| Steve March-Tormé | |
|---|---|
Steve March Tormé, 2008 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 29, 1953 |
| Origin | New York City, New York, United States of America |
| Genres | Jazz, Adult Contemporary, Pop |
| Occupations | Musician, Actor |
| Instruments | Singer, Piano, Guitar |
| Years active | 1966 – Present |
| Labels | Go Daddy Music, MGM Records, United Artists Records, Planet Records, Frozen Rope Records, BluJazz Label |
| Website | stevemarchtorme.com |
Steve March Tormé (born January 29, 1953) is an American singer and songwriter who currently resides in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is the son of the legendary Mel Tormé and former model Candy Toxton (Tockstein). The two later divorced and Toxton married actor/comedian Hal March who became Steve's stepfather.
Apart from his father, Steve's early musical influences include The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, The Temptations, Ricky Nelson, and Gene Pitney. Later influences include Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, and especially The Beatles.[1]
Steve will be performing the holiday version of one of his two symphony shows in December of 2011 with the Charlotte Symphony in Punta Gorda, (Fl.), the New Bedford Symphony (MA.) and the Green Bay Symphony (WI.) The music is arranged for a full 70 piece orchestra and the orchestrations were written by his longtime musical director/pianist Steve Rawlins, with some help from Steve March Tormé.
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Steve March Tormé was born on January 29, 1953 in New York City to the multi-talented Mel Tormé and the former model, Candy Toxton. They were divorced when Steve was two and a half years old. In 1956 Toxton married the actor/comedian Hal March, who was the host of CBS-TV’s The $64,000 Question Show and subsequently starred in Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn on Broadway. March was stepfather to Steve and his sister Melissa Tormé-March and went on to have three more children with Candy--Peter, Jeffrey, and Victoria.[2]
Steve March Tormé spent much of his childhood listening to New York Yankees games on the radio. After games he would turn to Top 40 music stations and find himself singing along with such artists as The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, The Temptations, Ricky Nelson, Gene Pitney, and The Beatles. This accidental discovery for music led to Steve fronting his first band in 1966 at age 13.[3]
After March and Toxton moved to Beverly Hills, Steve formed friendships with other second generation “show biz kids” like Desi Arnaz Jr., Dean Martin Jr., Miguel Ferrer, Carrie Fisher, and Liza Minnelli while attending high school. During this time, he continued to develop as a musician and his influences grew to include Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan, to whom Steve plays homage on 2009's Inside/Out.[3]
After Hal March's death in 1970, Steve rekindled his relationship with his father Mel Tormé, who occasionally recorded and appeared with Steve in concert until his death in 1999.
In the late 1970s, Steve recorded his first LP, Lucky, for United Artists Records, supporting it with a well received 20 city, national concert tour. The album featured several noted musicians including Arthur Adams, Wilton Felder of Jazz Crusaders, Jimmy Gordon, Max Bennett, Fred Tackett and Paul Barrere of Little Feat, Chuck Findley, Wayne Henderson of Jazz Crusaders, Victor Feldman, Plas Johnson, and Pete Christlieb. Upon returning to California, he produced and sang on Liza Minnelli’s Columbia Records release Tropical Nights, which became a favorite of New York dance clubs.
Steve was the lead male singer on the syndicated game show The $100,000 Name That Tune from 1978 to 1981.[4] His audition consisted of singing Elton John's "Daniel and Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amor" for the producers, who hired Steve the next day. The new version of the show was more of a game show/variety musical hybrid, with two full bands playing the notes and/or songs the contestants would have to guess. One was a big band, led by Stan Worth and the second was the "rock" band, fronted by Steve and dubbed "Dan Sawyer and the Sound System". The bass player in the Sound System was Kerry Hatch, who joined the alternative rock band Oingo Boingo after leaving Name That Tune. The show was hosted by Tom Kennedy and Steve stayed with the show through 1981.
