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The Town of Greenburgh Honors Atlantic Starr, World Renowned Music Entertainment Group- Monday, June 5, 2017, 6:00pm at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue,
White Plains/Greenburgh, NY 10607.
(Founders and Original Members Are Greenburgh Residents and Graduates of
Greenburgh Central School District)
On Monday, June 5, 2017 from 6:00 to 8:00pm, a program will be held at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue, White Plains/Greenburgh, NY, 10607 to honor original and current members of Atlantic Starr with a commemorative street sign to be placed along Old Tarrytown Road at the intersections of Hillside Avenue, Manhattan Avenue and Knollwood Road. Students from the Woodlands High School Jazz Band and the Bailey Elementary School Chorus will perform, along with other local music and spoken word artists. The street commemorative signs were approved at a Town Board meeting earlier. Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, Council members Ken Jones, Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner and Kevin Morgan unanimously voted to approve the street sign designation
“The Atlantic Starr story is an authentic Greenburgh story with roots dating back into the early 1960’s. A true story of nine (+) children from the Town who came together and figured out how to go from local musicians to international recording artists over a span of thirty-five years. Each member was raised in “the heart of Fairview” including Gibson, Longdale, Manhattan, Maple, Prospect, Riverdale, Warren Avenues, Dobbs Ferry, Midway, North and Tarrytown Roads. They were all friends, neighbors, school mates and graduates of Woodlands High School, Greenburgh Central School District during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The original group successfully performed together for more than two decades.
Described as “…a group of kids (then) from this town that beat the odds and won! The band members generated jobs and careers, educated children, achieved home ownership, business ownership and spread peace messages, through their lyrics, internationally. Most importantly their goals and dreams were reached through team work, hard work, determination, dedication, commitment, a unified vision and mission to achieve success and serve as role models for youth from their community as well as nationally and internationally. They cultivated these values from the great parents and teachers and community support experienced during their formative years.
Atlantic Starr is a Greenburgh (homegrown) institution. Serving as ambassadors from the Town of Greenburgh, and demonstrating what any group of people with a common goal can accomplish, the original recording lineup included: Clifford Archer, Sharon Bryant, Porter Carroll, Jr., Koran Daniels, David Lewis, Jonathan Lewis, Wayne Lewis, Joseph Phillips, William Sudderth and, just prior to adopting the official name, Atlantic Starr, Duke Jones who was a “…key band member and instrumental in the development of the group.”
After five years of developing and honing their craft in Greenburgh, the group moved its entire operation 3,000 miles away from home to Hollywood, CA. To finance that relocation, they accepted a $1,000.00 performance fee to play for the world famous Spinners’ 20th Anniversary Party held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Recognizing that this was an ideal opportunity to pursue their dreams, within eighteen months, they received a five-year exclusive recording contract with A&M Records after auditioning for Herb Alpert on the legendary Charlie Chaplin soundstage. The average age of the Greenburgh band, that day, was twenty-two (22) years old.
Eventually, an illustrious recording and touring career was launched; one filled with all of the highs and lows of any successful long standing business. The band headlined or co-headlined hundreds of shows and tours with well-known celebrities such as Richard Pryor, Patty Labelle, The Ojay’s, The Spinners, Rick James, Chaka Khan, Jeffrey Osborne, Sheena Easton, The Chilites, Cameo and many other top artists. The group also “scored” many R&B classics such as Stand Up, Circles, When Love Calls, Send For Me, Am I Dreaming, Let’s Get Closer, Touch a Four Leaf Clover and others. The band found “crossover” success with a “realignment” and pop-chart toppers such as Secret Lovers and Always.
After achieving the status of international recording artists from the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, State of New York, the band was constantly in direct competition with some of the greatest musicians in recent history. It shared charts with the Michael Jackson’s, the Princes’, Springsteen’s, Madonna’s, Whitney Houston’s of the music entertainment world as well as groups like Earth, Wind and Fire.
Always mindful of the importance of “giving back,” in 1982, Atlantic Starr held a concert in Dick Clark’s Westchester Premier Theater (on Route 119) and donated their entire earnings of $30,000 (more than $75,000.00 in today’s market) to the Union Child Day Care Center, renamed the Lois Bronz Children’s Center.
It is well documented that in the last era of this rhythm and blues band, Atlantic Starr quietly persevered and worked its way onto the top ten R&B and Pop Album charts five consecutive times. With twenty-seven charted singles, ten charted albums on four major recording labels, A&M, Warner Brothers, Reprise and Arista Records, two Gold and one Platinum LP and millions of YouTube views, along with multiple appearances on the most popular music entertainment programs of the time (Soul Train, American Bandstand, Arsenio Hall), Atlantic Starr was widely considered one of the most successful R&B groups on the decades of the 1970’s and 1980’s, in particular. This highly visible chart topping and touring was done at a time in this country’s history when the public embraced and exhibited a “free-spirit” with respect to morality and behavior. Atlantic Starr managed to navigate their way through this period without scandal or embarrassing headline news that could damage the image of the group or their home town, Greenburgh.
Atlantic Starr continues to perform under the leadership and artistry of the Lewis brothers representing some of the original along with new members. Songs written, performed and produced by the original members are still played nationally, as well as internationally and the messages in their music, mostly positive, uplifting, inspiring, continue to prevail. Each of the band’s members have travelled the world, extensively and some currently live in other countries. Two of the Lewis brothers, Jonathan and Steven, have been engaged in “giving back” through their work as educators in the Greenburgh Central School District. Porter Carroll, Jr. also continues to share his gift of voice with his community and world-wide as a performer with the world renowned music duo, Hall and Oates.
In honoring Atlantic Starr, the Town of Greenburgh is recognizing their story as a message to youth of the town of encouragement, motivation, inspiration and that through self-discipline, team work, hard work, problem-solving, staying focused on school and graduating, staying clear of behaviors that could lead to involvement with law enforcement, identifying a vision for success, working together to make that vision/dream a reality and embracing the values of culture and family as well as the importance of utilizing the resources available to them through school and community – they, too, can be successful!
Credits: Much of the information in this release was shared with the Town of Greenburgh by Porter Carroll, Jr., one of the original founders of Atlantic Starr.
Representatives of the Press are invited and welcome to attend. For further information, please contact Judith A. Beville at jbeville@greenburghny.com or by phone at 914-989-1501 or 1502.
