About Us

Speedo "Harmonica" Jones

Harmonica & Vocals

Born: Brooklyn, NY

Speedo has been living the blues practically since birth. At a very early age, he was hooked on the AM radio stations on the right side of the dial. Artists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Bill Doggett and Jimmy Reed would fill the airwaves with sounds that would touch his soul.

At age 14, he started playing harmonica professionally after hearing the sounds of Paul Butterfield and James Cotton. Other major influences included tenor saxophonists Red Prysock, Sil Austin, Clifford Scott and King Curtis in addition to Jazz organists Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff.

At age 16, the very first concert he attended was the original Savoy Brown band featuring Kim Simmonds on guitar and Chris Youlden on vocals. Little did he know that he would play with both men individually later on in his career. In the meantime he formed the Blues Blasters, the American equivalent of John Mayall's Blues Breakers, but with only one tenth of their success.

In 1979, he was a part of the very short lived Chris Youlden Band that played at the Diplomat Hotel, Rock Ages convention in NYC. Someday some of these rehearsal tapes will see the light of day.

In 1981, he formed the Speedo Jones All-Stars, a band whose personnel changed from gig to gig. The late Disc Jockey Jon Narucki of WFMU gave him his first on the air radio concert and convinced him to play live dates with the concept of the All-Star band. Members of the Speedo Jones All-Stars have included Jon Specter, Peter Malick, Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown on guitar, Billy Troiani, Keith Lambeth, Harry Holt, Skates Bandura on Bass, George Morales, Mike Idarola, Joe Hamm on Drums, David Cohen, Dave Keyes, Mitch Margold on Keyboards to name but a few.

In 1984, he cut the Blues Blasters "Live from the Open Road" which featured Peter Malick and Kim Simmonds on guitar and Mighty Mouth Evans on vocals. Unfortunately, their record is long out of print.

From this point on Speedo has jammed and recorded with Albert Collins, Charles Brown, Larry McCray, Climax Blues Band, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Mick Taylor and Kim Simmonds.

In 1988, he recorded "Have Blues Will Travel" one of the ten best Blues albums of the year, with the great Mick Taylor.

After the Blues scene in NYC died in the late 1980's, Speedo set his sights on Europe and has been playing in Sweden since the early 1990's, recording 2 CD's which are available on CDBaby. com.

Speedo's Billy Rose is his latest project and he feels it's one of the best things he's done.

Bill Kedenburg

Drums & Vocals

Born: Floral Park, NY

Billy's musical influences are Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Sandy Nelson and many of today's drummers. The "old" man of the group, Billy began playing the drums at the age of 10 and formed his first band at age 13. When he was 17 he played briefly with Leslie West (Leslie West Band).

In 1974 he joined Harry Hepcat's (50's/Rockabilly) Band. While he was with Harry, he was hired as a back-up musician for Kathy Jean & The Roomates, TeenCords and also The Excellents. These bands performed at The Westbury Music Fair, Meadowlands Arena and Nassau Coliseum.

Ten years later he formed a 50's Doo Wop band known as The Exceptions.

In 1997 he formed The Witch Doctors which was primarily a Blues/Rock band. It was during this period (2000) while playing in Long Beach that Billy met Speedo. Speedo joined the Witch Doctors and they have been working together ever since. Some other notable musicians Billy has worked with include Diamond Joe Siddions, Bobby Day, David Bennet Cohen and Felix Cabarria.

Bill "Stretch Gibson" Freeman

Guitar & Vocals

Born: Brooklyn, NY

Bill has been playing guitar since the age of 12. He grew up listening to the Beatles and The Rolling Stones and was influenced by the guitar styles of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Freddie King. Bill considers himself essentially a Rock guitarist with an affinity for Blues and Jazz. He studied his craft with Larry Logeman and Jazz guitarist Billy Bauer in addition to attending Berklee College of Music.

