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Rick Tedesco, Born December 2nd 1960. Began playing guitar at age 9 as well as saxophone and a brief stint with the violin. In the early 70's things started to change and Glam Rock grabbed Rick's attention with both hands. British bands influenced his playing and approach to music in general. One huge influence was Mick Ronson, David Bowie's guitarist in the Ziggy Stardust era of his career. Rick owns some of Mick's musical gear including the Les Paul Custom and 200 watt Marshall Major he played with Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Bob Dylan and on his solo albums.
Rick formed his first band in 1974 with neighbor Doug Scofield on vocals and school mate Kenny Koepple on drums. "Basically we played the Rolling Stones and David Bowie songs till our moms were ready to kill us" said Rick. Rick then joined up with school mates Mike Post and Glen Pulverari and Peter McGarry and his brother Kevin McGarry in a band called Crossroads. After several member changes the band consisted of Mike Post on bass, Mike Massachelli on guitar, Rick Tedesco on guitar, Mike Bednar on vocals and Rick Daskam on drums. The band had minimal success playing local bars and school dances but enthusiasm died out and by 1978 Rick was looking for a band again.
Working still with Mike Post, Rick formed a new band with Mike Bednar on vocals, Rick on guitar, Mike Post on bass, Jeff Weiss on Keyboards and new found drummer Russ Wilson. "This band never even made it to picking out a name" said Rick "but one thing it did do was bring the best damn drummer I have ever worked with into the picture".
Rick and Russ then started a band called Explorer, named after the Gibson guitar and began rehearsing with Larry Booth, an amazing bass player that Rick had found and Kevin McGarry on vocals. This band went on for about a year or so before Rick was offered the lead guitar spot in a band called Wizard. Wanting to still work with Russ made it hard for Rick to leave but Wizard was already pretty establish and had a big PA etc... all the important things you need! As luck would have it, shortly after joining the band, the Drummer John Abrams quit and along with Mark Swan on Bass and Terry Johansen on rhythm guitar, Rick brought Russ in on drums and the dynamic duo were together again. Wizard went on for about a year and it's breakup left Rick looking for another band.
One day out of the blue, Joe Mangiamelli, a bass player called Rick to offer him the lead guitar spot in a band called Ransom. Rick jumped at the chance and landed a gig that lasted for 3 years. This band fronted by Sean McGee on vocals, Ron Miguel on keys, Paul Hoffman on drums and Joe Mangiamelli on bass had Rick playing 5 nights a week in the tri state areas best clubs. "Things were coming to an end with Ransom", Rick recalls, " It was just not fun anymore, we were just tired up being up all night, drinking and carrying on". About this time Rick landed a gig with Casablanca recording artist "The Edge". The band was gearing up for a second record and was just what Rick needed to get out of the clubs and into something creative.
The Edge was fronted by Hube Davis who sang and played guitar, Curt Ardnt on bass and John Roulette on drums and Rick on lead guitar. This band lasted about 6 months as they worked up a few demos that did not get much interest. This was the winter of 1982 and things were getting tougher around Connecticut as bars were closing as the drinking age was raised. It was almost time to move on.
Rick took a gig with the cover band, "Cut Loose" which was fronted by Mike Walsh, Dave Rogers on keys, Dave Walker on bass and Ron Blessey on drums. It was a fun band but soon turned south as inter band conflicts began to brew. OK, one more band but this is the last chance!
Rick started his own band, "Targa" with all new members. Jeff Drucker on keys, Dave Bond on drums, Andrea Materi on vocals and Tony Pasqualoni on bass. This was a great band that lasted about 9 months until the band truck was broken into and the majority of equipment was stolen. That does it! I am outa here!
