music. And at Age 12, 
The Court Street Elementary chorus performed a Jazzy number and brought in Lyle Ruland from the high school to accompany us with his electric guitar.

 I thought that guitar (and him with his Beatle boots) were the coolest thing I had ever seen, and begged my mom for a guitar.  We borrowed a 1964 Fender Esquire guitar from my uncle, David Kling (of Kling Brother’s Auto shop in West Seneca, NY).  I gratefully played that very instrument for over 30 years before handing it back to him in 2008! 

I took a year of private guitar lessons from a local woman on Stoney Rd. until she passed me on to Jazz guitarist Louis Palowski at Bob Borzaleri’s Suburban Music Center (where I would later start my own private teaching career at age 16).  Louis taught me Jazz Theory, Chord substitutions, Chord Melody, got me started with improvisation, and generally put me through the paces of learning the whole neck of the guitar. 

I participated annually in county and state-wide solo festivals from about 6th grade on, at one point sitting assistant concert master chair in Sectional All State Orchestra in my senior year. 

Lancaster high school: sat as concert master in the orchestra in my junior and senior years under the directorship of Ernest Rodak, also sang in the chorus, played guitar, and later bass guitar, in the jazz ensemble, both directed by David Moore, and using a custom made amplifier that ran on two car batteries (designed by the repair tech at Suburban Music Center), played electric bass and Moog Synthesizer in the marching band (director John Murone). 

1977 started our first band “Mystique” with friends from Lancaster High School that included drummer Kevin Roth, vocalist Sandra Mailey/Dudley (vocal professor at Belmont University), Chris Young on keyboards and Tony Molik on bass. Our first gig was a 50th wedding anniversary and we never took a break for fear that everyone would leave! 

1977 At age 16 played guitar in a local production of Godspell, my first introduction to being in a rock band on the stage with the actors.  During rehearsals, I pestered the bassist to let me try his bass, and it immediately excited me, propelling me to go home and begin begging my mom again, this time for a bass, which surprisingly she bought (from Suburban Music), a Fender Musicmaster.  I soon would discover Jaco Pastorious, ripped all the frets off that bass, and my bass playing fate would be sealed!  I did my best to BE Jaco, even being mistaken for him once in New York City in the early 80’s. 

I was selected for the Buffalo Youth Orchestra 1977-79, sitting in the assistant concert master chair during my senior year.1978 by audition, was selected for New York State Summer School of the Arts, School or Orchestra Studies, a month-long intensive program held in Saratoga, NY.  Even though auditions were state-wide, and only included enough spots to make one full orchestra, it was a testament to Lancaster High School’s  excellent music program, that three musicians in the orchestra came from one school (myself, percussionist Kevin Roth and trombonist Mike Bonk). 

Studied violin with BPO’s concert master Charles Haupt for the last months of my senior year, preparing for college auditions after my main teacher, Dennis Piwowarski got his long standing gig with the National Symphony. I Graduated from Lancaster High School in 1979, and attended University of Buffalo on full scholarship as a violin performance major. 

Within two weeks of starting college at UB, landed the bass playing gig with the up and coming local fusion band “Loosely Tight” replacing Tom Reinhardt who I would later play with in Gamalon for 8 years.  This band included the Genovese  brothers (Dave and Tony) on guitars, Al Monti on sax, Jim Zeams on drums and a few different keyboardists including Joe Brancato and Tim Wells.  My first gig with Loosely Tight was at the infamous Bell Star in Glenwood, NY opening for Brian Auger.  It was a real boost to my 18 year old self to suddenly do these kinds of gigs and hear our recordings being played on WBFO! 

Loosely Tight did quite a bit of recording at Trackmaster Studios, often trading overnight studio time for playing on commercial jingles by day.  The band also had some recordings produced by Jeremy Wall (Spiro Gyra) with recording done at SUNY Fredonia recording facilities. 

