Recently I attended the memorial for a close friend and musical brother, James Perley. James passed away on April 30th, 2009 at the age of 46. His band has pics and thoughts on their site, myspace.com/keepyouhanzoff. There you can see the impressive history of this band and what great things they did, who they opened for, etc…
As I was walking through the church parking lot, I started to pass an older man, and slowed to ask him if he was there for the funeral/memorial. He said yes. I asked if he was part of the family, and he replied no…he knew James from his law practice. It struck me just how diversified an age group and cross reference of people James affected. When we got up to the front of the church, there was a long line of people waiting to get in. You saw families, lawyers and professional people in their business suits and a number of musicians dressed a little less formally. I was able to find a seat, but the place was packed and there were people standing as well…and this was no small church.
When the musicians talked about their song selections and that all the songs were played during the last service two weeks prior that James had played drums for them, my eyes started tearing up. They continued with what was a testimony as to James’ coming to grips with eternity and how a sermon preached there by the pastor was as though he was speaking directly to James and everything else faded away. I know that feeling as well. I had a pastor preach about the value of the alabaster jar that Mary anointed Christ with…and when the pastor asked what we had in our alabaster jar to lay at the feet of Christ well, that was my breaking point with Christ where I was broken. I had been praying and it was affirmed for me then. What was interesting was on the day of the memorial, my morning Bible reading, was Isaiah 57. Verses 1-2 (especially verse 2) were the ones I pondered on. Verse 2 says, For the GODly who die, will rest in peace (this is from the Living Translation). I thank GOD for I had shared/talked with James about JESUS and he heard the call. All I did was plant a seed. GOD called and James heard.
I first met James in December of 1981. Why do I remember the time frame? I had someone aka ex-wife tell me that if I didn’t find a band and play a gig by the end of the year (this demand came in the first week of December, 1981), I was to give up my music. Well I went down to the local music store, Gilbert’s Music, and saw an ad for a band needing a lead guitarist. I answered the ad, and got an audition. I went to the garage the band was rehearsing in Newark, CA (basically I traveled down a street called Thornton from the Fremont side where I lived to their place in Newark which was easy). Got down there, got set up, and as we were tuning, the introductions got under way. On bass was Tim Bucher, rhythm guitar was Della Sullivan (whom we have tried to find) and James, who was 17 at the time, was on drums. Later we added a soundman, who is now a killer behind the board with a number of credits to his name, Bob Tiwana. They told me their song list and we started going over the songs we all knew together. The fit was perfect and we had a great time. Well we had to wait for the singer to finalize whether I was in the band or not. She came in from having to work late at her job and we all played a song together. Her first comment about me was, “where’d you find this guy?” With a great compliment like that, I was in. We did our first gig right after Christmas, so I guess I didn’t have to give up my music.
James had this great double bass set of red Slingerland Drums. James was the first drummer I had played with that had bass drums that were that small…22”. He got a great, full, loud sound out of those drums. I asked him how he got such a great sound out of the drums. He shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and said, “wooden knockers”. He had wooden mallets on his pedals that matched his drums. And normally when someone was a power drummer, they had no finesse. James had both and yes he could be dynamic when he wanted to be. The first thing he did that amazed me as to his talent, which as good as he is, was a GOD given talent, was his drum intro for an original song, Rockin’ the Cradle. Where he showed me some serious finesse was in one of my originals, Carry Me On. One night at practice, James let me know he had a surprise for me. At one particular spot in my solo, I did 32nd note triplets. When I went for these triplets, James was right there with me, note for note. And the lick he chose to transcend out when the lick was done…WAS KILLER!!! By the way, James’ favorite drummer at the time was Buddy Rich, which is why he had the Slingerlands.
We played a lot of the local clubs and always went over big time. Some of those clubs were: The Crown & Anchor, and the Ducal Palace in Alameda, The Bohemian and the Brick House in Hayward, Niles Station (an icon and a legacy) and Joe’s Corner in the Niles District of Fremont, the Bodega in Campbell, the Catalyst in the hills between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and Keystone Palo Alto just to name a few.
One of my greatest music memories was with James and Breaking Point. I had written a sappy love song called Baby Hold On and shared it with everyone that night at practice. I thought the song was okay and don’t even know why I shared it. Tami really liked it and the others seemed to think the song was pretty good. I wrote it to sound like, Pat Benatar meets Eddie Money meets Boston. We played it out in the spring of 1982 for the first time at Joe’s Corner in Niles District. We announced this was a debut night for a new song, Baby Hold On. As I started the song with the guitar vamp, the people stayed on the dance floor and more rose out of their seats as well. The dance floor packed. By the second time the chorus came around, the crowd was singing it with us. People used to ask me why I didn’t do drugs…and this is why. The natural high I got after cause and affecting so many people like that was incredible…nothing to buy and no damage to the mind or body. And I could bring it back even now…a great flashback.
Not long after this, the band broke up…and I referred to the band as Broken Point. We had a great band and the crowds enjoyed us as much as we did them. An example of this was when the USS Enterprise left Alameda, the crew asked us to be their fare well gig and it was great.
When the band broke up, he joined Handzoff which was a great band. I went to support them at the battle of the bands, and I thought they should have won. This was the first time I had even seen James with the glitter on his drums. I thought they rocked the house and all of them are great talents as was James.
James had a great law practice where he helped a number of people and had a reputation for being a fair person with his clients. As one of them told me when James represented him, they won the case and James’ fees were more than fair. I had visited him a number of times at his office in Fremont and went to his favorite Chinese restaurant across the street from his office on Paseo Padre Parkway.
He had a wonderful family with his wife, Robi, and his sons, James II, Hunter, Ivanhoe Connor, and Carlynn. His sons continue in their father’s footsteps in music as the creative gifts from James flow through the family. I am sure his daughter will share in these gifts as well.
James was a true talent that not only his family and friends have lost, but the world has lost as well. It seems he excelled in everything he did. I know he cared about others…that was evident not only in the testimonies I heard from others, but the size of the people there to pay their respects. And as I said earlier this is not a small church and it was packed by people who came to pay their respects to both this great man and his wonderful family. My comfort is…that I will be able to see him again. My hopes are that all these people that attended the services will make the same commitment James and I have made or have made the commitment to JESUS and GOD and we will all be together “on the other side.”
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