New Years Eve 1983/84 Rick moved to NYC and started all over. Searching through the "Village Voice" he found a band called "Station FM" that had just done a demo at the Hit Factory. The had great songs, connections and management. Things were going well. Joe Keene on vocals, Paul Jay on rhythm guitar, John Trumpbour on drums and Rick on lead guitar. This band went on for about a year when Joe Keene left. He was replace with Joel Berliner and the band changed it's name to "The Heat". "We played all over the city and it was a lot of fun but it just wasn't going anywhere" said Rick. Rick and Joel one night out on the town both decided to quit the band. Rick did continue to record solo material with the bands manager Steve Appel but when the contracts were presented, things soon fell apart. Steve's brother Mike Appel was Bruce Springsteen's manager for years... it was one of the most costly legal separations in music history... back to the "Village Voice"!
Rick soon found a band called "Darrah" fronted by Mark Darrah on lead vocals and guitars, TC on drums and Vinnie Sculpizi on bass. This band was managed by Susan Sheehan of Twin Vision Management. Susan and Mark had a relationship other than business as well and when that ended, so did the band. Rick did get along well with Susan so Rick and Vinnie started a new band called "Rein". Soon after, Vinnie left and what seemed like a never ending stream of musicians coming and going, the band finally settled on Rick Berry on Drums, Scott Seppy on Bass, Chris Ioretti on guitar and Rick on guitar and vocals. Being the singer, sole writer, lead guitarist and babysitter proved to be too much hard work. After a year or so of holding the band together, Rick decided to let go and joined an established band on Long Island called "Toys" as well as doing several other projects here and there. He was also in the house band at a club called the 5's at 555 W 57th st. This was a open jam night fronted by Sirius Trixon and allowed Rick to play with several happening musicians that were in the city at any given point. He played with guys from Billy Idol, Billy Squire, and Blondie to name but a few.
Toy's was an interesting concept in that it was made up of 4 girls and 2 guys. It didn't seem to matter who the girls were as long as there were 4. Nadine Arel on keys, Debby Bionchi on drums, Sue Terwillenger on guitar, Vicky Rosario on vocals, Rick on guitar and John Mayer on bass. Ronnie Crooks replaced Sue on guitar and another girl replaced Nadine on keys. The band played every once in a while, all original material and rarely practiced so it was always an adventure. Rick recalls, "I got a call from John saying "wanna play in Puerto Rico"? I said sure, when? He said "Tuesday, we leave Sunday"... it was the Friday before and we had not played together in months! I said "how long do we have to play"? He said "3 one hour sets". I said "we only have a 45 minute original set, what are we going to do"? He said... "lets rehearse tomorrow and figure it out". "We did go and play" said Rick..."I have not talked to any of them since the plane landed at JFK". "I need a break".
1989-1992...Rick takes some time off to concentrate on the film industry. From the late 80's to the mid 90's Rick works on several feature films shooting in the NYC area as a coordinator in the location department. He works on films like The Godfather 3, Home alone 2, Presumed Innocent, Midnight Run, Sea of Love and Jacobs Ladder to name a few.
1993 at a 4th of July picnic Rick bumps into his old friend Russ Wilson and the 2 start talking. Next thing they knew, they were playing together in a band again...they went a year or so trying to find the right guys and finally ended up with a band called "The Implants". John Missalitis on keys and vocals, Russ Wilson on drums, Nick Siriani on bass and Rick on guitar and vocals. "This was a really good band" recalls Rick. "Excellent vocals, though the songs were a little dated. We were sounding a bit classic rock in a grunge world". Nick started to have some major back problems and was scheduled for surgery when longtime friend and amazing bassist Larry Booth came back into the picture. "Russ, Larry and myself were playing together as kids and now here we were years later doing it all over again". We played for about 6 months and John ended up moving to Arizona ending the "Implants" plan for world domination. Sadly this was the last time Rick and Larry and Russ would work together as Larry passed away quite unexpectedly a short time later.