Performing often with Loosely Tight and others 5-6 nights a week in the early 1980’s, left little time for my UB studies, and I began to have only minor interest in my college major, of becoming an orchestral violinist. Improvising in the Jazz and Rock styles had clearly become my passion. 

Though I never finished a degree, my time at UB was not a waste, as I had many musical experiences that I would not have had anywhere else with new music composer premiers UB was known for (kind of cool to wear a mask or get to smash stuff as part of the music!).  I also studied with the Rowe String Quartet who were all excellent, though I think I may have been more of a challenge than a joy to them when I announced that I just wanted them to teach me how to bow better so I could chose my own notes! 

In 1982 made the watershed decision to leave my full scholarship at UB behind to pursue being a professional Jazz Fusion performer and recording artist.  My parents eventually understood, and I set out to learn and experience as much as I could.1982 auditioned for a gig with Opryland, USA and got placed in a then new show for a 6 month stint at the World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN called “Sing Tennessee!” This was my first professional musical experience outside of Buffalo, and I met and played with a lot of great musicians, got to back up country star Roy Acuff, and later recorded and toured with the show’s guitarist Paul Carrol Binkley (who later became part of Country supergroup, Alabama’s backup band). I was also introduced in a bigger way to martial arts by the show’s drummer Mark DeRose, and got to hang out and jam with Riders in the Sky fiddler Dr. Woody Paul during this time, who taught me that the BeBop staple “Cherokee” actually had cowboy lyrics! Who knew?  I would later marry Elizabeth who is part Cherokee and sing it to her. 

1982 While in Knoxville, TN, I also performed with the Knoxville Symphony as a substitute violinist when they needed extra players. 

After the 6-month Opryland gig, myself and a few other musician friends who had similar goals, all met back in Buffalo to start a new band and record. Included in this band was saxophonist Al Monti from Loosely Tight, keyboardist Bill Heller (now with The Rippingtons and Smokey Robinson) and drummer Kevin Roth (Jelly Jar and the Vincent Michaels Band).  On a lark, I sent our demo tape to a contact I had from Opryland at Carnival Cruise Lines and on Christmas day 1982 they flew us out to be a house band onboard the MS Tropicale, which we did for only 4 months, choosing to quit before they threw us off the ship for playing Weather Report’s song “Birdland” by request from a passenger… definitely against the required “commercial corn” rules! 

1983 Back in Buffalo again, we started a new band, “Condor” including Al Monti, Kevin Roth, myself on bass/chapman stick/violin, Joe Rozler on keys/guitar and Dave Genovese (from Loosely Tight) on guitar.  Though this line-up was one of my favorites I ever played with, it was cut short when Kevin and I joined the (fellow hall of famer) Vincent Michaels Band and started playing full time with them in clubs all around the region. 

1983-85 I also taught lessons at U Crest Music during this period. 1983-87 I continued to play and record with the Vincent Micheals Band becoming more immersed in the pop world and business due to Vince’s interests and abilities.  I was totally behind Vince and brother/manager Frank’s pop songwriting abilities, and having pro roadies was a nice perk too.  Vince was always on the cutting edge of technology being one of the first bands in the area to use electronic drums and the latest synthesizers.  Kevin Roth later left the band and was replaced by Joe Santee and we released the Buffalo Bills “Shout” song that is still played today. We were sponsored by Coca Cola and Black Horse Ale. Vince would take us to Audio Engineering Shows and NAMM shows as well, where I got to meet industry giants like instrument designer Ned Steinberger, stick/bass player Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, others), violinist/keyboardist Eddie Jobson (UK, Yes) and others.

