Cory Daye, the name alone may not evoke much recognition even among the most diligent music lovers in our generation. Introduce her voice into the equation and the memory becomes jogged, you begin to associate the rif with some modern artist but Cory Daye is from another era; yet her voice is timeless. Scheme had the honor of speaking to the songstress who has a voice of gold and a goldmine of stories behind her fame during the 70’s and 80’s.

Scheme: This interview started for me a long time ago, back when Boyz n the Hood first came out. The scene when Trae was speaking with Doughboy’s mother, unbeknownst to me then “Sunshower” was playing in the background. Back then that song was like nothing I ever heard and I would replay that portion of the movie so I could hear that song over and over. Fast forward to 1999 I was getting my hair twisted for my sister’s wedding the next day at a salon in Harlem and as my hair was being washed “Sunshower” came on. Now the person washing my hair thought I was crazy because I never heard the full song and I was going crazy and then the radio DJ answered an 8 year old question for me and announced your name and the song name. I called my mother to tell her what I discovered and she proceeded to tell me that you two were friends, So like I said, this interview has been in the makings for a long time.
Cory Daye: That’s definitely one of my all time favorite songs.

Scheme: What made it one of your favorites?
Cory Daye: I like the Latin feel that it encompasses with the big band sound, which is more prevalent, than in say “Cher Chez La Femme” which was in a world of its own. I mean with “Sunshower” it also had such a romantic feel I just loved it. Stony was one of the best musical writers of his time; his melodies were comparable if not better than any artist at that time. His arrangements were amazing but he didn’t get credit for them and August Darnell’s lyrics were so witty and cutting that they really stood out. He was using ten dollar words and no one was dong that at that time, everything was “moon June” real simple rhymes. That’s what set it apart, that whole album was near and dear to us and it took a long time to finish because that was our baby, it took over a year.

Scheme: Now that was on RCA right?
Cory Daye: That’s right

Scheme: From my understanding what RCA originally did was give you a contract that stated that the album needed to be completed in 30 days but instead it dragged on for almost a year.
Cory Daye: Right, and once they got it they didn’t want to do anything with it, they didn’t want to promote it or do anything because they felt it was so different that the “suits” couldn’t relate to it. They figured they would just use it as a tax write off. What happened was that it had been released with no promotion, no backing, no fan fair, just released. Fire Island picked up on it in June and by September it was on the radio all throughout Fire Island and it was those DJ’s in the Fire Island clubs that really made that album jump off. Once we got radio play, the rest was history.

Scheme: And the album went on to sell gold right?
Cory Daye: Yeah it went Gold and we were nominated for a Grammy for “Best New Artist”.

Scheme: And what was the reaction when you found out you were nominated?
Cory Daye: Oh my God we were on a cloud, we went to the Grammys sitting with all the greats and it was like a dream come true. You had these kids from the Bronx that were now sitting here with a Grammy nomination for their first album that their record label didn’t support at first and it was a gold record. Unfortunately that new found success took its toll on some of the people in the band.

Scheme: Now when they gave you that original recording restriction was that your first time in a recording studio?
Cory Daye: Yes, the first time ever

Scheme: Did they give you any guidance of any sort, like an experienced engineer?
Corey Daye: I think his name was Tony Colello, he was the person who original did the charts for us in the studio but Stony is the one who told him what we wanted. We’d been in the studio a few times by having an engineer open up late at night and letting us record over night but professionally, it was our first time. Sandy Linzer, our producer, who was a teenager when he started writing had a string of hits, in fact he did most of the 4 Season songs. At the time he partnered with Tommy Mottola for his company, so when we signed on with Tommy we signed on with Sandy as a producer. He was pretty good to us; he gave us free reign for the most part but still gave us direction. The thing is when you give that much control to a toddler, that’s going to cause havoc because you don’t have any guidance and that’s why we took so long. We would go into the studio and wipe out all the charts. Sunshower had a full orchestration and all the tracks were wiped out and all that was left was that bass line, African hair drums and the kids singing. Inspiration like that came from lack of guidance, being new to the process and freedom to express ourselves.

