BREAKING OUT

MARY DUKES
Stepping Out Front
by Scott Barretta
editor of Living Blues magazine

Los Angeles songstress Mary Dukes has been singing professionally for over 30 years, but it wasn't until two years ago that she began performing regularly as a blues vocalist. After a friend invited Dukes to join her at band practice, Dukes began working with guitarist Jerry Rosen, co-owner of L.A.'s South Side Records, and last year the label released her debut CD, Introducing The Divine Miss Mary, which was warmly received in the blues press.
Although Dukes has spent most of her professional career as a background vocalist, she easily adjusted to stepping out front. For the last decade she has regularly acted in local musicals, and as photos of her suggest, she brings to the stage a flamboyant presence. "I always have rhinestone glasses," Dukes says of her signature accessory, which always match her dresses. "I have about ten pairs, and some of them are really weird [laughs]. My daughter-I have two children-she does all of my glasses for me." Her daughter, Diedra Williams, also did the artwork for her CD.
Until recently Dukes' band has played mostly in the greater Los Angeles area, but in July Dukes and her band embarked on an East Coast tour. I caught up with her in Maine, where she and fellow South Side Records artist Henry "South Side Slim" Harris [featured in LB #154] were performing at the North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland.
Born and raised in South Central L.A., Dukes was encouraged by her family to perform at an early age.
"My father was very musical and he wanted our whole family to be musical," she says. "So I was a singer, my brother played bass guitar, and then I had another brother that played the sax." She received further encouragement from her father in high school, when she and several girlfriends formed a group called the Extremes, modeled after a popular group of the time.
"We kind of mimicked ourselves behind the Supremes, so we were doing covers, we were doing a lot of their songs," Dukes says. "We had our own outfits made, we had the whole nine yards, the big hair, everything. We went around different places, swap meets, clubs, little talent shows. Reeve Gibson, in Los Angeles, he always had a little talent show, and the Shriner's [Shrine] Auditorium had a talent showcase.
"We used to do background with this guy, his name was Art Rowe. He sold perfume. It was really popular at one time. He made perfume and he sold it, and we did all of his background music, and it just took off from there. We'd do commercials, then we'd go and we'd showcase. We had a little group, it was five of us, five girls that sung. And we'd go and just sing anywhere he got us a place to sing. We'd only do a little thing with his perfume, and then we'd get to do our songs, Come See About Me, Stop In The Name Of Love. And then we kind of broke off, the girls' group, and we kind of went our own way."
The Extremes lasted about four years, but Dukes continued performing after the breakup, finding regular work as a background vocalist in the studios and concert halls of L.A.
"That came about through Reeve Gibson, when we were doing the work as the Extremes. I did a lot of work with different people-Chaka Kahn, Natalie Cole, Archie Bell & the Drells, Smokey Robinson. I'm on Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On. I'm pretty good at background-I sang tenor, alto, soprano, and second. I got a lot of work back in those days-once you do one good gig word got around."
Although Dukes is proud of her background work, she's quick to note that it was "just work," and illustrates her point by referring to a job backing Smokey Robinson at L.A.'s Greek Theatre. "He had his cute little girls out backgrounding him out there while he was doing the show. And he had about four girls behind the curtain doing background. I was one of them who did background, worked behind the curtain. Just to show you how music was, that really shocked me."
In 1974 Dukes began working fulltime for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, often catching a nap after work before heading off to a late night studio session. Today she still works for the county in her home of Carson, does background work frequently, and for the last 18 years has sung with the CME Community Choir at her church in Carson, occasionally sharing the stage with leading gospel performers. Dukes, who studied drama in high school and college, has also been active in local musicals. "I do a lot of plays at the Wilshire Ebell [Theatre] and Wiltern Theatre, mostly gospel plays," she says. "I was in Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. And in Bus Line 210 I played two characters."
Although Dukes was involved in various musical activities, she was largely unfamiliar with the local blues scene until introduced by a friend several years ago.
"One of my coworkers was singing with [Jerry Rosen's 32-20] band, but she didn't really want to sing the blues, she wanted to sing covers. So she asked me if I would come with her, if I was interested. I told her, well, I didn't really sing the blues, I didn't really know a lot of the blues, the songs that they wanted, but I told her I was willing to give it try. And them once we went to rehearsal-I had my songs that I wanted to sing. I had Gladys Knight, B.B. King, and Bobby "Blue" Bland, and so I auditioned those songs. Jerry liked my voice, and the band liked my voice. And so we did our first gig at Stubrick's [Steakhouse & Bar] in Fullerton. It was me and [my coworker] Holly and the band, and she was just blown away. And she said, 'Well, you stay with the band, I want to do covers.' We only did one show and then she quit and I thought the whole band was going to break up. And they told me, 'No, no, if you want to stay that's fine.' And from there we've just taken off."
The Divine Ms. Mary features 11 originals written by Rosen for Dukes and shows her to be comfortable singing across a variety of tempos, always in a refreshingly understated manner. The CD features the guitar work of Rosen and label co-owner South Side Slim, with backing by L.A. veterans Deacon Jones on organ, Oklahoma Ollie [Gaines] on bass, and Johnny Tucker on drums.
Rosen founded South Side Records in order to spotlight African-American artists in South Central L.A., once the home of thriving R&B scene, and for Dukes' current touring band hired saxophonist Hollis Gilmore, who earlier worked with Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy McCracklin, Percy Mayfield, Phillip Walker, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, and many others. "Oh, Hollis is a dream come true," Dukes says. "I call him Big Daddy. He's played with all the greats, and he's got a beautiful personality." [Gilmore recently released the instrumental CD Gillie's Blues on Damond Records, featuring guitarist Tony Matthews.]
Dukes has enjoyed the local acclaim brought by the CD but is frustrated by the area blues scene. "It's really tough in L.A., it's really tough getting the gigs. Especially in my own city, the city of Carson. And I don't understand that. It makes it kind of rough, and Jerry really fights hard to get gigs and keep everything together. But I'm enjoying the singing. I'm going places I've never been before."
The band has yet to work much at the more prominent blues clubs in L.A., gigging mostly in smaller communities in Orange County, but have made several forays north, working in San Francisco at Biscuits and Blues and John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room, and in June performed at the Sacramento Heritage Festival.
Maine is about as far as you can get from L.A. in the 48 states, and Dukes says of the East Coast tour, "It's a dream come true, that's for sure. I just hope it will keep going. I'm enjoying myself." She's looking forward to making more CDs, but is otherwise content with her life in performing. "As long as I was singing it was okay with me."

South Side Records' new website is www.southsidela.net; Gilmore/Damond Records can be contacted at (310) 527-2377 or through Tina Mayfield (661) 538-1337. Thanks to Kris Handel for his assistance with this article.