By coincidence, we discovered two fascinating recent posts about long-time married musical duos Billy Shepard and Judi Jourdan in New York, and Marty and Elayne Roberts in Los Angeles. They represent a combined 83 years of shared professional musical experience!
From the New York Times: Standing back by the bar in a Manhattan nightclub, Billy Shepard and Judi Jourdan watched the jazz singer, then the rap duo, then the show-tune crooner boning up for his upcoming gig at the Best Western in Morristown, N.J. “This is our extended family,” Mr. Shepard said as they surveyed the dozens of performers who showed up one recent evening for a New York City staple known by scores of amateur and professional singers as Billy and Judi’s open mike.
Mr. Shepard and Ms. Jourdan are a married couple with a 50-year career as a singing duo, and a longstanding interest in finding, training and promoting vocalists. They have been running open mikes, more formally called GottaSingNYC Search for a Star, for more than 30 years, along with Saturday night revues featuring the best singers. ~ Read more here.
And from the American Federation of Musicians, Local 47 Press:
Holding the record as the longest running live act at the same venue in the history of Hollywood, Marty and Elayne Roberts have been playing live music at the Dresden Room’s Lounge five nights a week for the past 33 years. For all of those years, the married performing duo has been protected under a union contract — an all-too-rare occurrence on today’s live music scene. In April, Linda A. Rapka stopped by the Dresden to chat with Marty and Elayne about how they keep things fresh after more than three decades. ~ Read their interview here.