From 1994 until 2004 Rick ended up playing with the boys from "Cut Loose" again only this time they were known as "Future Tense". The line up was still Mike Walsh, Dave Walker and Dave Rogers but drummer Ed Lange was in and Paulette Barnes was also singing. When Ed announced he was leaving, Rick said don't worry guys, I know a drummer. Russ Wilson to the rescue! Rick and Russ once again work together. After several years of being in and out of Future Tense the grind of playing cover songs that left no room for creativity began to take it's toll. The band decided to change directions and go to a softer rhythm and blues type of thing and Rick being a rock player was no longer the man for the job.
Around 1995 Rick met veteran rocker and front man supreme, Ian Hunter. Ian was in the process of getting some demos together and redoing his studio. Rick jumped in with both feet and the 2 became fast friends. "Ian has been great in so many ways" said Rick. "He has introduced me to so many people and taught me so much about writing, recording and the general approach to everything musical. I can't thank him enough". At some point during the BDS writing sessions for the "Back to Hell" album, Ian started showing up and lending a hand. About 3 weeks into it, Ian took Rick along and introduced him to Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Joe Bouchard. Rick helped Neal get his studio together so they could properly record the writing sessions. Rick and Dennis hit it off as well and in 2004 when Rick was putting his own studio together he approached Dennis to record some stuff to get the bugs out of the new studio. "Dennis and I were on our way back from seeing Ian play at "The Chance" in Poughkeepsie, NY and on the ride home Rick offered to record some of Dennis's original material that had been piling up for some time. That was the beginning of the Dennis Dunaway Project!
The Dennis Dunaway Project started with Dennis, Rick and Ed Lange on drums and went on for about 3 weeks with this lineup. "We had recorded a few songs and the studio was starting to sound pretty good" said Rick. Ed called and said he could not make it to one of the sessions about an hour before it was about to start and Rick once again called on Russ Wilson to save the day. "Russ showed up and I am not sure what it was" said Rick, "maybe because I was just so used to playing with him but it just started to gel. Ed is a great drummer but Russ was so familiar that is just felt right." So with Russ in place, the band started recording and writing together. The only hole was vocals. Rick did not want to sing and Dennis was having trouble on some of the songs. He sounded great on the more character driven songs like "Red Room" and "Satan's Sister" but songs that needed a more traditional lead vocal like "Home Sweet Home" just wasn't making it. The tracks were sounding great as Rick switch from guitarist to producer to engineer to everything else. We really needed a vocal that was going to raise the track up and not sit in the track. Rick called local singer Doug Palmer who was a great vocalist to come in and lay down some tracks. " We were really happy with Doug as a singer but we could not get him in the studio enough times to make it work" said Rick. "He was in 3 other bands and remodeling his house and getting married. His plate was just way too full". Rick then called on Joe Lynn Turner to see if he could put that together. Joe was really impressed with the tracks but his time was also limited as he was leaving for Japan for a month then recording in LA for another month. We both agreed that the Dennis Dunaway project needed to press on and find a lead vocalist that had a great voice, had the time and really wanted to do it. Rick and Dennis were brainstorming and in comes Rick's wife Stephanie who says, "why don't you get that guy Ed that played that benefit with you last year". That was the final piece of the puzzle. Rick called Ed and got him down and the first thing they worked on was Kandahar. Ed knocked it right out of the park. Finally we had it all together and the sessions began to get better and better. Ian Hunter started popping in from time to time and really came up with some great ideas for background vocal parts, etc. Rick had just finished working with Ian on his "Shrunken Heads" album in the studio so Ian felt like helping back. "He is really great that way", said Rick. As the songs became finished Rick decided he wanted to use the same studio Ian used to mix as the equipment was better and a fresh set of ears is always welcome at this point. It was off to A Pawling Studio in Pawling NY and the ears belonged to engineer extraordinaire, "Pete Moshay". "Working with Pete was great", said Rick. "You tell him what you want and within minutes, you got it". The mixing sessions took about 10 days and the final product " Bones From The Yard" was complete.