It's Always
Love

ABOUT JON MILLEN Born in the Bronx, at Bronx hospital, July 23rd of 1951. He was seven years old when he got his first guitar, an acoustic Kay. He took lessons with Mr. Allegro, who taught him all the open chords. Over the next few years, he was influenced by his oldest sister Patricia who was a huge folk music fan. Listening to Peter Paul and Mary, Chad Mitchell Trio, The Brothers Four, The Kingston Trio, etc. he realized that all those chords helped him learn to play their songs. He also became adept at singing harmony in the church choir. His sister’s record collection was a source of inspiration, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, and the Everly Brothers. Then the Beatles emerged onto the scene. Upon hearing the Beatles for the first time, he realized he already knew how to play all the chords to their songs. He also realized he could sing the John Lennon numbers. In 1964 at the age of thirteen, he moved to Jersey City, NJ and got his first electric guitar, a Dan Electro 6 string with a rosewood fingerboard. An excellent guitar in all respects. He formed his first duo along with his cousin, Gary Amato, who lived up the block. Gary’s father had just bought him a Guild Starfire Deluxe, which was the rave of the neighborhood. This is where it all began… Continue reading the Bio of Jon Millen Below... ​ ​With our guitar cases open for small change we would play and sing Beatles songs outside the corner candy store, at the intersection of Cator Avenue and Fowler Avenue. ​ One day, we noticed a couple of guys watching us and they took the time to introduce themselves. Two identical twin brothers, who explained that they were in a band called “The Rockin' Jesters”. A very successful local bar band. They were impressed with our performance and inquired as to whether we might be interested in watching them rehearse. We said sure and a few weeks later, a Thunderbird convertible pulled up to the curb where Gary and I were busy playing on his porch. They explained that they were rehearsing that day and did we want to come. We said sure and hoped in. The coolest thing I remember about that day was that on the way to the club they put a forty-five single record into a record player that was built into the car, which we were totally amazed at. The song they were listening to, which they explained was the tune they were going to rehearse that day, was a song made popular by Jerry and the Pacemakers called “How Do You Do It?”. The club was at a place near the Transfer Station in Union City. It was 99 degrees in July and the air conditioning in the club was set to 65 degrees. The stage was behind the bar. They turned on the blue stage lighting and began to rehearse the song. This was my first experience watching a band play live with five instruments, two guitars, bass, drums, and Hammond organ. ​ As they were rehearsing my cousin and I were amazed at how they kept stopping and starting at various places where the song segued from verse to chorus, to lead break, etc. They would point out various elements of each other's parts if they were missing anything from the record and played the song for an hour till it was perfect. I’ll never forget the leader of the band, voicing his opinion to the other members, that what made a hit song a hit was all of the parts combined. Duplicating those parts was the only way that the spirit of the song would affect the audience in the same way as the record itself. So at the age of thirteen, I began to understand what it took to play in a band, learn your parts, rehearse them, and experience the result of being able to copy a hit record note for note. At the end of the rehearsal, the leader inquired of the twins, “Who are these little kids sitting at the bar?” They explained that these were the kids that they were raving about who were playing Beatles songs outside the corner candy store. The leader then said, “Well, get up here, and show us”. We hopped up on the stage, and the leader strapped his guitar, a Les Paul, which seemed to weigh about fifty pounds compared to my Dan Electro around my neck. My cousin Gary took the rhythm guitar player's instrument a Guild T-100 model D with a single cutaway. The leader stayed on bass, but the twins who were playing drums and organ, switched places. The others just sat and watched. They asked what song we were going to play. So we said,” Twist and Shout”. We started the song, and it was so exciting to hear them playing their respective parts perfectly behind us as that was one of the numbers in their repertoire. ​ I proceeded to belt the song out and screamed at the correct parts. I was elated at the sound of a band playing behind me. The leader of the band, whose name was Mike, was so impressed that when we were done he informed me that he wanted to manage us. He instructed me to go out and place an ad in the paper for a drummer and guitar player who were also thirteen years old, and that we would open for them whenever possible and have the opportunity to play before a live audience. We put the band together and he rehearsed us, so that everyone knew their parts just like on the record, and thus, my first copy band was formed. The name of the band was “The Ants” because we were supposed to be little Beatles. We proceeded to work with them for a few months. Unfortunately, due to planning a marriage, Mike would no longer have the time to manage us. However, he supported us completely allowing us to borrow their instruments and sound gear whenever we had the chance to play. From there we went on to get our own gigs at various local