Scheme: Who were the kids singing in Sunshowers?
Cory Daye: They were Sandy Linzers children. We doubled their vocal track to sound like a group of kids.

Scheme: So when you stared recording in the studio, was the group the same as when you first started?
Cory Daye: Well that’s another reason why the process took so long; we were still auditioning male vocalists. Stony and August wanted a male vocalist; they wanted a crooner so to speak. I had never sung lead before in my life, I was always singing background. Stony was looking and we auditioned so many male vocalists, at one point we wanted the guy who sang the McDonalds commercial, who actually turned out to be Luther Vandross (chuckle), and of course he didn’t return our calls because his career took off at that point. Once we got to this point Sandy said if we didn’t have something soon we would have to scrap the whole project, at that point Stony turned to me and said “Okay, you do the vocals”. I was surprised but that’s when I first started to sing lead vocals, right there in the studio and I’ve gotta tell you, it was the most amazing experience of my life. I couldn’t believe the rifs that were coming out of my mouth.

Scheme: Was it challenging moving into this lead vocalist role?
Cory Daye: It was but it wasn’t. Stony was my boyfriend, so I understood more so what his mission was and what he was looking for. We did a lot of research, Ella Fitzgerald and a lot of great artists that influenced me at the time and used it to inspire me. The Andrews sisters for their Harmonies. The Cher Chez Le Femme song, the rhythms used in the vocals were copied by the vocal style of Phillipe Wind of The Spinners (starts to hum the beat). I thought if I copied a male vocal style no one would say “Oh she sounds like so and so”.

Scheme: I read somewhere that the auditions where a little unorthodox in that people auditioning were asked to fill out questionnaires, kind of like a job application but inquiring about their political views and such. Is there any truth to that?
Core Daye: No, that never happened. I think Stony made comments about wanting to put one together but he was playing around. If he did do it, I certainly don’t remember it. Actually, I forgot to mention that Marvin Gaye was a big influence for me, very big.

Scheme: Marvin was very effortless with his vocals, it came so natural and that’s one thing I admire about your voice. I see parallels between your vocal styles and his because as you mentioned before you don’t have a huge vocal range and neither did Marvin but you absolutely live within your vocal range, you dominate it and I think Marvin was the same way.
Cory Daye: Thank you, that’s what I tried to do.

Scheme: When did you first start singing?
Cory Daye: When I was a kid, I just loved singing and I fell in love with musicals. Unfortunately my family was of simple means and I wasn’t able to cultivate my creativity and that’s fine because there weren’t many opportunities to do that for children then, especially not in the South Bronx. I always dreamed about singing though. I met Stony in high school and I had a feeling that this could turn into something. We started out as boyfriend and girlfriend and we would play things on the piano and decided to put a band together and worked the college circuit. At that point we were still finding ourselves but we weren’t very good. As a matter of fact we were at a college gig and at the intermission we said the Savannah Band would be right back and a few people from the crowd yelled back “That’s all right”. That’s all right because we didn’t find our niche yet and we were doing a lot of cover tunes and finding our direction. We had a female vocalist who was a jazz singer and she would change all of the arrangements to match her vocal style but that didn’t always work out too well and the crowd didn’t want to hear that. Then she got up and left and that was Stony’s original inspiration for a male crooner because her voice just didn’t fit with the arrangements.

Scheme: Did you find yourself going through a lot of vocal changes? From the point of playing on the piano with Stony, to singing background to eventually moving to a lead vocalist role, did it take a lot to get there?
Cory Daye: Sure, I went through a few changes because I basically taught myself to use my voice. I didn’t have any formal training, so the hard part was learning my limits. I have a limited vocal range and so I learned how to sing in and out of the notes. Stony would tell me to picture that I was on an island with a margarita in front on me and laying in a hammock and the wind is blowing over the surf and I would close my eyes and just perform, it was more of a performance than it was just trying to sing. I try to live the vocals out. I was the actor and he was the director and this happened with every song. Sometimes we did a lot of punches because I would have the idea in my head and I would be so excited to act it out but when it came out it was not right so we would do a lot of punches to the track. You know some days I would stick right in the pocket and then at other times I had to get pulled back in. For the most part it was Stony’s direction, I was his muse.

