User:Lillian Tynes Perry

=BIOGRAPHY=

Lillian Tynes was discovered by Donny Hathaway while a student at Lake Forest College, where she sang with a campus band/group - The Soul Syndicate. He invited her to singing backing vocals at Chess Studios, on his early recordings and on his TV/Radio jingles for Afro-Sheen and Ultra-Sheen. Hathaway gave her membership into her first professional union - AFTRA - the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Ironically, ten years later she was asked to join Hathaway in a duet during his very last Chicago appearance in 1978, at the Saalam Restaurant on Chicago's south side, a week before his tragic suicide.

Becoming a union vocalist opened the door for extensive session work in the booming advertising market of Chicago during the 60's-70's. Meanwhile, she continued her higher education studies earning a B.A. in psychology from Lake Forest College in 1972, and a Masters degree in Education from Northwestern University in 1974.

Most of her jingle/commercial work was contracted through the jingle houses of up and coming Chicago based producers who were aligned with the highly successful and sought after Burrell Advertising Agency, and were run by the creative advertising talents of Paul Wilson (Hershel Commercial), and the late Morris 'Butch' Stewart, who along with his wife, Brenda Mitchell Stewart, created JoyArt Music Productions.

Lillian worked as a vocal contractor for Curtom Records and other local Chicago producers, and her favorite singer to contract for sessions at that time, was a young vocalist named Ada Dyer, who would also later join The Wiz as a Dorothy understudy, and ultimately gain notoriety with The Ken Chaney Experience (which also featured local Chicago greats - Bootsy & Ben Fernandez. Ada Dyer later become a featured recording artist with producer Norman Connors, known as Miss Adaritha, and continues to this time as a busy New York session vocalist, and the creator of a Tribute Show to Aretha Franklin.

In late 1975, Lillian accepted an invitation from Ramsey Lewis to tour with him on his "Don't It Feel Good/Sun Goddess Tour", coincidentally filling the featured vocal position of Brenda Stewart and husband Butch (mentioned above), who resigned from the tour to work with the late producer Charles Stepney, of Rotary Connection, The Dells, and Minnie Riperton fame. She toured with Lewis as a featured vocalist and playing support keyboards. The Lewis Band ultimately joined The Earth, Wind, & Fire Spirit Tour in 1976.

After Lewis decided to return to his favorite Ramsey Lewis Trio format in 1977, Lillian worked with several local Chicago bands including THE RETURN OF THE KALIF, but soon became disillusioned with the band's leadership and lack of vision. In 1978 she was asked to tour with the late Eddie Kendricks who had left his spot as one of the original Temptations, to go solo. She did not hesitate, and toured with Kendricks for 9 months, an experience that she credits as having made her more confident as a soloist, after having supported the lead vocals of Kendricks in the vocal section.

Later in late 1978, Larry Ball, then conductor of the National touring Company of The Wiz and an accomplished Chicago based musician, invited Lillian to join The Wiz a few months later in early 1979, while both were in a Chicago studio recording commercials. He convinced her to resign from teaching school (which was her second career from the time she had completed her Masters degree in 1974) - and which she did with no hesitation. Lillian came to sunny California as a pit singer and understudy in the National Touring Company of THE WIZ (replacing singer Cheryl Lynn after her recording success with Got To Be Real, a David Foster hit). The WIZ is a long running ethnic Broadway show adapted from the WIZARD OF OZ.

After joining the show's cast in Chicago, Lillian toured with the show performing at theaters in Washington D.C., New Orleans, and finally in San Diego, where the show closed at the old Fox Theater (now Symphonic Hall), due to the release of the movie version of THE WIZ in the summer of 1979. It was during the weeks after the closing of the show that Lillian decided to spend the winter in Los Angeles and follow the Yellow Brick Road towards her destiny.

When the show ended in 1979, Lillian remained in Los Angeles, after 'fate' caused her to be unsuccessful in her efforts to relocate to New York City. She remained in California and began teaching school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, while still working in studios. After moving to California, Lillian toured with Artists such as Philip Bailey, Norman Connors, and The Starship Orchestra, while Larry Ball continued to conduct more Broadway shows. She continued off-camera recording sessions for jingles, TV/Radio commercials, and recordings in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with Morris 'Butch Stewart', Della Reese, Michael Henderson, Russ Freeman of the Rippingtons, Ray Parker, Jr., Randy Hall, Robert Irving III, and the group Hiroshima.

As a public school teacher, she conducted several student productions at Hibbard Elementary School (north side Chicago), Miles Avenue School (Huntington Park CA).

She later accepted the directing of a children's choir at Faithful Central Bible Church in Los Angles, where she began to grow in her knowledge and love of The WORD of GOD, under the teaching of the world renown, Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer (interestingly a native of East St. Louis, Illinois), and the Music Ministry of the late Barbara Allen.

Lillian married singer Phil Perry (Philip Eugene Perry, Sr.) in 1985, and within 7 years, a family of three sons and one daughter were born into this union.

After marrying Perry, the couple worked together on two Bobby Womack albums w/ the Waters Family Singers, The Hercules Disneyland Parade theme song, Ernie Watts, George Duke, Larry Ball, Dave Koz, Klymaxx, and voice-overs for the series FAME. Lillian is heard singing vocals on the first 5 Phil Perry albums, including a duet with her husband on the ONE HEART ONE LOVE project ("Do Not Disturb").Both Lillian and her husband have enjoyed successful careers as professional studio and recording vocalists, having both started their mutual music careers in 1969, ironically in the State of Illinois. However, they did not meet until December 1984, six years after both had relocated to California in 1979, and were soon married 4-months later in April 1985.

VIRGINIA ROOTS
Lillian Marguerite Tynes was born in Staunton Virginia on April 21, 1950 to Dr. & Mrs. Morris Harrison Tynes. She is named after her mother, the former Lillian Marguerite Payne.

Lillian's Virginian roots are wide and deep, on both the paternal and maternal sides of her colonial ancestry. Her Great-Grandmother is Lillian Augusta Harris Payne, an iconic figure in the early history of Virginia's colored community in Richmond - now know as Jackson Ward. She co-founded the Penny Saver Bank with Maggie Walker (the first bank established by women in the USA), as well as managing the Offices of The Order of St. Luke, which empowered women of color circa 1899. Lillian Harris Payne owned her own printing press in 1899, and published anti-lynching pamphlets, and she was a outspoken public speaker and activist against the wide-spread lynchings that occurred during the post-Emancipation period known as Reconstruction. She was a great admirer of President Lincoln (who freed her mother - Lillian Perrys Great-Great Grandmother, Henrietta Hayes Harris who had been sold into slavery from Madagascar), and she organized parades & pageants annually, celebrating the Emancipation during the early decades of the 20th Century.