MEDIA
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Men return to Whitaker with R&B
Thursday, November 27, 2008
BY DAVID N. DUNKLE
Of The Patriot-News
In the year of Barack Obama, it seems appropriate to celebrate The Magnificent Men, a group of young rhythm-and-blues musicians from Harrisburg and York who helped to break a color barrier of another sort in the 1960s.
The seven-member band was the first all-white group to headline at New York's famed Apollo Theatre and other stops on what was known as the "Chitlin' Circuit," a network of venues for African-American musicians that included Philadelphia's Uptown Theatre.
The Magnificent Men played with legendary black artists such as the Temptations and Aretha Franklin and scored a couple of hit singles on the R&B chart, especially with their original song "Peace of Mind."
"Mag Men" founder and drummer Bob Angelucci said the group, formed from a merger of York's Del-Chords and Harrisburg's Endells, found success because it was not trying to imitate R&B stars. "We just grew up with that music," he said. "R&B was always big in this area."
While the Del-Chords and the Endells were integrated bands, the Magnificent Men touring band ended up being all white, partly because it was difficult to book integrated bands into many mainstream clubs at the time. By 1972, the group had dissolved.
Most of the former "Mag Men" still live in central Pennsylvania, and Angelucci, bassist Jim Seville and sax man Tom Pane are all members of a band called Class Act featuring Rita, with Rita being Angelucci's wife.
Saturday night, Class Act and two other Mag Men, singers Dave Bupp and Buddy King, will gather onstage at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center for a concert titled "Celebrating the Magnificent Men."
Rounding out this posse are Class Act members Chuck Ronemus, keyboards and vocals; Dave Stewart and Les Markel, both trumpet and vocals; and guitarist Dan Wolfe.
Angelucci said it's the fifth year for the quasi-reunion at Whitaker, with the previous four concerts selling out. Group members perform together and separately during the show, with musical selections from the Mag Men era plus more contemporary tunes.
Angelucci looks back fondly on those days, when the Mag Men and Soul Survivor once played before 100,000 fans in Philadelphia ("It was so loud we couldn't hear ourselves.")
He is also awaiting the release of a new documentary about the group, tentatively titled "This Magnificent Moment," but don't expect a reunion tour.
"Never happen," Angelucci, 64, said. "People are married, some are retired. The interest is just not there."
DAVID N. DUNKLE: 255-8266 or daviddunkle@patriot-news.com
©2008 Patriot-News
© 2008 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.
The PATRIOT NEWS, Harrisburg, PA., 12/30/93 by Robert Ross
• They are part timers, but all have worked the road and know the vagaries. They are a testimony to their many fans that weekenders can provide great entertainment. They are all professionals in their own right (they have responsible day jobs), but even today could grab for the musical brass rings, and have the talent to make those rings shine.
They have booked mainly in the corporate market, a lucrative market that doesn’t get much play in the trades or the press or on the radio. You can dance to their music, or you can sit and watch and be equally entertained. Rita Angelucci (lead singer), a natural talent who usually grabs the attention of her audiences and who immediately impresses on fans that she is in charge of the songs she sings.
•“They’re a great group,” Todd Jeffers, the morning co-host at Kool 94.9 FM. “They’re a good, tight, professional band. They seem to play well to club groups, as well as general audiences.”
•The PATRIOT NEWS, Harrisburg, PA., 6/1/97 by Robert Ross
• You can point to Rita Angelucci’s sense of the way it was. You can hear the arrangements stay true to the sounds of 30 years ago and yet still sound fresh. You can point mainly, however, to the band’s superior musicality, probably the best in central Pennsylvania.
• “They’re a great band. We book them a lot when we can get them,” said Holly Rohrbach of Bruce Rohrbach Productions, Camp Hill. “They know their niche and play to the crowd they’re working for,” she said. “They can read their audience well.”
• They are favorites because the covers mostly keep legitimate the sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s, where the stroll and hits such as “Let’s Fall in Love,” “Dream Lover” and “Freeway of Love” take you straight back to the days when the songs were busting up the charts. “Our Day Will Come” is a perfect reason half the band’s name is “Featuring Rita.” With her wailing, yearning voice, she was born to sing the song. And in “What’s It All About Alfie,” the big Dionne Warwick song of the ‘60s, there are interesting harmonies with Rita and the band, an arrangement and production that rivals the original.