Ricky May Fats Enough With Juilien Lee Orchestra -By Patrick Ranasinghe
Richard Ernest May (22 November 1943 – 1 June 1988) was a New Zealand-born jazz singer and musician, best known for singing cover versions of numerous pop songs or jazz standards. He moved to Australia in 1962 where he worked mainly in theatre and cabaret and had TV appearances on The Don Lane Show, The Midday Show and Hey Hey It’s Saturday, as well as taking over hosting from Mike Walsh on pop music show, Ten on the Town
May was born as Richard Ernest May in New Zealand in Onehunga, Auckland, of Māori descent.[2] His father, Keith May, was a jazz band leader and played alto saxophone.[2] May grew up with his siblings, and from the age of 15 he performed at Picasso, a café/nightclub in Auckland.[2] Apart from vocals, May played drums and piano but generally worked as a variety entertainer. He would introduce unconventional vocalisations, improvisation, and the spoken word into performance.
In 1961, jazz pianist Ronnie Smith set up a group to play at the Sorrento Club, Wellington.[2][3] Smith’s group had Tommy Tamati on bass guitar, and May joined on drums and backing vocals.[3] May become a regular with the group and sometimes provided lead vocals.[3] Bruno Lawrence, an English-born jazz musician who was regularly in the audience, often got up to play the drums when May sang lead.[2][3] The group worked for about a year and toured southern North Island.[3]
At the end of 1961, May returned to Auckland and signed with Harry M. Miller‘s La Gloria label, which released his debut single in 1961, a cover version of the Chubby Checker hit “Let’s Twist Again“. He followed with “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady in 1962. During that year, he relocated to Sydney and primarily worked in cabaret. He recorded compositions of Nat King Cole and appeared on Australian TV shows The Don Lane Show, Farnham and Byrne (co-hosted by John Farnham and Debra Byrne), and made regular appearances on The Midday Show.
In 1966, May released another single, “This Little Boy’s Gone Rockin'”, via RCA (Bluebird Records).[4][5] From March of that year, he hosted the Sydney teen pop music TV series Ten on the Town on TEN-10.[1] It ran in direct competition with Bandstand on TCN-9 and Col Joye on ATN-7.[6] Walter Learning of The Canberra Times compared the three shows, which “vie for the younger audience” and found that “Bandstand must win hands down” as Col Joye “has no life” and May’s show “suffers from over effort on the part of all concerned.”[6]
He issued no further recordings until 1973: a double album with the Julian Lee Orchestra, Fats Enough, on ABC records. Ricky May had a fatal heart attack in 1988 R.I.P.
Patrick Ranasinghe
