The COVID-19 pandemic forced performers off stages across the globe. Many of them, including Steve Gaspár, took that time to forge ahead with new projects.
Seated at the piano in his Connecticut home, Mr. Gaspár wrote the songs that would make up most of The Hollywood Allstars first EP, “Field of Grace,” released last year. In 2018, after decades as a hired gun for stage and studio work for A-listers from B.B. King to James Brown, he assembled The Hollywood Allstars, a supergroup of musicians he admires. Before the pandemic, the group attracted a following in the keyboard player’s home state. Now, they are vying to make a mark throughout the tri-state area.
The rhythm and blues band will take the stage at The Suffolk in downtown Riverhead Friday. In addition to the five tracks off their record, the 13-piece group — Mr. Gaspár on the Hammond organ, lead vocalists Tommy Bowes and Tiffany T’Zelle, backup singers Melanie Bennett and Billy Genuario, guitarist Andy Abel, bassist Scott Spray, drummer Tony Cintron, percussionist Eddie Torres and The Uptown Horns — comprised of saxophonists Crispin Cioe and Dan Ciprain, trombone player Bob Funk and trumpet player John Martin — will perform hits from the various artists whose names bolster their resumes.
Collectively, these Allstars have played on hundreds of recordings and toured with world-renowned headliners throughout their careers. Mr. Spray alone has played on over 750 albums, most notably working with Johnny and Edgar Winter, while The Uptown Horns have shared the stage with The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt and Robert Plant.
While he enjoys playing live, Mr. Gaspár said he prefers hunkering down for studio sessions, whether it’s painstakingly writing and recording his parts for “Field of Grace ,” or welcoming original KISS drummer Peter Criss into his parent’s basement, where the drummer set up his stadium-ready drum kit and rehearsed new solo material more than 30 years ago.
“I’m a bit of a perfectionist and a bit of a control freak,” Mr. Gaspár explained. “In the studio I’m able to control everything a lot more than I can when it’s live. When you’re live your music goes out into the audience and it’s done, it’s over.”
More often than not, Mr. Gaspár said he comes up with songs through noodling at the piano in search of a musical idea.
“You know, a lot of songwriters say that we’re not so much writers as we are conduits,” he said. “Not to sound cliche or corny, but I do find that to be true many times when I’m in my noodling process, these ideas start to just flow through me.”
In the case of the title track off The Hollywood Allstars new release, the lyrics, which trace a breakup, came to him first.
“In the beginning of the song, you’re at the beginning of a relationship where everything is wonderful and you can’t get enough of each other,” he said. “Little by little, you start to see the flaws come through in a relationship. By the time that guitar solo comes in, the relationship is falling apart and exploding.”
“Field of Grace” boasts one cover The Hollywood Allstars will perform live at The Suffolk: James Brown’s “Living in America,” a hit which won the Godfather of Soul a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1987. Charlie Midnight, one of the song’s two writers and a fan of The Hollywood Allstars, reached out to Mr. Gaspár and encouraged him to cover the track. The song seemed like a no-brainer to the keyboard player, especially considering The Uptown Horns played on the original James Brown recording.
“Covering a James Brown song is no small feat,” Mr. Gaspár said. “You got to be very careful … he’s got such a distinctive feel to his records, a cover could come off sounding really corny. Before I even presented the finished master to [the record label], I sent it to Charlie to get his stamp of approval. He called me up and said, ‘Steve, I got to tell you, I love it.’ ”
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