CRISPIN CIOE: THE UPTOWN HORNS AND RADIO KINGS

Crispin Cioe

Kim: You should check out Crispin Cioe's whole site! . This is the guy, along with Richard Dishman (now w/George Bedard) from RADIO KING & HIS COURT OF RHYTHM. I'm REALLY surprised you weren't hip to this incredibly popular band from Ann Arbor, MI in the early 70s... (By the way,Crispin Cioe's last name is pronounced See-Oh) Jon Campbell

Well folks we did check out Crispin's whole site! Wow! What an amazing career this sax man has going on... We did a lot of checking...

Crispin Cioe (pronounced See-o) grew up in Chicago near legendary Maxwell Street, an outdoor mall which attracted late night impromptu jam sessions by Blues greats ranging from Muddy Waters to Willie Dixon. After a brief year in New York City, his family moved to Motor City.

 "In the early '60s, Detroit was a center of rock 'n roll. Cioe's dad worked at one of the top 'rock' stations and he would spend hours looking through their record collections and hanging out in the studio while the deejays were spinning. One of the jocks also had an 'American Bandstand' type of TV show that I would hang out at with my friends." (Robin Seymour perhaps?)

Crispin does the fabulous sax solo in Living in America with James Brown....

"I knew I always wanted to be a writer, so I studied journalism at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor. After my third year of college I realized what I really wanted to do and quit with only one semester left. I spent my money on a sax and music studies at Wayne State and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. When I ran out of cash I moved back home and joined a soul band called Radio King & His Court of Rhythm."

During the glam rock era of the early '70s recalls Cioe. "A local producer liked the Radio Kings and kept booking us to open for wildly inappropriate rock acts such as Aerosmith, REO Speedwagon and The Stooges. We were a soul band in satin basketball uniforms playing before a rock crowd of 3000. The promoter thought offering a "sacrificial lamb" made the crowd appreciate the headliner just that much more. Being regularly booed off the stage was unbelievably brutal.

"One time we opened for the New York Dolls. David Johansen was watching us get pummeled by the audience from the side of the stage. As we abandoned the stage he said with this burning cigarette hanging from his mouth 'Tough luck, kid ….' The funny thing is, 8 years later, he walks into The Uptown Horns Party at Tramps and in that deep gravelly voice of his, shouts 'Detroit!' I couldn't believe he remembered."

And now almost 15 years later, The Uptown Horns are part of the house band and wrote the theme song for VH-1's new weekly comedy show "Buster's Happy Hour" starring Johansen as Buster Poindexter. "Life is funny that way," chuckles Cioe.

Led by saxaphonist, Crispin Cioe, The Uptown Horns have recently made major contributions to The Driver's recordings and performances, as they have for these musical greats:

James Brown / The Rolling Stones (Steel Wheels & Live To The Max) Ray Charles / Buster Poindexter / Run DMC /Ohio Players / Joe Cocker / B.B. King / Robert Palmer /Lou Reed Bonnie Raitt / J. Geils Band / Howard Tate & so many more.

Check out The 'Horns at: THE UPTOWN HORNS

Crispin's New Band is Cracked Ice....