The Persuasions, who started out as teens breaking into song on a basketball court, will share their love for all kinds of music when they come to Lewiston Feb. 9.
hat could a bunch of teenagers playing pick-up basketball and singing pick-up doo-wop on the streets of New York possibly have in common with Frank Zappa, the late master of cutting edge instrumental arrangements? What could this same a cappella group, more than 40 years later, have in common with the politically conscious and hard edge rock band U2?
The answer is simply music. Discovered and promoted by Zappa, The Persuasions have sung all genres in all decades since the ’60s. But the group’s a cappella platform strips music down to its most basic rhythms, most emotional melodies, and most sincere lyrics.
Their most recent CD, “The Persuasions Sing U2,” released last year, features soulful renditions of words that cross race, generation and culture.
“I didn’t really know much about U2,” said Jimmy Hayes, one of the remaining original members of The Persuasions. “It was our producer’s idea. But when I listened to the music and heard the lyrics of ‘In the Name of Love,’ it just knocked my socks off.”
Hayes said he was drawn to the story of Ireland’s struggle over religious differences and identified them with America’s racial struggles. Touring with Zappa in the late ’60s gave The Persuasions a chance to break the racial barrier at Virginia Beach, as the first black performers at the segregated venue, said Hayes.
The Persuasions’ cover of U2’s “One” takes on a completely different flavor from the original heart-wrenching angst. Instead, the gentle delivery of “We’re one, But we’re not the same, We carry each other,” gives the listener a wiser, more traveled, more fate-accepting picture of what could be anyone’s life.
Hayes has told the story of the group’s beginnings a thousand times in a thousand interviews. It has been documented on PBS; it has been the subject of commentary by a wide range of musical artists such as Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell.
But the 63-year-old singer, who still lives in Brooklyn, doesn’t get tired of enlightening and entertaining new generations. Hayes and a bunch of guys who came from all parts of the country happened to move into the same New York neighborhood. “During basketball games at the park, someone would always break into a song,” said Hayes. “You could tell that a lot of guys could really do harmony.”
So Hayes, knowing that not many would show up, invited the guys to his house just to sing. “The ones that showed up became The Persuasions,” said Hayes, who along with “Sweet” Joe Russell, and Jayotis Washington, continue an ambitious touring schedule as three of the five original members.
“Joe likes to be called “Sweet Joe,” pointed out Hayes, adding that his fellow singers give him a hard time for always being the one quoted in interviews. “It’s like being married for a long time,” joked Hayes. “You got to give and take.”
The group, which didn’t even have a name at the time, had made a couple of 45s – “Are you old enough to remember 45s?,” Hayes broke in – and were singing at a record store in Jersey City with the music piped out onto the street. David Dashev heard them, called Zappa, and had the neighborhood teenagers sing into the phone.
“We didn’t meet Frank right away,” said Hayes. “He sent us five round trip tickets to California, and we made an album.” The Persuasions’ connection to Zappa includes a subsequent recording collaboration, tour and performance at Carnegie Hall.
Even after decades of success and performances with the likes of B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Liza Minelli, Bette Midler, and The Neville Brothers, Hayes spoke with fondness and appreciation of the time a fan gave him mint-condition copies of those first 45s.
“I tried to find them for a long time,” said Hayes. “But they never did much, and there weren’t that many. But one night after a show, someone gave them to me.”
Hayes said he and his fellow singers still sing in subways once in a while, just to hear that old echo. “The love is still there,” he said. “I got a call from the music union the other day about my pension and what I could have when I gave up performing. I told her I got no plans to stop singing.”
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