I also made instruments in my father’s wood shop as a amateur builder starting in 1980, even purchasing some of the then new material, “graphite” from Joe Zon when he was still in Buffalo, which made meeting Ned Steinberger an important milestone for me.  For better or worse, I had such high regard for Ned and his designs, and thought that the investment to compete with him was way too large for my broke musician’s salary, I decided to give up making and focus on playing.  I purchased two of the new all carbon fiber Steinberger basses through Vince’s company “Clean Music Systems,” one of which I still own today and became a true musical “voice” for me when I restrung it with guitar gauge strings as a piccolo bass in Gamalon with drummer Ted Reinhardt’s encouragement. 

I had started playing the Chapman Stick in 1982 after hearing Tony Levin play with King Crimson using one, and not surprisingly purchased the carbon fiber version of the Stick as soon as it came available, later giving it up for permanent loan to Gamalon drummer Ted Reinhardt who very uniquely used it as part of his drum kit. 

Started playing bass with Mark Mazur’s Jazz and light pop band “Corona” around 1985.  Mark would often send me in to substitute for him at his school teaching jobs at Annunciation School (Elma, NY), Nardin Academy, St Marks school. Mark had a pretty deep roster of on-call musicians on his gigs including saxophonists Carl Corwin and Dave Schiavone, drummer Mark Horning, guitarist Stu Weismann, various vocalists, and later bassist Jack Kulp as I moved away from playing bass. 

1985 with Buffalo top fashion model and personal friend Debbie Power’s encouragement, I tried some training as a fashion model at Faces Agency, not expecting a career, but thought it might be a good idea to learn some things about how to walk and talk better, know things about makeup, etc… thinking it couldn’t hurt in the MTV video age that had just begun to bloom.  They sent me on many local modeling gigs, mostly pretty embarrassing stuff, modeling clothes on morning television shows like AM Buffalo and others, but I did do some fun photo shoots that were in Buffalo News advertisements and meet a few great photographers who I later used for musical promo work (Jim Bush, Collignon and Jerose, and Gary Schwab).  I actually did enjoy doing mannequin modeling, which was akin to martial arts to me, which I was very involved in studying KungFu with race car engine builder “The Guru” Greg Edwards and others. Greg always seemed to have local musicians (guitarist and ESP CD replication founder Mark Mekker, studio engineer David Balanca, and others) involved in his weekly workouts/spiritual studies to the point where he would kid us that he should be getting royalties! 

1985 played bass with Buffalo icon Lance Diamond with guitarist Joe Mafoud and keyboardist Van Taylor.1986 through Faces Modeling agency got the promotional gig playing the part of McDonald’s “Mac Tonight Moonman” character in local parades riding in a classic car, throwing candy, etc… this gig actually paid better than being a musician, but didn’t last very long. 

1986 started “The Stickmen” with myself on violin/bass/chapman stick, Tony Scozaro on guitar/chapman stick (later also in Gamalon) and drummer Matt Eisensmith.  We kind of wish we had the foresight to trademark that name, as Tony Levin himself later had a band by the same name! 

1986 was another watershed moment for me when I went to the Memorial Auditorium to hear our hometown hero Billy Sheehan playing with David Lee Roth.  Though Billy remains one of the best in the world at what he does, his trades with guitarist Steve Via were sonically a bit of a jumbled mess from the “nose-bleed” section of our Memorial Auditorium hockey arena compared to the cutting guitar tones.  I decided then and there that my bass playing would be more “bass oriented,”  leaving behind my aspiration to being the next Jaco Pastorius, and I’d keep my improvised soloing more focused on the violin and other higher pitched instruments.  The 1970’s Jean Luc Ponty influences really started to bloom for me at this point. 

1986-87 recorded bass and violin with New Age guitarist Paul Carroll Binkley (Opryland, Heartdance Records, Alabama). I also toured with Paul throughout the American Southwest in support of recordings in the mid 1990’s. 

1986-87 played bass with country rock band Two Hills with guitarists/vocalists Ray Wood and Jeff Munzert, and Kevin Roth on drums. 