high school dances and parties. We were very well received. I distinctly remember one of our most liked covers at the time being “For Your Love” by the Yardbirds. ​ After that, my parents split up and I moved to Cliffside Park to live with my father. During high school, I got heavily involved in football and wrestling. Music took a back seat for a time. In 1969 at the age of eighteen, I began performing as a solo act. Singing and playing acoustic guitar, and I got my first twelve-string, a Guild F512. I still have it today. I also started writing my own material. Then a friend of my girlfriend told me that she knew another guy who was just like me. He also played acoustic guitar, sang and wrote, and said we should meet. His name was Clyde Roberts. It was 1970, and the very first time we sat down to play and sing together, we discovered that we had about twenty songs that we both knew. Beatles, Cat Stevens, Everly Brothers, Crosby Stills & Nash and Young, etc. When we played those songs for the first time together, they were perfectly executed. So we went on to form a duo, which eventually became The Jon Millen and Clyde Roberts Band. In 1970, while we were still a duo Clyde and I had the amazing experience of being the opening act for Bruce Springsteen at a concert held at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck. This was just as Bruce was taking off on his road to stardom and it was very exciting for us. I recall getting there and I will never forget the sound engineer who had only one leg explaining to us that the concert was supposed to be held in a theater on campus and for some reason was now being held outdoors. He informed us that we would not be performing on the same stage as Bruce (which was on the steps of the Student Union Building), but on a dias right across the way and assured us that we would get his best effort to make us sound great. He came through as all of our friends thought we did. Some were very surprised to see us as they had no idea we would be there having come to see Bruce. They were all very impressed and spread the word that we were making it. During our tenure, we managed to generate a good following of folks who would come to see us perform a mixture of original music and copy tunes at various clubs. Particularly a club named R E’s Plum in Bogota. This band was a very talented group who I have no doubt had we had the backing and opportunity could have gotten a record deal and become major contenders. We were really that good. One of our members, Perry Cavari went on to claim and fame as the first-seat drummer for the musical “Cats” on Broadway. Donald Neary rounded out the lineup. Donald was an incredible musician. An amazing saxophone, blues harp, and flute player Don could competently manage to play any instrument you gave him. I’m talking guitar, keyboards, bass, etc., and you could count on him for vocal harmonies. I forgot to mention him playing two recorders simultaneously in harmony for the intro to Stairway To Heaven. ​ When we decided to form the band we wanted to have three-part harmonies so we auditioned bass players who could sing. Unfortunately, we were unable to find one. So we decided one of us would have to play bass. We flipped a coin to see who would play bass and I lost. Having never played bass before, I decided to take lessons. As it turned out, a close friend was studying with a teacher in Manhattan named Doc Goldberg with the alias of Ed Lord. He was the original bass player for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and had a studio on 57th Street, a stone's throw from Carnegie Hall. He taught me how to read music for the first time. He also sold me my first bass guitar, which was a Gibson SG, cherry red. ​ Ed Lord had an amazing method where each lesson consisted of playing scales and arpeggios, fingering exercises, classical music, jazz, and top forty charts. After studying with Doc for a year and a half, I had become very adept at sight-reading. One day in 1974, as I was reading The Village Voice, scouting out the Musicians Wanted section, I noticed an ad looking for a bassist who could sing and sight read for a Broadway Showband. I was intrigued by the sight reading requirement, and having never been in a situation where I would be playing and reading a chart I decided to go to the audition. Just to see whether I could cut the gig. As it turned out, the name of the band was The Ray Valenti Explosion. The leader of the band was Ray Valenti who emulated Buddy Rich and was a true master drummer. Four of the band members were juniors from the Berkeley School of Music in Boston who were on a sabbatical to take a gig for one year, a tradition at Berkeley. They were so skilled at playing their instruments and I was so impressed, that when I passed the audition, I couldn’t help but take the gig. That was the end of the Jon Millen and Clyde Roberts Band and I went on the road with Ray Valenti for the next 6 months. ​ This was, for me, a milestone experience. I was playing with extremely talented true jazz musicians who were virtuosos on their respective instruments. Sal Randazzo was the trombone player and the arranger for the nine-piece ensemble. He was instrumental for me, in that we both read the same clef, and as all horn players, he was so proficient at transposing music that he was indispensable in helping me read complicated charts. He went on to achieve great success as both a player and arranger eventually hosting his own podcast. The keyboard player was Noreen Waible who went on to be the Vocal Director at Disney Cruise Lines. At the time, The