Scheme: After you were done recording the first album, did you find a preference between performing or recording?
Cory Daye: Not really because they each had their own special place for me, they were both fun. Although performing is nice because you get audience participation and getting their feedback was like being on a high it felt great. It’s nice to be loved; it’s a great feeling to get from your crowd. Recording, you are feeding off of each other’s energy so it’s the same but different.

Scheme: So with the first album you mentioned that the label wasn’t expecting the response you got. So once that response came about, did they get behind the second album in terms of support?
Corey Daye: Well after the success of the first album they tried to push that one a little more and they did give more support to the second album but at that time we started to have issues with RCA and Tommy Mottola so we switched over to Warner Brothers but Warner Brother’s didn’t understand it either. I loved the second album; I still think it’s great.

Scheme: With the second album, did you maintain the creative freedom that you had on the first album?
Cory Daye: Of course we did and that wasn’t really a good thing for us. We didn’t have big heads but we needed more defined direction. We figured that our way worked the first time and why not the second time. It’s not that we needed direction creatively; we just needed some guidance on how to stay focused.

Scheme: Did Savannah Band ever interact with the other artists on the label, were there any collaboration?
Corey Daye: You know we only met a few of the other artists on both labels but most people stayed to themselves and within their own circles. I was in close contact with Phyllis Hyman but that wasn’t really through Savannah Band. She was gorgeous; she was kind and a fabulous vocalist. I stayed n touch with her but more on a personal level.

Scheme: Take me back to that era, what was the typical promotion like for a record?
Cory Daye: Music print outs, we were in every subway station with posters of the album, a lot of the trade magazines and of course radio. Those were the most dominate forms of promotion and back then they were very effective.

Scheme: Do you think that the Savannah Band would have fit in within today’s industry model? I mean in terms of being able to go independently and make the music and become a success?
Cory Daye: Absolutely! We would have been far more ahead because look at some of the other bands. Arrested Development were like little mini me’s and they had major backing but could move independently. In terms of creative freedom, we had that back then. We didn’t allow anyone to tell us what to do which is a mind set that works well today, but back then we suffered because it led to a lack of promotion from the labels. If we were in today’s industry we would have recorded our own music, pressed it and promoted it ourselves and taken advantage of the digital world. That’s was unheard of back then, I mean imagine if Donna Summers did it. She had a string of hits and it never dawned on her to release her own albums, Giorgio Moroda made all the bucks.

Scheme: That time was characterized musically by disco; do you think Savannah Band really fit that mold?
Cory Daye: See that is the difference with today, people are much more open to interpretation. Back then you had so many defining labels, music was so compartmentalized. We weren’t disco, but that’s how they labeled us unfortunately. In fact after my solo album, RCA got rid of the disco department and all of the acts that were in it.

Scheme: Your album came out in 79’ right? That’s was right at the end of the disco era. Even though that album was successful it left you in a bad spot right?
Cory Daye: Yeah, on that album I had “Pow Wow” and “Greenlight”. That album was definitely more danceable than Savannah Band cuts but the vocals were pretty much the same styling, but couldn’t hold a candle to Savannah music. After that album, the soundscape of the industry shifted but I was categorized as “disco”.

Scheme: When you went solo, did you collaborate with new writers or producers?
Corey Daye: Sandy Linzer did the album, the same guy that helped with the Savannah Band records. He did everything, wrote and produced and I did all the vocal arrangements. Had that been today, I would have gotten co-producer credits and royalties but I got no recognition back then.

