Meet
the Musicians
Roger
Ceresi (Vocalist)

Roger
Ceresis desire to express
himself through the arts first emerged at the young
age of five. Growing up in the projects was not easy
and Roger found that dreaming about becoming a performer
helped him to escape the difficulties of that period
of his life.
Thankfully,
Rogers saving grace was his grandparents love.
At the age of ten, his grandparents took him from his
unhealthy environment and brought him into their loving,
nurturing home to live, which Roger can only describe
as "heaven". Here he now was encouraged to
turn his dreams into reality.
The
first instrument he attempted to play in 4th grade was
trumpet, which was very soon replaced by drums. The
drums were an instrument on which Roger could truly
excel giving him an outlet to release his spirit in
a powerful and energetic fashion. He took drum lessons
with several great drummers: Rocco Ruggiano, Arti
Cabral and the world renown, Allan Dawson.
He majored in classical piano and voice at Rhode Island
College where he was offered a scholarship in classical
voice, He then went to Berklee College of Music where
he majored in piano and arranging & composition.
Roger went on to play drums for many years in rock,
jazz, horn and show bands.
When
Roger played for a period of time in a show band, he
used to come out front and do an Elvis impersonation.
The audiences went crazy. That's when he realized that
for him fronting a band was where he felt most alive.
From that point on Roger never looked back. He began
studying voice with Dante Pavone in Boston who
tutored artists such as Michael Jackson, Diana Ross
and Steven Tyler and then in Los Angeles
with Seth Riggs who taught all the musical greats.
Roger
fronted a very successful Rock & Roll band called
"The Breakers" in Boston in the late 70's
to early 80's. They played up and down the East Coast,
including Boston, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire
& Maine. They played the infamous Rat Skeller in
Boston at the same time "The Cars" and "Aerosmith"
performed there. Some of these accomplishments are recounted
in the new book From Rags to Riches to Faith
by Daniel W. Berthelette. A copy of this book
can be purchased here.
Roger
played with two other bands in the 70s: "Fancy
Colors" and "The BrotherHood Band". He
toured cross country and in Canada, first doing a tribute
to Elvis with "Fancy Colors", back when doing
tributes was not popular. They were ahead of the times!.
In
the early 80's, Roger moved to California and fronted
an original rock band called "Good Thunder"
which performed thoughout Los Angeles. He also made
guest appearances with a well-known New Age band called
"Freeway Philharmonic". He did extensive studio
work singing on video and movie sound tracks. He also
studied acting at the well-known Santa Monica Playhouse
and went on to perform roles in plays and a comedy film.
Roger eventually moved back to Rhode Island where he
started to sing with R&B horn-bands.
He
began fronting a band from Massachusetts called "The
Kidds". The group was renamed "Roger Ceresi
& the Kidds" and later renamed "Roger
Ceresi & the Rockin' Soul Horns". They performed
successfully throughout the New England area for 7 years.
During this time, Roger co-wrote the group's infamous
CD entitled Don't Take Away the Night.
Roger
eventually moved on to form his current band, "Roger
Ceresi's All Starz". Backed by a stage full of
incredible musicians, each a star in his own right,
Roger leads this horn-driven band with all of his soul.
Roger is an engaging performer who draws from all his
life experiences to create a powerful, high-energy performance
filled with passion, excitement and pure unadulterated
fun! Audiences are immediately swept up by his energy
and enthusiasm. But, like any other great performer,
he knows that without a great group backing him up,
it wouldn't be the same. To that end, Roger says "this
is the best group of guys I've ever performed with,
hands down no doubt! I love this band. I have found
my home and I'm loving it!"
NEW!!
Listen to the studio version of "Sound of Silence"
here, sung by
none other than Roger Ceresi, recorded in 2018!
He also performed it live with the Summer Pops Orchestra
in 2018.
