![]() ![]() He went on to play with more Buffalo bands, including Billy Quad & the Rockitts, Baby Huey & the Relatives (with the late Nick Salamone) and the Coincidentals. Haskell spent about a year with Stan & the Ravens before moving on to join the Jesters, at a that point a more high profile gig (and who had a history intertwined with the Rocking Rebels). After we had been in her employ for a spell I remember she bought herself a brand new shiny midnight blue Buick Riviera.” Stan always referred to us as the “Volume Kings.” Helen wasn’t too delighted with the volume we achieved, but that was always tempered by the noise of her cash register ringing. “Helen always insisted we cracked her huge front Thermopane picture window behind bandstand with our sheer volume. From where I stood when I was on the stage Helen and her girlfriend tending bar on the other side were often hidden from view. “From the street outside looking through the stage window we could see the backs of our Fender amps, Stan’s Wurlitzer electric piano and Sandy’s drums. The front windows on both sides of the front entrance were rather large pieces of pane glass, probably Thermopane. “The floors were wooden and the stage was elevated a foot and half or so and located in the dining room front window area. To the left was a sort of dining room with wooden booths running the entire length along the far left wall. “The building was darkly painted as I recall and had a long bar on the right as you entered. In Buffalo, Helen Morton was the owner of a small corner bar on Delavan Avenue called The Hideaway,” Haskell said. “He had us all buy black mohair suits to match his,” said Haskell. Like them, he required the Ravens to buy matching suits. Szelest had learned from his time with the Hawks. Haskell recalls Szelest lashing out and kicking drummer Sandy Konikoff’s bass drum during some of the more driving rock ’n’ rollers.Īlso in the band was Chuck McCormick, a James Burton-styled guitarist. What he also did was play with a ferocious intensity. ![]() I mean, he played and he read classical charts. ![]() “He didn’t do anything terribly musically complicated, but the guy was a classical musician. “‘Hallelujah, I Love Her So’ was one of his most requested, and that was one of his most highly arranged,” Haskell said. In a recent interview, Haskell said the repertoire was blues - with a heavy emphasis on Ray Charles. Haskell replaced Payne (another Hawkins’ alum) and found himself playing with the Ravens at the Hideway, another East Side haunt. Szelest had left an impression on the Hawks’ Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and especially Rick Danko, the future core of The Band. But he found music to be a full-time job, playing at places like Tom & Jerry’s (which he describes as “kind of a den of iniquity” on Washington Street behind the Courier Express newspaper … but the, he says, “they were all dens of iniquity it’s just that T&J’s was my introduction to Buffalo saloons in the early ’60s and probably made a larger and lasting impression in that regard on me) and eventually Lulu Belle’s on Best Street.Īt the time, Szelest was still just a 19-year-old, but he had returned from his first stint playing piano with Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks. Haskell, an Elmira native, got out of the Navy and moved to Buffalo to go to UB. Stan & the Ravens: Stan Szelest, Chuck McCormick, Peter Haskell and Sandy Konikoff. ![]()
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