1987 drummer Ted Reinhardt (Gamalon, Sypro Gyra, Rodan, others) substituted with the Vincent Michaels Band on occasion (actually getting engaged to wife Cindy on the dance floor during one of those gigs!).  I was playing violin on a couple songs per night, and Ted encouraged me to bring it down and sit in with his band “Gamalon” at their weekly gig at the Central Park Grill.  Both VMB and Gamalon were recording at the time and Ted was in the middle of signing a deal with Lenny Silver’s Amherst Records for their first release.  I went down and sat in, and a magic moment happened onstage with guitarist George Puleo and I doing a musical duel, which drove the audience into a frenzy.  We all knew we were a great fit.  The next day, Ted asked Lenny Silver if they could add a violinist to the band.  The rest of that story is now history.  Ted’s only regret was that he did not sneak me back into the studio to play on at least one song on that first recording which hadn’t yet been released.  I spent 8 years in Gamalon. 

Gamalon’s first record went to #8 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and we soon were opening for bigger acts like the Jazz Explosion (Stanley Clark, Alan Holdsworth, Randy Brecker, Steve Smith) at Shea’s, The Steve Morse Band, and others, doing many regional festivals and being honored to have a slot at the prestigious Newport Jazz Fest.  It was a thrill to be back stage rubbing elbows with Miles Davis, Carols Santana and others.  Our rather muscular music style lent itself well to sporting events and we often had our songs featured at Buffalo Bills, Sabres, WWF and Olympic events. 

Lenny Silver got us hooked up with his contacts at MCA for the second recording, “Ariel View” and we also brought tenor saxophone icon Ernie Watts (Rolling Stones, Tonight Show Orchestra, many others) in as a guest, who we later toured with on a side project. MCA ended up not being a great fit for Gamalon, as we were too Rock for the jazz radio stations and too Jazz for the rock stations for them to promote us in the methods they were used to. Gamalon was all of the members top commitment, but we also moonlighted when we were not on the road or doing our steady gigs in Buffalo.  I played with many many other bands during this period including, the previously mentioned Mark Mazur’s Corona, Two Hills, Lance Diamond; but also The Shakin Smith Blues Band, The Fans, The Sid Winkler Trio, Dave Stockton’s Money Band, Al Tinney, Jamie Moses Band, Dallas Alice, Big Happy Family, and guest recorded with too many local bands to remember, but included playing on Ani DeFranco’s “Imperfectly,” Thurman Brothers, Pat O’Connel (Rouge Elephant) and others.

1989 I also did my acting debut in a Jamie Moses and Buck Quigley production playing the part of a fiddler in a band… not much of a stretch… but did get me out of my comfort zone with a few lines and singing one number.  Hall of famer Michael Hund played guitar in the production. 

1989 my friend and ex-bandmate, Vincent Michaels got me a job at Pearse Amplification in the Pearce Arrow building as shipping manager.  Vince was Pearse’s Artist Relations director.  I was the guy at the end of the assembly line who would install the speaker in the cabinet and test each amp before shipping them all over the world, and as an official endorsing artist, also got tapped to go to the NAMM show as a demo player.  I worked there until the company folded in the early 90’s. 

1989 Played bass with eclectic RnB group “Chameleon” with guitarist Doug Yeomans, drummer John Bacon Jr. and 2022 inductee vocalist Terrie George. 

1992 Gamalon’s 3rd recording “High Contrast” was back on Amherst Records and was the band’s most honest recording to date, as it represented the band just as we were live. My song Tecumseh was featured in a video shoot we did in LA, but was never released.  That song was also featured on Japanese Television for a while.  By 1995, as business dealings were proving less and less fruitful, this lineup sadly disbanded.  Ted would later continue with other players. 