Barry
Fleischer (Saxophone)
Barry
Fleischer, tenor, Alto, baritone
saxophone; flute, Clarinet - from New Haven CT; has
been playing professionally since the age of 14. Studied
music with private teachers, and attended Julius Hart
School of Music Summer Program, Choate Summer Music
Program under the direction of Trombonist and Woody
Herman almunis Phil Wilson, University of Bridgeport,
Music Education Program. While playing in the Duke Ellington
Fellowship Orchestra at Yale University, under the direction
of Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, of
the Mitchell Ruff duo, he was a featured solo artist
with such jazz notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Slam
Stewart, Benny Carter, Clark Terry,
Earl Warren, Dick Katz, Oliver Jackson,
Peck Morrison, Bo Diddley, and the Mitchell
Ruff duo. Barry has been an active and visible part
of the Boston Music Scene since moving from New York
City in 1982. In the early 1990's he was leader of his
own instrumental quartet, " Swing House".
His
music has been described as an authentic, jump blues
style, with all the energy and drive reminiscent of
the late 1940's and early 1950's saxophonists. His unique
and warm tone can be heard with many popular Boston
bands. He has recorded three albums on Rounder Records
with Michelle Wilson. He is currently a member of the
"Sweet Willy and the Continental Walk"
and Roger Ceresi's All Starz.
Brad
Kleyla (Trombone)
Brad
Kleyla is a freelance trombonist,
vocalist, and recording engineer in the Southern New
England area. He began studying trombone at the age
of ten, and went on to study trombone performance at
Rhode Island College. In 2010, Brad transferred to DePaul
University in Chicago where he obtained a degree in
sound recording technology. While at the DePaul University
School of Music, Brad studied trombone and euphonium
under Mark Fisher, Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra,
and Charlie Vernon, principal bass trombonist
of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Brad is currently
the trombone instructor at Woonsocket High School and
Rick's Music in Cumberland. He also maintains a private
music studio. In addition to the RC Allstarz, Brad plays
trombone with the Narragansett Bay Symphony Orchestra
and holds the tenor section leader position at Grace
Church in Providence. He frequently performs in big
bands, musicals, and chamber concerts around New England.
Joey
Sullivan (Drums)
Joey
Sullivan started playing drums
when he was just eight years old but didn't take it
seriously until he saw Ringo Starr play on the Ed Sullivan
Show. He's been a die hard drummer ever since. Joey's
first "paying gigs" were with rock-n-roll
bands while still in high school. After high school
he joined his father's jazz band. His dad was an upright
bass player with many contacts and he got Joey started
in the "business". Joey played with many types
of bands during this period: Jazz bands, Rock-n-Roll
bands, a Las Vegas style show band, a Funk band, a Tijuana
Brass tribute band and even a Dixieland band.
Joey became a bandleader when he formed his own rock-nroll
band called the "Rockin' Midnites" which he
kept working full time for seven years. When it disbanded
he took a year off from the music business. During this
time he moved back to his birthplace of Newport, RI.
It wasn't long before he missed playing music so he
joined a Rockin' band called "Little Sister"
but he couldn't help noticing the abundance of blues
bands active in RI. Years ago Joey had a friend who
played with James Cotton and his friend was having so
much fun that it left a favorable impression on him.
Joey started free-lancing with local blues groups and
eventually joined "Blueswagon" and then "Killer
Kane & the Blue F.O.'s". Joey played with the
"Chris Fitz Band" for two and a half years
and appears on Chris' album entitled "This Is My
Church". Joey also played with "Rick Russell"
"Fatwall Jack" "Two Bones and a Pick"
"The Matthew Stubbs Band" "Stovall Brown"
"Cheryl Arena" "Tom Enright" "Loaded
Dice" and "The Doug James All Stars".
Joey currently performs with "Roger Ceresi's All
Starz". He also has his own rock-n-roll band, with
All Starz band mate Rob Nelson, called "JoJoMiMa".
When not appearing with Roger, Joey continues to free-lance
and can be seen with "Gary 'Guitar' Gramolini,
The Mojo Kings and Jason James & the PsycoBilly
Cadillac to name a few. Lastly, Joey performs traditional
Irish music with a group named "Spraoi" (pronounced
Spree). Spraoi is based in Dublin, Ireland and Joey
appears with them in Ireland as well as in the good
old U.S.A.
Okay,
why "Leather Lungs"? John's brother Pete told
him that he should use the nickname because a lot of
people who play blues music have them, and this is a
name which a newspaper gave him a couple of years ago.
He studied physics in college and works days as a contract
software engineer. He took private trumpet lessons in
high school for years from a wonderful man named Nelson
Balsamo, and played trumpet as often as he could.