Ray Valenti Explosion had a book encompassing over one hundred fifty charts. Everything from Big Band, to Broadway Show tunes, musicals, Top 40 hits, and classics from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. From that time forward I always played bass in a band. ​ After coming off the road with The Ray Valenti Explosion in 1973, I hooked up with Daegal Benedetto on drums and Danny Benedetto on guitar, two amazingly talented brothers who were the sons of Tony Bennet. We had a band named Neon (we all had a large strip of our long hair bleached and died a different neon color) and I played with them for the next six months. We had so much fun rehearsing in their studio in Englewood Cliffs. We would play Beatles songs and everyone knew their parts, executing the vocal harmonies perfectly the first time through. They were both very talented singers, particularly Danny, and they wrote some very good songs. One of the most enjoyable and intense musical experiences ever. ​ The next band was The Orphans in 1976 who I played with for the next year. A killer party and club band whose claim to fame was the shows at The Last Resort in Hunter Mountain. After the Orphans in 1977, I formed a group “Jetta Madge” along with Janice Comstock whose stage name was the same. Jetta was a very talented and beautiful woman who was a great performer. Jetta Madge was a major Jersey-based heavy metal copy band. We toured the tri-state area with a twenty-six-foot straight job truck filled to the brim with a four thousand watt sound system and a twenty thousand watt light system. We made out that we were real rock stars playing during the heyday of the last years before the drinking age for New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York was changed from eighteen to twenty-one. The Jetta Madge band evolved into an excellent all-original heavy metal band whose last gig was held at Hitsville, a club in Passaic New Jersey. The lineup was Jetta on lead vocals, myself on bass, Larry Tripp and John “ACE” Albino on guitars, and Nicky Capuzzi on drums. This was a very talented group of rockers! I still have all the tapes from our original recording sessions which I hope to release someday. ​ Then one evening, December 8, 1980, while attending the WNEW Christmas Concert in Lincoln Center the wind went out of my sails and all my hopes and aspirations to become a rock star vanished. ​ Myself and Jetta had all access VIP passes to the concert. The passes were provided by Harry Sandler our prior road manager who had gone on to fame and glory as the road manager for Ellen Shipley and eventually Bruce Springsteen. Ellen Shipley was opening for the Marshall Tucker Band that evening. We were very excited to be going as this was at the height of the Jetta Madge original project and having a cassette tape of the album in my pocket I was sure that I would have the opportunity during the evening to pass it on to one of the Dee Jays, maybe even Scott Muni, and that after they listened to it we would get our shot at success. One of the highlights of that evening for me was wandering around the venue with my all-access pass. I found my way into the stage left wing and was watching Marshall Tucker do their thing when who should come through the door but Dan Akroyd. He had his harp and was preparing to go on stage and jam with them. ​ Now I have to say going back to my origins it was my dream and goal that one day I would have a hit record and at some award show I would run into my absolute all-time musical hero who would comment on my hit record in a favorable manner. As musicians, we all have our dreams and goals and that was mine. I knew it would happen someday and felt I was getting very close. ​ As it turned out we were just starting to take our seats for the after-show dinner when a pall came over the banquet room. Scott Muni got on a table and announced that John Lennon had just been shot dead outside the Dakota and instructed all the Dee Jays to return to the studio. Within five minutes we found ourselves surrounded by no one but the caterers removing all the food, etc. We were in absolute shock as we left the building. Well at the risk of being guilty of a cliche, that was the day the music died for me. Everything seemed to be just a waste of time and while I had been pushing this rock up a hill for the past seventeen years I thought, what was the point? My dream would never come true and I lost my drive to continue. I came to the harsh reality that having lost my drive my chances of becoming a rock star were over. A year or so later I began looking for a straight job and I went on to other ways of making a living. ​ Now forty years later we come to the point where I am releasing the first of two CD’s entitled “It’s Always Love”. The majority of these songs were all written by 1980 and represent my thoughts on Love. Spiritual, philosophical, and romantic. As it happened one evening last year I was watching a series and heard a song that reminded me of one of my own. I thought I had written a few songs that would be perfect for some scene in a series or movie and wondered if I should make a demo and potentially shop it around. ​ One thing led to another and I decided as a sort of bucket list that after all these years I would go into the studio to record some of my songs just for the sake of having a record of my thoughts and musical ideas expressed. I plan to start playing live again very soon and I hope that after listening to these songs you might be interested in seeing them performed. If you like them please come to see me play and say hello.