I have been in music my whole life. My mother was a piano teacher, a famous contralto gospelsinger and the choir director for our Methodist church. My father sang baritone in church choirs. I had two sisters (one has passed away) and one brother and we all had musical training in schools and at home. My younger sister went deaf at the age of three but she can still feel beats and dance and sing to the music. My brother has a classical music degree at the University of Illinois. My older sister passed away in 2000. She was a poet and had written a book The boy under the apple tree. She was also a singer and my longtime harmony partner.
I started singing in churches at the age of six (in 1950). I had a little singing group of five called "The 105's", because we lived on 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. Often we had competitions against groups from Detroit. Some of these groups became pretty famous, like The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and Sam Cooke.
I started a professional singing career in 1964 in San Francisco, California when I was in a five-man group called "The Persidioes". We did shows at the famous Fillmore West and in the audience would be famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Tower of Power and Richie Havens. We had a backup band called Sly and the Family Stone who were just starting out. Sly was just a disc jockey at that time.
In 1967, I joined the Air Force and went to Vietnam. There I joined the "Tops In Blue" (TIB) and performed around the world. TIB were the very best musicians in the US Air Force and it was my job to entertain the troops as the lead vocalist in a group of seven singers.
In 1975, I left the military and moved to Germany and formed a group called "Pain, Passion & Surrender. We were a 16 piece band: a male singer (me, Pain), two female singers (Passion) and the band (Surrender). Four horns, two guitars, a piano, bass, drums, percussion, sound engineer and two roadies. We performed all kinds of music, such as blues, soul, funk, pop and jazz.
The blues has always been in my system and is a part of my soul. Some of my blues influences are Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Al Green, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, B.B. King and Johnny Taylor. In the past three years, I have developed an appreciation for others types of blues, like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa.
In 1984, I retired from the music business to concentrate on raising my four children and continuing my formal education.
Right now I am active in various bands. My bluesband Blue Friday presents a mixture of the blues influences I mentioned. Rockgroup Gimmick, which I sang in, really challenged my creativity. And the funkcombo I started, called Mellow Chaos, allows me to sing the music in "real time grooves". I also perform solo on weddings and parties.
But my main inspiration is you, the audience, the generator of my engine. I really hope to perform for you one day. I promise to bring the best music I can to and for you.
Sincerly,
Benjamin J. Sims |