John loves performing for people and loves to see them
enjoy and be uplifted by good music. Over the past few
years he has worked as a musician in the New England
region.
Some
of the people/groups he has played with are: Nick
Curran, Roomful of Blues, Duke Robillard, Sugar Ray
Norcia (Great singer with the famous Roomful of
Blues band for many years), Loaded Dice w/Danny
Vitale (Swing, jump blues group with many former
Roomful of Blues members), K.D. Bell (R&B,
Funk and Blues music), The Movers (Winners of
the 1995 Harper's Ferry Battle of the Blues Bands and
the 1995 12th Annual International Blues Talent Competition
in Memphis, TN), Ibrahima Camara (Senegalese
Talking Drum Master, African Pop Music; recorded on
his release, "Sama Yie", which won the Boston
Music Award, International category in 1993), Concord
Band (Community band concerts and solo work), Luther
"Guitar, Jr." Johnson (great Chicago-style
blues), Hot Tamale Brass Band, Mickey Bones
(marching brass band modeled after the great street
bands of the city of New Orleans), Clarence "Gatemouth"
Brown, Eric "Two Scoops" Moore
(recorded with him on his 1996 release, "Big Buffet"),
Chris "Stovall" Brown, Jay Place,
Matt Woodburn and the Kat 'N' the Hat Band,
Scott Shetler, "Sax" Gordon Beadle,
Charlie Hunt & Search Party, and last, but
not least, Phil Wilson.
Matt
McCabe (Piano)
Matt
McCabe is a seasoned and nationally-known
Jazz piano player who has played on the same bill with
many Jazz greats including B.B. King, Muddy Waters,
Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrrison, James Brown, Willie Nelson,
the Neville Brothers, the Blues Brothers and more. His
skill and style are a treat for any music lover because
he seems to merge with the piano while playing standards,
blues and the boogie classics.
Music
came to McCabe early on and naturally. One of nine children
born to Irish parents, McCabe picked up the piano almost
by osmosis. His father, an English professor at Tufts,
and his older brother were into Jazz, but unlike his
siblings, he wasn’t interested in lessons and picked
up piano mostly by ear.
Matt
has been playing blues piano for over 30 years and has
toured extensively with many of the music greats such
as Anson Funderburg, Sam Myers, Roomful of Blues,
Sugar Ray Norcia, and Duke Robillard. Some
of the artists he has performed with are Stevie Ray
Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Ruth Brown, The Fabulous Thunderbirds,
Albert Collins, Boz Scaggs, Laverne Baker, Huey Lewis
and the News, Robert Lockwood, Junior Wells, Gatemouth
Brown, Big Joe Turner, Pam Tillis, Big Jay McNeely,
Otis Rush, Bruce Willis, Pinetop Perkins, Jay McShann,
Sam Meyers, Marcia Ball, Little Milton, Earl King, Jimmie
Rogers, Donovan, Maria Muldaur, Herb Ellis, Matt Murphy,
Joe Huston, Nappy Brown, and Delbert McClinton.
His film credits include “China Moon” with Ed Harris
and Madeline Stowe and “Honeydripper” with Danny
Glover. See his discography here.Other
credits are listed here.
Papa
Dick Souza (Upright Bass and Electric Bass)
Papa
Dick Souza has been an active
player since the 50's, a member of rock n' roll's first
generation. He played with Albi and the Spellbinders
from the late 60's to the early 70's and was in the
back up band for Percy Sledge at Foxwoods. After
a two-year fight with throat cancer, he came back to
play again in 1992 and has not stopped since then. He
has also played with Back Issue, The Funk
Monks, Acme Trucking Company, The Baker
Brothers, Lisa Marie and "All Shook Up",
Fat Wall Jack, and Smoke Stack Lightning."Dick
is a 'Solid as a Rock Bass Player' and lays it down
in very musical and thought-out-well executed bass patterns",
says Roger.
Rob
Nelson (Guitar)
Rob
Nelson has been playing in
bands in the New England area since 1968. These bands
include the Backslap Blues Band, Stovall Brown, Blue
Lights, Louis Camp, The Heptones (with Fatman Wilson
on vocals), Loaded Dice, Blueswagon and Sugar
Ray Norcia. He has also done several tours as the
guitar player for Roomful of Blues. As a member
of these bands, he toured extensively throughout the
U.S., Europe, Canada and the West Indies.
