Friday, December 4, 2009

An Interview with Bruce Sudano of Brooklyn Dreams and Alive 'n' Kickin'

Written by Joe Viglione
Friday, 24 April 2009 15:38
Album: Life And The Romantic by Bruce Sudano

BRUCE SUDANO RELEASES LIFE AND THE ROMANTICLIFE AND THE ROMANTIC

It's been 5 years since Bruce Sudano released his beautiful Rainy Day Soul album, and a year since the 2008 single, "The Sweetest Thing", was available to the public. The wait was worth it as Life And The Romantic continues the positive themes and the heartfelt lyrics. "The Sweetest Thing" features John Billings on bass guitar, Akil Thompson on electric and Bruce on vocals, keyboards, programming and acoustic guitar. It's a pleasant melody and

mellow performance as are most of the ten songs here. The title of the previous album appears as a melodramatic and introspective track 8 here, "Rainy Day Soul" perhaps some lingering inspiration from the previous work. Jeffrey Scott Willis provides some understated saxophone flavoring the piece. "Love Is A Sacrafice" features Mimi Dohler on backing vocals, a very commercial definition of love, from the artist's perspective, of course, suitable for a Barry Gibb solo disc, something the Bee Gees could've embraced in their heyday. Snippets of the lyrics are included in the eight page booklet with the rest of them available on Bruce Sudano.com

Written and produced by the industry veteran with a couple of collaboration it's impressive to hear this personality stretch off into his own direction, apart from his groups Brooklyn Dreams and Alive 'n' Kickin. As his old friend Tommy James moved into new spaces on his Hold The Fire disc, Bruce Sudano takes the listener into a dreamy arena on "Beyond Forever", a place Sade once owned all to herself. Very uplifting, captivating and radio friendly.

expert review by Joe Viglione

Bruce Sudano chats with Joe Viglione, April 23, 2009

Gemmzine: Bruce, what's the official release date on Life and The Romantic?

Bruce: Now! It takes a while coordinating all the online outlets to post a record but I think we’re about there. It’s been available on my web site for almost a month now though.

Gemmzine: Are any of the tracks, including the one entitled "Rainy Day Soul", fragments of music or inspired from your CD, Rainy Day Soul?

http://www.donna-tribute.com/summerfever/bruce/fk.jpg

Bruce: No, not really. The thing is I don’t title my CD’s until they’re about finished. Then I let the music speak to me and I get the title. So the song Rainy Day Soul on this record wasn’t in existence when my last record (which was titled Rainy Day Soul) came out. Oddly enough, I recently started writing a song called Life and the Romantic so if I finish it and like it, it could be on the next one.

Gemmzine: How long have you professionally been making music?

Bruce: Well, if you consider being professional getting paid, then I was twelve. It was a guitarist, a trumpet player and me on my accordion playing at a sweet sixteen party! I played clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan through high school and college but it wasn’t until I co-wrote with Tommy James in my late teens that I broke into the majors so to speak.

Gemmzine: Tell us about your contribution to the Tommy James hit "Ball of Fire" and the group you were in at that point in time.

Bruce: Well the way I like to tell it is my contribution to the song was the word “of”! Really I think at that point I was happy just to be in the room with Tommy and working with him. It was 1969 and he was one of the major hit makers of that era so I was a kid just soaking up as much as I could. Tommy was and is a very generous person and I’m proud to call him a friend as well as one of my mentors. I learned a lot from him about how to write a song and make a record.

Gemmzine: How did Alive And Kicking come together?

Bruce: The guys in the band were all from the neighborhood and we’d been playing together in numerous bands with different names and slightly different configurations for years. The biggest change was adding a female singer, Sandee Toder, to the mix. I’m not quite sure how that came about, it was a long time ago, but we evolved into a popular band working the major clubs at the time like Cheetah, Electric Circus, etc. Sandee’s sister in law became our manager and she somehow got Tommy to come down to the club one night and that’s how we met him.