Scheme: Now in 84’ didn’t Stony release an album with a new group, did any members from the original Savannah Band carry over to that group besides your self?
Cory Daye: Only Mickey Sevilla who was on the drums. I was kind of detached from that because I didn’t want to be a part of the music he was doing then. In my opinion it wasn’t very well done, it was sort of a make shift rock n roll sort of vibe that just didn’t fit my style. They made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse and that’s the only reason I did it.

Scheme: Now another member August, he formed Kid Creole and the Coconuts and from what I know he’s been pretty prolific album wise, doing by some accounts 17 albums. Can you elaborate on that?
Cory Daye: Kid Creole and the Coconuts was the most innovative band of the 80’s. His sound was fused with reggae, soca and funk. I know he did at least 10 albums, and I know he put out a string of “best of” collections not only of Kid Creole and the Coconuts but also Savannah Band. He cut them in Japan and released them over here. He did that and he kept the money actually.

Scheme: Is he still active today?
Cory Daye: Yeah, actually he just did a show in L.A. with the new coconuts. He is the only original coconut in the band and there was a little write up about it as well.

Scheme: Do you stay in touch with the old band members?
Cory Daye: Here and there but not a lot. I still stay in touch with Coati Mundi who lives in LA, in fact we did a show together at Lincoln Center called “Mid Summer Night Swing” about two years ago and that was a lot of fun. We were hoping that we could launch the band into getting regular work but there are not enough venues and those that there are they don’t pay. They are very content with people singing to tracks and when you have a band you just can’t do that. I am in touch with them tough. Kid Creole is hard to get in touch with because he is living in Europe. I stay in touch with his sister and his mom but he is always moving around so it’s hard to stay in touch.

Scheme: During your Savannah band days, what was your best moment? What was the best thing you took away from the experience?
Cory Daye: The highlight of my career was the first vocal I did as a lead because we couldn’t find a male vocalist. I remember being on cloud nine, that was my shining moment.

Scheme: What was the reaction from family and friends when the Grammy nomination came?
Cory Daye: They were absolutely thrilled, everyone was. My father was on cloud nine when he heard I was going on Dinah Shore, he couldn’t brag enough about it. My brother followed my career with a scrap book; there was a lot of family support.

Scheme:I actually saw a Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/originalsavannahband) Savannah Band, is that run by anyone affiliated with the band?
Corey Daye: I believe Coati Mundi created that.

Scheme: Well just to let you know it has over 32,000 views, 1,800+ fans and the music has been played over 30,000 times. I think that’s a pretty good indication that there is still a following out there. Some of the comments are people expressing how many memories they have of the music, what does that do for you as an artist?
Cory Daye: That’s great to hear, it makes me feel good as an artist. That’s one of the reasons you do it for, the fans. I love it, in fact two years ago I did a disco ball at the Taj Mahal in AC and the arena hold 6,500 people and they had a huge set up with artist. I did 3 songs and people were dancing and enjoying themselves and it just takes you back to a time when you were just happy and carefree, music can do that.

Scheme: What was the best lesson learned from the whole Savannah Band experience?
Cory Daye: I learned that sometimes it’s good to cooperate to get to the top and once you get to the top you can start to make changes.

Scheme: How do you feel about artists that use your songs? For instance I’m not sure if you are familiar with her, but there is an artist called M.I.A, she’s like a mixture of techno, rap and reggae but she recently re did the song “Sunshower” and they have a video for it on the internet.
Corey Daye: Really? Was she rapping it, how did it sound?

Scheme: Well they used the chorus and they used that deep baseline but everything else in between are her own lyrics. If you never heard the original you would have no idea that it came from somewhere else. Of course you have the Ghostface song a few years ago (Ghostshowers) that got a lot of popularity but a lot of people still don’t know where that sample came from. Do you like hearing about that?
Corey Daye: Yeah sure, I like to hear it. It makes m wish that I could do more in the industry today, I would love if some of these artist actually got me involved instead of having someone else cover my vocals but it keeps me feeling alive. It’s a miracle when people do your stuff over because it’s being remembered and relived, especially when they are using it as album cuts, it’s amazing.