1993 taught privately at Sue Sprauge’s (Talas Lighting tech) Limelite Music, East Aurora, NY 

1994-1999 taught privately at Hamburg Music Center 

1995-1999 taught at Al Hemer Music, Orchard Park, NY 

1995 After leaving Gamalon, I produced my own music, using my earlier Jazz harmony training in reverse to strip down and rev-up some cherished American songbook tunes in a recording called “Blue Standards” by Fitzhugh and the Fanatics.  I had tons of fun playing all the parts on my then cutting edge cassette 4-track recorder and it was my official recorded vocal debut. The crazy album cover picture was an award-winning photo courtesy of Gary Schwab from my fashion modeling days and the recording was mastered at Jim Summer’s (Cock Robin) Loft Studios. 

1995-98 I supported “Blue Standards” with a live “Fanatics” band that included my friends from Corona: Mark Mazur, on keys and accordion, Mark Horning on drums, Jack Kulp (Miles Davis, Gamalon) on bass, and Maria Aurigema on guitar, and later included Paul Campanella and Andy Wiensikowski on drums, Aaron Trubic and Jon Payne on bass and Aaron Flynt, Andy Stack and Tim Baldwin on guitars as well as Dave “the Grinch” Schultz on keyboards. We performed all over the region and got some feature spots at festivals including: Toronto’s NXNE, Philadelphia Music Conference, and Undercurrents in Cleveland, OH. 

1996 “Blue Standards” got the attention of ex-Gusto editor and Ani DeFranco manager Dale Anderson and I signed a two album deal with his Hot Wings Entertainment.  The first official release was “Flavor” with my bluesy version of the old standard “All of Me” being in the top ten on Buffalo State College’s radio station for a short while.  My wife Elizabeth shot the photos for the artwork. The 2nd album never did happen as Hot Wings ran out of funds, but Dale was kind enough to help cover the costs of recordings for the educational book I was working on at the time.  I brought in some of my favorite players for this which included: drummer Paul Campanella Jr., bassist Aaron Trubic and guitarist Aaron Flynt who all nailed it.

1997 became string director at the Aurora Waldorf School. 

1997 joined Ron Davis’s “Lee Ron Zydeco and the Hot Tamales” playing violin, quatar (fretless piccolo bass), and washboard releasing 4 recordings: Big Box Bop (1996), Shango Shake (1998), Raw Roots LeeRon Live (2000), ZyFi Revenge of the Roots (2004). This band had many great Buffalo musicians in it’s roster including bassists Chris Haug, Steve Sadoff and (ex-BMHOF Pres) Nick Valtry, drummers Jeff Whiting, Ray Hangen, Sandy Konikoff, Paul Campanella Jr., Gus Russo and occasionally Gary Malabar (Raven, Steve Miller Band and others). I actually learned to play a bit of sousaphone to do some New Orleans second line marching numbers and did a couple overdubs with it on “ZyFy” thanks to a loan from my day-gig at the Nichols School.1998 had my punk/blues version of the traditional Christmas song “Deck the Halls” included in a local charity compilation CD.  This song was later selected for video production with a very fun troupe of “muppet-like” puppets lead by Buck Quigly’s Wife Heather. 

1998 joined the Emery Nash band with long-time friends guitarist/songwriter Bob Campbell (guitar), bassist John Caruso (The Need), Jim Palys (The Fibs), and Al Monti (Loosely Tight, Stan and the Ravens, Hitmen Horns). 

1999 took over 3 Hamburg School string programs as a long-term substitute at Cloverbank Elementary, Blasdell Elementary, and Pinehurst Elementary (as well as still running my program at the Aurora Waldorf School). 

1992-1998 was a regular member of Mark Freeland’s Electroman with keyboardist Dave “Grinch” Schultz (GooGoo Dolls) drummer Greg Gizzy, and bassist Jimbo Freeland, guitarist Johnny James and sometime guest Mars Williams (Psychedelic Furs)1999 I was approached to provide a track for a world-wide CD compilation of fretless guitarists called “Unfretted.”  My Quatar (fretless picollo bass) track featured frog and nature sounds from our Springville home at the time. 

