Arts & Culture Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 33) By Diana Colson : : Profile Joe Micals The Music in His World a singer from age seven, Joe Micals grew up in Peekskill, NY, where he had an idyllic country childhood, and sang professionally for the first time at age eleven. His father owned a machine shop. His mother, a former Miss Brooklyn, abandoned her singing career with the Metropolitan Opera to raise a family. As a teenager, Joe worked by day at the machine shop hauling scrap metal. At night, he rushed off to sing with a garage band. In college, he developed laryngitis. The university hospital gave Joe a 50 percent chance of never speaking again. Doctors tried experimental medication; Joe’s voice dropped from tenor to baritone, and he was miraculously cured. By graduation, Joe was a purchasing agent for his father’s shop, complete with company car and expense account. He was not happy. After teaching himself a little guitar (and who didn’t play guitar in the ‘60s?) Joe became the token rock player in a wedding band. It was: “Goodbye, machine shop; hello, music!” Society bandleader Lester Lanin began hiring the talented Joe Micals to play guitar at lavish Long Island estates. Joe and a drummer friend also played two nights a week in the Hamptons. He eventually migrated to piano at Nicky’s, a restaurant in Centerport, Long Island, teaching himself to play by listening to Elton John cassettes. The crowd warmed to his distinctive style, as did the musical director for The Drifters. Joe became their keyboard player, going on tour at the age of 26. When the tour was over, it was back to piano bars. Completely obsessed, Joe began writing and learning more about music, tutored by his classically trained friend, Jeff Baker. In the wake of his cured laryngitis, Joe discovered he had a wide choice of vocal ranges. He was able to impersonate more than 25 singers, actors and cartoon characters. In hopes of improving his hotheaded responses to hecklers, Joe attended an open comedy mike on Tuesday afternoons. There, he developed an opening act, using piano and a multitude of impersonations and dialects. Soon Joe was opening for the likes of Rosie O’Donnell, James Mason, and Eddie Murphy. Then came voice-overs, impersonations, and commercials for United Stations Radio, based in NYC, and representing 94 stations. Joe was given the heavy voices: Ray Charles, James Brown, Joe Cocker, James Earl Jones. “New York can make you crazy!” says Joe. “I’d rather write in my room than sweat in the spotlight.” Together, he and his wife, Carol Ann, discovered Sarasota, and moved here in 2000 with their daugh- ter, Larisa. He began writing original music for HBO specials, PBS, and films, and is currently negotiating to do soundtracks for two upcoming motion pictures. Joe Micals is an extraordinary and gifted entertainer. He performs five nights a week in the Piano Bar at Michael’s On East. So, if you want to hear Neil Diamond, Joe Cocker, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, or Tom Jones, or just sit back and listen to instrumental piano music, go see Joe. He is all that and more. www.artsandculturemag.com arts and culture magazine : : 33 http://www.artsandculturemag.com
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