He has played with numerous Long Island bands including: The Gone All-Stars, Mike Mercury's Inner City Soul, Henry Henderson, The Full Hand Band, The Riffs, The Excellents, Lenny Cocco & The Chimes, Reilly's Twisters, Rumor Has It and The Noel Kingston's Show Band.

Bill has known Speedo "Harmonica" Jones for many years and they have been playing together since the early 1970's, going all the way back to the days of C.W. Post's Hideaway.

Together with his wife Rosanne on Keyboards & Vocals, they create a unique musical sound. His love for Blues, Rock, Jazz and Boogaloo can be witnessed in his live performances.

Rosanne B. Freeman

Keyboards & Vocals

Born: Brooklyn, NY

Rosanne began singing as a child in Church and believed the "Sisters" when they used to say that God loved "songs of praise". She has always felt that singing was a "spiritual" experience and a gift to all. Rosanne traces her love of singing back to her mom, who as a teenager had such a tremendous voice, one of her teachers offered to pay for her to be professionally trained. Rosanne's dad exposed her to many forms of music and remains the main musical influence in her life. Thanks to her dad, Rosanne's family was the first in her neighborhood to own a "Hi-Fi". Together they listened to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Sarah Vaughn, Peggy Lee, Chet Atkins, Tal Farlow and Wes Montgomery to name but a few.

She began studying classical piano at the age of 8 and continued on and off for the next 20 years. As she began choosing her own records she was drawn to Motown, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Little Anthony and Wilson Pickett. Shortly thereafter came The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and the ultimate pull of Rock! Though her Dad was surprised she explained that to her Rock was as passionate as Classical.

Rosanne always finds herself singing along with whoever she's listening to though she finds that the more "passionate" the vocalist the better she liked it. That passion just felt right. "The ability of an artist to reach others and make them feel less alone and more understood is the "greatest" gift of all". Ro has sung and played piano professionally with various bands for a number of years and still loves the feeling she gets from looking into the eyes of someone who "felt" what she was trying to give. It's the success shes always dreamed of and the prize that money just cannot buy.

Her main vocal influences are Marvin Gaye, Levi Stubbs, Smokey Robinson, Janis Joplin, Robert Plant, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Christina Aguilera and Ann Peebles.

Frank Bisceglia

Bass

Born: Brooklyn, NY

Frank inherited his love of music from his dad. His dad sang Opera for a living in New York City when Frank was very young, so music was always a part of his early everyday life. Some of his earliest memories are of watching The Beatles and The Rolling Stones performing on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Frank's first "epiphany" occured the first time he heard the albums "Wheels of Fire" and "Disraeli Gears" by The Cream. He still gets goose bumps listening to Jack Bruce and his EB-3 on those great classic albums. From there he couldn't get enough of this genre of music. Artists like Led Zeppelin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ten Years After, The Rolling Stones, Grand Funk Railroad, Johnny Winter And, Derek and the Dominos and Traffic are some of the bands that grabbed hold of him. His major musical influences include the immortal Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Mel Schacher, Bill Wyman and John McVie.

He first picked up a bass at the age of about 14 or 15 and played on and off with neighborhood friends. For reasons he still can't figure out, he went into hibernation from jamming for many years. What didn't go into hibernation was his love of music. He credits his son Nick for getting him back to actively playing. After years of listening to his dad rave about various bass players he decided he wanted to learn how to play. That was it, that was the spark that started Frank playing again.

Frank and Speedo had become friends outside of the music scene and credits Speedo with inspiring him to play live once again. Once he did, the music started flowing out. It was as if he had stepped out of a time warp. Frank feels honored to be able to play with such talented musicians. "What makes this band so special is not the caliber of the talent in the band, which is tremendous, but the caliber of the people in the band. These are friends that I enjoy spending time with regardless if we were playing together or not and I believe it shows through in our music. I don't think I would be doing this again after all these years if this wasn't the case".