Gemmzine: That single, "Tighter, Tighter" is one of the all-time classics and was a treat during the summer of 1970. Did the group tour, and do you have any memorable stories from the tour or the recording sessions?

http://www.donna-tribute.com/summerfever/bruce/dreams.jpg
Bruce Sudano: Yes, we did tour in fact someone recently sent me a picture of us performing at the Baltimore Civic Center in August of 1970. We also did a few TV shows like American Bandstand and Mike Douglas but generally I remember being very cocky and headstrong. We were young and I don’t think I realized what we had accomplished. After a couple of years I left the band.

http://www.donna-tribute.com/summerfever/bruce/ank.jpg

Gemmzine: Brooklyn Dreams hit in 1979 with Donna Summer on "Heaven Knows", going gold and hitting #4, even higher than the #7 "Tighter, Tighter" - when did Brooklyn Dreams form?

Bruce Sudano: Brooklyn Dreams formed in 1976. Joe, Eddie and I were long time friends and living in LA pursuing solo careers when a friend of ours from the neighborhood, Susan Munao, who was VP of Publicity at Casablanca Records encouraged us to try it as a group. I had some songs written, we wrote some more together and before we knew it signed a deal with Jimmy Ienner and Millennium Records back in New York.

Gemmzine: You've recorded with Debby Boone, Bobby Womack, Eddie Money, Martin Mull and others, and produced a variety of recordings. Are you currently active in Nashville with other artists or are you concentrating on your own music?

Bruce Sudano: I’ve been blessed to work with many talented people during my career and I always enjoy it. Lately though, I’ve been concentrating on my music but I find things go in cycles so we’ll see what the future holds. Right now I’m pretty anxious to get out and play in support of the new record so that’s my focus.

Gemmzine: How many of your children are involved in performing and recording?

Bruce Sudano:All three of my daughters can sing. In fact two of them, Mimi and Amanda Grace make appearances on Life and the Romantic. Mimi’s the mother of three so she’s not actively pursuing a career right now but she’s very gifted. Brooklyn is an actress who’s been showing up as a guest star on all the top shows, like The Unit and CSI, she was on a hit series for a couple of years, has a couple of movies in the can and is currently working on a new ABC pilot called Limelight. Amanda recently got married, sings with her husband Abner Ramirez and they call themselves JohnnySwim. Their current EP is awesome and they’re back in the studio recording while touring colleges and clubs. Be on the lookout for them, they really got the cool factor going!

Gemmzine:Will Fugitive Kind be re-released?

Bruce Sudano:I really don’t know. RCA owns the rights, so it’s really up to them.

Gemmzine:Are you going to tour and/or do television/radio behind Life And The Romantic?

Bruce Sudano: Yes, my goal with this record is to translate it onto the stage. So, I’m actively looking for those opportunities. As for radio, “It’s Her Wedding Day” is currently very high on the AC charts following in the footsteps of “The Sweetest Thing” so I’m very pleased with that and the jazz stations are picking up on “A Glass of Red and the Sunset” as well as “Beyond Forever”.

Gemmzine: How long did it take to put the new disc together?

Bruce Sudano:It takes me awhile to make a full CD because I write until I sense there’s a record there with continuity. I like my records to have a thematic tonality both musically and lyrically. So I write until I figure out where I’m going and everything I write isn’t going to fit thus it takes time. As an artist you just work until you have a sense it’s finished, when you’ve said all you have to say.

Gemmzine:With so many years between the two releases is Life And The Romantic a continuation of the lyrical themes from Rainy Day Soul or totally new inspirations?

Bruce Sudano: It’s an evolution. Mood wise there’s a similarity and there’s always a spiritual sense but lyrically I’m dealing with different issues. Rainy Day Soul was written at a time when I was in some emotional turmoil. It reflects the transition from being a parent with a house full of kids to an empty nester and the effects it had on my wife, our relationship, and me. It was an interesting time and we had to digest it and work through it. Life and the Romantic is more about navigating the responsibilities of life, learning to appreciate the journey, having faith, not being afraid and being satisfied with the simple things because they’re the most precious.

Gemmzine:What other projects are you working on?

Bruce Sudano: I see Rainy Day Soul and Life and the Romantic as two records of a trilogy. So I’ve already begun writing for the third installment. No, I don’t know what it’s about and I don’t know what it’s called but yes it may contain a new song called Life and the Romantic!

Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 May 2009 14:25