Scheme: So who do you like today, artist wise?
Cory Daye: Well I love Norah Jones and Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is a great performer; the first time I saw her perform I knew she was just the biggest star by far, all through talent and no gimmicks. It’s hard to find artist I like in today’s market because al lot of the music is geared towards a crowd that is 21 and under. A friend of mine’s boyfriend was a producer and I asked her if she thought he could work with me and the reply was that he doesn’t work with anyone over 18, which is a sign of the industry. Everything is kiddies’ stuff, overwhelmingly kiddie. Even the older artists are geared towards the teens.

Scheme: When you listen to your own cd’s now, do you ever critique yourself?
Corey Daye: No!!! I’m too busy dancing; I’ll grab a carrot out of the fridge, use it as a microphone and just have a ball. That’s what the music does; it takes you away and just makes you feel good. I have a parrot that just wiggles around to the music and loves it.

Scheme: What’s the parrot’s name?
Corey Daye: Savannah!

Scheme: Really? Where did that name come from for the band, Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band certainly isn’t your run of the mill group name.
Cory Daye: I think Stony’s father was from Savannah and Dr. Buzzard was a medicine man that went from town to town selling elixirs. There really was a Dr. Buzzard and somehow they got mixed together but how I will never know why it was picked. I guess because we traveled with our music and it was like a tonic for the soul (lol).

Scheme: How much traveling did the Band do performance wise?
Cory Daye: A few months after our first record, we did a few promotional tours but we didn’t have that much time on the road because once the label started to see success with our album they got us out to LA to work on the second album.

Scheme: Was the entire second album recorded n L. A.?
Cory Daye: Yes it was.

Scheme: Did that change the sound of the music at all?
Cory Daye: Absolutely, it made the sound a little lighter in the melodies, ore reflective if the LA culture.

Scheme: Where was the third album recorded?
Cory Daye: Some huge sound stage in Burbank Studios, it was unbelievable I mean you could fit a few orchestras in there.

Scheme: By this time was the label writing your lyrics?
Cory Daye: No, August Darnell wrote all of our lyrics. The label wanted to get some more control over us and we began to see a lot of friction between us and the label and even amongst ourselves in the band.

Scheme: Do you think it was just time for people to branch out or were there other issues that spurred this?
Cory Daye: Yeah, creative people love to grow and hate to be restricted and we started to experience that. August took people with him and promised a partnership, and I was also getting interest on the solo level. Really I think the group was doomed from the time we got to California. I’m not sure if it was because we weren’t home and didn’t have any direction or just the change in environment but California was the beginning of the end.

Scheme: Did you stay in California for your solo career?
Cory Daye: No, I came home. I was homesick; I didn’t like California that much.

Scheme: When you were in the band did you get to come back to New York often?
Cory Daye: No, we were out there for about 8 months straight and then when were done we got to come home. We were also waiting for our “divorce papers” from RCA and Tommy Mottola, so we didn’t want to come home until we knew that was a done deal.

Scheme: Speaking of Tommy Mottola, why was Tommy Mottola mentioned in “Chez Chez Le Femme”?
Cory Daye: We wanted to immortalize his name, we figured as a lyric of a song would be a perfect way to do it.

Scheme: Is there anything that you hear today that you would really like to be a part of?
Cory Daye: No, I mean I would like to be a part of a new band. I’m looking into it but I’m not sure if it will happen. It takes a lot of time and money and like I said before the venues that are willing to pay large bands is pretty limited. If I was to do something seriously it would be recording and releasing a record.

As Cory Daye still searches for her next musical project, people are discovering her timeless voice for the first time and wondering what will be next. What’s for sure is that Cory Daye’s voice will stir peoples souls with new sounds in the future, for now pop on on “Hardtimes” close your eyes and let Miss Daye sing you into another time.