Prestige
gigs include the Montreal Jazz Festival (50,000 people),
the W.C. Handy Awards in Memphis, TN, (with B.B. King--host),
Tipitina's (New Orleans), Lone Star Café (N.Y.C.),
Antone's (Austin, TX), Slim's (San Francisco), Buddy
Guy's (Chicago) and virtually every major (and minor)
blues club in North America. I've toured with Lazy Lester
(a legendary blues harp player from Baton Rouge, LA.)
for 5 years. Also toured with bluesman Wild Child Butler.
Over the years I've had the pleasure of playing with
artists like Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Glenn, Buddy Guy,
Johnny Winter, Jimmy Johnson, Joe Louis Walker, Anson
Funderburgh, Katie Webster and Coco Montoya,
etc.
Rob
has opened for just about every major blues star including
Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and recorded
with Porky Cohen, Sugar Ray Norcia, Loaded
Dice, Blueswagon and NOW the Roger Ceresi's
Rockin' All Starz.
Richard
Ribb (Bass)
Richard
Ribb (aka Rich) has performed
with a number of established bands in southern New England
including Arrow, the Shake, the Outpost Boys,
Rockin' Soul Horns, Biscuit City, the
Dick Clarks, the Mishnock All Stars, and
the Chesterfields. He brings groove-oriented
bass playing and close harmony singing skills to the
trio as well as an extensive knowledge of popular songs
from the 60s on. He continues to write and record original
songs, collaborating with many local musical colleagues
and has performed on several recordings for local and
regional acts. Check out his page at www.reverbnation.com/artist/richardribb.
Richard
Reed (Organ and Piano)
Organ
and Piano player Richard Dickie Reed
has played with Junior Walker & The
All Stars, Otis Rush, Earl King, Duke
Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Hubert Sumlin,
Roomful of Blues and many other R&B and Rock
& Roll "Greats". He was inducted into
the RI Music Hall of Fame with The Schemers.
Gary
Guitar Gramolini
Gary
Guitar Gramolini
is a founding and still active member of RIs John
Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (Rhode Island
Music Hall of Fame inductee, 2016), as well as a band
leader (Gary Guitar Gramolini and the
Grinders), and band member over 4 decades in The
Boys of Summer, The Ocean Mistics, Ken
Lyon and Tombstone, The Saw Horses, as well
as a Solo Performer/Singer/Songwriter. He and Roger
Ceresi have been performing as a Duo since 2005 and
still going strong.
Greg
Laboss
(Vocalist Extraordinaire)
Greg
"The Boss" Laboss is
a multi-instrumentalist, husband, dad, elected official,
and all-around nice guy!
Hank Walther (Piano and Hammond Organ)
Born
in Providence, RI in 1961, Hank Walther grew
up in Riverside listening to many local bands, including
Country and Blues. His father was Hank Walters, the
New England country legend, and thus Hank's influences
stretch from Floyd Domino and Floyd Cramer to Dr John
and Booker T. While in a Newport-based band, Little
Brother, in the 1980s, he opened for Roomful
of Blues; and from that moment on, hewanted to
be in the band.
He moved to Nashville in 1993 to play full time, and
he has played the Grand ol' Opry, and Farm
Aid; in Hank's case, several times with John
Conlee. Hank also worked with such major country
acts as Jim Ed Brown, Jeff Moore, and
Michael Peterson.
He moved back to Rhode Island in 1999, finally becoming
a member of Roomful of Blues for over two years,
from 2000-2002. Hank recorded on two of the band's albums,
Watch You When You Go and Live at Wolfetrap.
Since leaving Roomful of Blues, Hank toured
for over 10 years playing on cruise ships, both with
Disney Cruise Line in Florida and Norwegian
Cruise Line of America in Hawaii. After that, he
settled down with family in Riverside, joining and recording
with many local bands including Rob Nelsons Americana
band, The Robcats, and Johnny and the East
Coast Rockers. In 2020, he became a member of another
great 8-piece big-horn band, Roger Ceresi's All Starz!
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