2000 became string director at the Nichols Middle School until 2002 

2000-2002 Played Bass with WNY event band “Joyryde” with keyboardist Mike Lacki, guitarist Charlie O’Neal, vocalist Jauna Sheame and various drummers. 

2001 My educational book “Fiddle Jam, a way-cool easy way to learn how to improvise!” though initially self published, got picked up by Hal Leonard Corporation and is still distributed worldwide by them. The great cover art was done by Bob Campbell (Emery Nash Band) at Campbell Associates.  See www.fiddlejam.com and www.fiddlejaminstitute.com. 

The Fiddle Jam book opened other doors for me in the then new “alternative strings” wave that was happening in the education world, becoming a contributor to Strings magazine and the Mel Bay online magazine, running improvisation sessions at local, regional and national teaching conferences to teach the teachers how to teach jamming.  I also began doing “Fiddle Jam Clinics” at many area schools, taking over the orchestra for the day and getting all the string kids to improvise and play blues and rock n roll on their bowed string instruments. My Fiddle Jam Clinic work expanded to nation wide sometimes as far as Kansas and California. 

2002 performed in drummer Bobby Previte’s (Charlie Hunter, John Zorn and others) “Voodoo Orchestra West” recreating Miles Davis’s historical “Bitches Brew” album live, where Bobby, in an unusual move, tapped my violin to be the “horn section” leader. 

2003 Had a chapter written about my educational efforts in the book “Alternative Strings” by Julie Lyon Leiberman[2] 

2003 was a guest speaker/presenter at the American String Teacher National Conference in Dallas, TX. Here I got to hear and meet the great electric violinist Tracy Silverman, who encouraged me to try the 1/2 sized bows that I’ve favored ever since. 

2003 Was tapped to be the live bassist for fellow hall of famer Maria Sebastian’s “In From the Cold” project with drummer Gary Mallabar (Stan and the Ravens, Steve Miller Band, Bonnie Raiit, Eddie Money, others) and guitarist Jack Sherman (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan). 

1998 teamed up with Doug Yeomans (Stan and the Ravens, North American Rock Guitar Competition winner) forming “The Stringmen” and became teaching artists for Young Audiences of Western New York, doing countless school shows about The Erie Canal, String instruments, and Doug’s Blues to Bluegrass curriculum. 

1999 did a brief appearance as Buffalo Sabres “Fiddle Man!” with my painted zydeco fiddle and matching suit, and was seen on ESPN in their advertisements. 

2000-2002 Did many children’t shows with folk musician and educator “Ms Roz,” (Magorian) that included saxophonist Dr. Jazz (Brian Bower), and blues guitarist John Brady. 

2003 Emery Nash started their Blue Cactus Coffeehouse concert series in East Aurora, bringing in guest artists from regional and overseas talent, including Glen McClure of the McClure Artists Guild, who I also started performing with through Young Audiences of Rochester on Glen’s “Great Garbage Concert” program, Music from Around the World, and other programs, with Glen, Susan Rozler (Sid Winkler Trio) and others.  I learn a lot about how to control an assembly hall of 3rd graders from the master Glen! 

2003 became a D’Addario Strings endorsing Artist 

2004 I wrote a Fiddle Jam follow-up book of etudes called “Rock n Blues Fiddle Jam A-Toodz” that teaches riff and tricks to play to the modern non-Classical styles. This is available as a digital download at www.fiddlejaminstitute.com. 

1995-2005 though I was blessed to be a busy “music lifer” as I would later be called, this lifestyle, though fulfilling creatively, did not always lead to personal balance (burnout) nor always left my family is good financial stead and I began moonlighting in many odd jobs that included house painter, roofer, ski lift operator at Kissing Bridge, Handyman, school bus driver (Springville and Orchard Park schools) and injection mold operator at PM Plastics in Orchard Park. 

2004 proudly inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame! 

