GARY CLARK,JR.

Suter became a parent at a young age, but continued on her
path. (Daughter Carrie is studying to be an opera singer and son
Albert is a Seattle-area hip-hop musician.) She had her first measure
of success when a young man with an independent record label fell in
love with her voice and introduced her to the dance music scene. She
wrote some lyrics to an electronica beat track and in 1989, a group
called 4 To The Bar featuring a roaring Alexis P. Suter put out a 12-inch
disc titled “Slam Me, Baby.” It became an overnight underground hit.
Another house music hit, “Stop! (We Need Each Other),”
attracted attention overseas and in the early ‘90s, Suter became the
first African-American woman signed to Sony Japan; she toured that
country and elsewhere on the strength of the recordings she did for
them. Suter attributes the termination of that relationship to poor management,
and she left the music business for several years as a result.
But her luck changed when she met Vicki Bell. “A young man
who I grew up with had a group called Jack and Jill,” Suter said. “He
knew I had been really down, so he asked me to come and sing with
his band. Vicki was one of his background singers.”
Bell not only sang in blues and rock bands, she had worked for
years on Broadway as a singer and dancer. Not easily impressed,
she was amazed by Suter’s vocal power. “I had the same reaction as
everyone does who hears her sing,” Bell said. “I thought ‘wow, I’ve
never heard a voice like hers, ever!’ She was also very respectful to
me and the other singer and we hit it off immediately.”
Not long after, Bell married drummer and fellow Broadway veteran
Ray Grappone, and they formed Hipbone Records with the intention of
showcasing dance music’s soulful side by incorporating live music in
26 BLUES REVUE
every mix. But they needed a marquis performer. “We needed a singer
who could really knock them out, and Alexis came to mind right away,
“ Bell said. “It was the perfect way for us to get back together.”
It proved to be a perfect fit, and Suter became the first Hipbone
artist. Starting with 1998’s “All Night Long,” together they put out several
dozen 12-inch vinyl dance records. “Vicki and Ray, they saw
something in me and never quit,” Suter said. “But we knew that we
were much more than house music.”
Grappone also played in a Brooklyn blues and rock band with his
college friend Jimmy Bennett and his bass player brother Peter. Bell
also sang with the band but was expanding her role in the business.
“We were all kind of growing and maturing as artists and producers
and writers, and we thought the dance music genre just wasn’t
good enough for Alexis,” Bell said. “We had to do something that was
not like a DJ genre for her and that’s how Shuga Fix, Hipbone’s first
full length CD, on which we all played, came about in 2005.”
The record includes Robert Johnson’s “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” as
well as a version of Suter’s dance hit “All Night Long” and two original
songs, “Teacher Man” and “Ride Ride,” that would soon become fan
favorites and staples of the band’s growing repertoire.
At about the same time, Suter impressed another musician who
would become crucial to her career. Levon Helm had been sitting in
on drums occasionally with the Bennett Brother Band while recovering
from vocal chord cancer. At the same time, Bell had become friendly
with Helm’s daughter Amy, who recorded her own 12-inch dance
record for Hipbone. At a benefit concert in a Brooklyn church, Suter
finally met the man who would be an important mentor.