Steve hosted the movie critics show "Cinemattractions" in 1989, which became "Box Office America" in 1990. He also hosted "Video 22" from 1985–1986, featuring Go West, Nik Kershaw, Fishbone, Spinal Tap, Til Tuesday, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In 1982, Steve received a phone call from noted jazz critic Leonard Feather, inquiring his interest in auditioning for a vocal group that Leonard's daughter Lorraine Feather was starting up with her friend Charlotte Crossley (The Harlettes). When told that the recommendation had come from Quincy Jones (who'd seen Steve perform at a tribute show to Henry Mancini at the Hollywood Bowl) and that the project would be produced by Richard Perry, Steve went to the offices of Planet Records to sing "Serenade in Blue" and "Blue Suede Shoes" for Richard and his partner, movie producer Joel Silver. He got the gig as the solo male voice in the trio Full Swing and after the debut album (entitled Full Swing) was recorded at Planet Records in Hollywood, it was followed up with tours of Brazil and Japan. The Full Swing LP featured some of the best studio musicians in L.A., including Paulinho Da Costa, Paul Jackson Jr., Victor Feldman, Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Dick "Slide" Hyde (all of whom performed on Steve's Lucky LP in 1978), Tom Scott, David Benoit, Jerry Hey, Conte Condoli, Lew McCreary, Richard Tee, Vinnie Colaiuta, Russ Kunkel, John Robinson, and George Doering. Four other musicians from this recording (Gary Herbig, Ira Newborn, Joel Peskin, and Peter Christlieb (of Steely Dan fame)) would later work with Steve on future LPs. Steve sang with his father Mel Tormé at the Kool Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall as a member of "Full Swing". Steve sang the lead part on Mel's arrangement of "What Is This Thing Called Love", previously performed by the Meltones. After Richard Perry sold Planet Records in 1983, Steve left the group to pursue his solo career.
Steve played the male lead in the Italian TV musical-drama "Molly O" for RAI Television. It was released in 1986.
In 2006, Steve's "Tormé Sings Tormé," a four-sided, double disc DVD and CD on AIX Records, won Best Vocal Dual Disc at the EMX DVD Awards show in Los Angeles.
In 2009, Steve recorded his most recent album "inside/out" for the Go Daddy Music label. The project was recorded mostly in Los Angeles (with a couple of tracks in Wisconsin) and is the first "pop" album he's done since "Lucky." The entire album (music and lyrics) was written by Steve and also features him playing both keyboards and guitar for the first time since the "Lucky" LP. For the last 12 years, he's worked with arranger/pianist Steve Rawlins, who, more often than not, accompanies him on stage and has played piano and arranged a number of songs on Steve March Tormé's recordings. They've also co-written many of the songs on Steve's jazz LPs.
Steve currently tours worldwide as a singer/entertainer, offering a variety of platforms: a jazz trio ensemble, a big band show, a dektette show entitled "Torme Sings Torme" that CAMI (Columbia Artists Management Inc.) sent out as a 32 city national tour in 2007, and a full 70 piece symphony show entitled "From Broadway to Bernstein, From Mercer to Mel". He's performed in 46 of the 50 states, in addition to concerts in Australia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, London and Italy. Steve also hosts his own show every Wednesday and Thursday on the Music of Your Life Radio Network[5] and is the afternoon/drive time host five days a week at 91.1 FM "The Avenue",[6] serving Green Bay, Appleton, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Steve will be performing the holiday version of one of his two symphony shows in December of 2011 with the Charlotte Symphony in Punta Gorda, (Fl.), the New Bedford Symphony (MA.) and the Green Bay Symphony (WI.) The music is arranged for a full 70 piece orchestra and the orchestrations were written by his longtime musical director/pianist Steve Rawlins, with some help from Steve March Tormé.
Steve was a two-time participant in the Maccabiah Games in 1985 and 1989 in fast pitch softball. The Maccabiah Games are the Olympics for Jewish athletes worldwide. The games are held every four years in Tel Aviv, Israel and are staggered against the global Olympic Games so that they never fall on the same year. Steve was the starting center-fielder on the 1985 team and was one of two starting pitchers in the 1989 games, in which he shut out Panama 14-0 in his first outing and bested Venezuela 6-4 in the other. The U.S.A. fast-pitch team won gold medals both years, beating Canada in both title games. Other notable U.S.A. athletes who've participated in the Maccabiah Games include Mark Spitz, Mitch Gaylord, Brad Gilbert, Ernie Grunfeld and Danny Schayes.