2005 joined Babik after doing a wedding gig with guitarist Stuart Fuchs booked through Kevin Obrien’s String Brothers organization.  Stuart invited me to sit in at their weekly gig at Allen St Hardware.  My involvement in this group clicked and soon we were packing clubs and traveling throughout the Northeast, and for some reason, getting more press than most local bands dream of.  This band included guitarist/vocalist Josh Assad and bassist Kevin Obrien with often guest Dr Jazz (Brian Bower) on clarinet. 

Babik’s successes culminated in a gig with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 doing a specially arranged show (by orchestral rock arranger/producer Brent Havens) of Django Reinhardt’s music.  We played with the BPO two more times after this as well as with the Amherst and Orchard Park Symphonies. Babik also got featured internationally on Public Radio International (PRI)  Babik was also tapped to play Django Reinhardt’s 100th birthday celebration in New York City with Stephan Wrembel (on Rolling Stones 100 greatest guitarists list). 

On that NYC trip I got a call from friend Bob Campbell who told me that his son Chris, one of my star bass students at Hamburg Music Center in past years, who was now working as Chick Corea’s road manager, was also in NYC for the rehearsals of “Return to Forever IV” that included my idol, electric violin pioneer Jean Luc Ponty.  They graciously let me sit in the room as a wallflower during their rehearsal for an upcoming tour.  Jean Luc seemed genuinely pleased that I had been inspired by him. 


Florida Years: 

2008 my wife Elizabeth and I tried a Florida winter in our RV with Buffalo friends, in which her health issues were improved and we decided to stay and give it a go.  While there I played regularly with famed Olympic Runner and ESPN commentator Marty Liquori’s Gypsy Jazz group Hot Club DeVille, which included YoYoMa’s Silk Road Ensemble accordionist Michael Ward-Bergman.  I also gigged with Americana band Quartermoon, and did many local jazz gigs.  The music scene in Gainesville, FL is not what the Buffalo scene was, so I also took a day-job as director of education and studio engineer for Palatka Music Center, and also taught for Gainesville’s Academy of Music and Art, and sometimes lectured at the University of Florida for music and cultural studies classes.  I later became the education manager at Gainesville’s Guitar Center and a repair tech.  I also sometimes gigged with Buffalo transplant and BMHoF’er Tony Scozarro (Gamalon, The Stickmen) in the St Augustine, FL area.

2011 by Marty Liquori’s business advice, I started my online school called the Fiddle Jam Institute. www.fiddlejaminstitute.com which gives me a world-wide reach for my violin-oriented educational efforts.  Besides a general genre-bending improvisational approach where members can learn from a Library of lessons. I also offer specific stand-alone courses like “Bucket List Fiddle Jam” (adult beginning violin), “Blues Violin,” “Music Mechanics 101” and others. 

2011 we sadly lost my sister Kathleen Perry (Them Jazz Beards, BPO sub, Eastman School of Music and Miami University graduate, Rochester School of the Arts teacher). 

iFiddle Magazine: I’ve been featured multiple times as a contributor to “iFiddle Magazine” issues from Fall 2014 up until Summer 2021, being the cover story for issue number 6. 2014 “Conflation” CD release. My nephew, drummer, producer (2022 BMHoF-er) Darrel Nutt (Forester Sisters, AC/DC, GooGoo Dolls, Elliot Randal) helped me produce an electronica influenced album that we released on his Translucent Records LabelAvailable on iTunes. 

2018 I began re-experimenting with a better way to amplify a bowed string instrument, which I feel is still in its developmental infancy compared to the electric guitar.  I have a patent pending on a double pickup system for electric violin and have started a company called “Outlaw Fiddle” to begin producing instruments that use this new technology.  www.outlawfiddle.com 

Family as of this writing: Married to Elizabeth, 3 children, 8 grand children, soon to be 9 great-grand children!

Outside of music interests: motorcycles, stunt kites, foraging, metaphysics, martial arts, visual arts, ski/snowboard, hang gliding.

More Music Coming!!